(SP) – Buzz continues to build for the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy series, “Northwestern Sports Fan,” about a woman who roots for a collegiate sports program that is destined to fail.
The series pits the legendary comedic actress as the mother of a basketball player for Northwestern University, a school with a decades-long reputation for sports failure, that happens to grab a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Louis-Dreyfus’ character is also an alum of the school, setting her up for even more hilarious heartbreak.
“It was a script I couldn’t pass up,” said the actress of Seinfeld and Veep fame. “It’s an underdog story mixed with a dark comedy. You just know the other shoe is always going to drop and it’s going to rip the characters’ hearts out, but you don’t know when and you can’t help but laugh at them when it happens. It’s great.”
The pilot episode kicks off in the Big Ten Tournament when Northwestern gets blown out by Wisconsin in the tournament semifinals, but still grabs the first NCAA spot in the program’s history. Episode Two opens with the Wildcats, having built up the hopes and dreams of its fans, taking on a lower-seeded Vanderbilt team in the Round of 64.
“The most cringe-inducing comedy since Curb Your Enthusiasm,” wrote Variety in a review. “It’s like seeing a baby deer step onto some train tracks, knowing it’s going to get mowed down by a locomotive. But you just can’t look away and you can’t stop laughing.”
Only two episodes of the show have been ordered so far, but a third episode about the Round of 32 is a remote possibility. A second season in the fall would likely feature a storyline about Northwestern football, promising even more laughs.
Also see … Honest Headlines: NCAA Tournament
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