I don’t know if any other comedy series in my binge-watching career has left me this conflicted. Somehow Champions is simultaneously clichéd but witty, trivial but interesting, and disappointing but entertaining. Surely, a mixed bag of emotions.

We should start with the creators and cast: Charlie Grandy of The Office (US version) writes Champions alongside Mindy Kaling (The Office, The Mindy Project) who also stars in the show as Priya Patel, mother of Michael Patel (J. J Totah) who moves to New York to live with the father he never knew existed, Vince Cook (Anders Holm, Workaholics), and uncle Matthew (Andy Favreau). Vince and Matthew run a gym with a gaggle of diverse and ridiculous characters in Brooklyn, but their bachelor lifestyle comes to an end when Priya turns up with Michael, who is fulfilling his dream of going to a performing arts school in the big city.

The first three episodes are an absolute whirlwind of unlikely scenarios. First, Michael is introduced to a father he never knew he had, and both he and his mother are absolutely fine with him moving in full-time with Vince and Matthew, hours away from their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. As the show progresses, Vince and his brother’s close friendship is only more pronounced, as well as their friendship with Priya in their youth, and yet Vince has kept Michael a secret from Matthew for fifteen years. And then we discover that Priya, though extremely close to her son, has raised him on takeaways eaten in front of the TV for years (which I think sounds great), and suddenly Vince is the better, more responsible parent because he makes him eat at the table. Bearing in mind this is within the first few weeks of Vince actually acknowledging he has a son. Apparently, the last fifteen years are all forgiven when someone offers you a salad and gives you a bedtime.

I know this is a TV show and a comedy at that and it doesn’t have to be logical or at all realistic. However, I can’t help but feel that it comes down either to laziness or rushed writing when a show about family glazes over difficult moments and ends up patchy and inconsistent story-wise, especially when there are but a few moments of sincerity and actual character growth. But that’s all I’ll say on the matter for now, as after I pushed through these first few episodes I got to something really good.

I was laughing out loud for a significant chunk of the series. For me it was all about the characters. Michael Patel stood out as a hilarious gay drama-geek teen. At first I was worried about the cheap laughs “at” a stereotype, but quickly realised this was all part of the show’s more clever side; Champions is very conscious of bringing diverse minority characters into the spotlight, and though two of the three leading roles are held by white men, the show is constantly grilling them for their privilege and ignorance. This I loved, and as I say, it often genuinely made me laugh. As well as young Michael, I love Matthew who is so wholesome and naive compared to his cynical brother, and Ruby the self-loving straight-talking gym trainer. Even Dana, Vince’s accountant that everyone picks on for being lame, has some great lines.

Towards the end of the series, Champions started to slow down again, or rather speed up, rushing to tie up the story in the last few episodes and just ended up all over the place. It also didn’t help that I have a hefty aversion to exceptionally overused clichés about what makes a family. So while the good is great, the bad is VERY average. However, this didn’t spoil Champions for me. I would certainly encourage people to watch (or at least have it on while you’re doing something else!) because there are some moments you really don’t want to miss; episodes “My Fair Uncle” and “Grandma Dearest” are true stand-outs for me. Champions, either you’ll love it, think it’s trash, or like me, be host to an internal battle for the rest of your days.

Update as of June 29th: Champions has been cancelled at NBC and Netflix has neglected to pick the show up for a second season, but Mindy Kaling and Universal Studios are still shopping it around other networks. As we know from another Brooklyn-based comedy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, nothing’s dead forever.

Show Champions

Network Netflix (NZ), NBC (US)

Release Date 8 March 2018

Binge Time 3 hrs 40 mins