Netflix built a show around a foul-mouthed high school coach who thinks fixing his awful team will get him into the big leagues. That premise is a good idea. The execution is not.
“Hoops” is an adult animated sitcom about Ben Hopkins, a hot-headed coach played by Jake Johnson. He wants to turn his terrible team around and believes doing so will finally make his miserable life better. The show premiered on August 21, 2020, and disappeared fast.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Ben Hopkins and His Terrible Team
Ben Hopkins is the center of “Hoops.” He yells, swears, and believes his coaching skills will somehow carry him from a losing team to professional basketball. That idea could have worked. Instead, the show leans on crude jokes and repeated setups that never pay off.
The supporting cast is full of names you recognize. Rob Riggle voices Barry Hopkins, Jake Johnson’s character’s brother. Natasha Leggero plays Shannon, Ron Funches plays Ron, Cleo King plays Opal Lowry, A.D. Miles plays Matty, Gil Ozeri plays Isaac, Sam Richardson plays Marcus, Steve Berg plays DJ, Ben Hoffman voices Time Bomb, and Mary Holland voices Connie. None of them get enough to do.
What Works in a Single Episode
There are moments where “Hoops” finds its footing. A joke about a player’s lack of skill lands once. A scene between Ben and his brother carries some genuine friction. These are rare. Most of the runtime is spent on jokes about failure, insults, and the coach’s own self-loathing.
The animation is serviceable. Nothing about it stands out. The writing is where the problem lives.
Why the Reviews Were Negative
“Hoops” premiered to extremely negative reviews. That reception was not surprising. A show built on a single idea — a coach trying to fix a bad team — needs clever writing to survive. “Hoops” has neither the clever writing nor the discipline to sustain itself across ten episodes.
The show repeats itself constantly. Ben’s schemes fail. He yells. The team loses. That pattern repeats throughout the season. There is no build, no payoff, no reason to keep watching beyond curiosity.
The Quick End
In December 2020, Netflix cancelled “Hoops” after one season. Ten episodes were made, and the season premiered and last aired on the same day. That is a short life for a show, and it fits the quality of the content.
Key Facts Box
- Show: Hoops (2020)
- Creator: Ben Hoffman
- Network: Netflix
- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- First aired: August 21, 2020
- Last aired: August 21, 2020
- Score: 3.5/10
“Hoops” is a show that knew its own limits and still pushed past them. It has a good premise, a talented voice cast, and a network willing to air it. None of that mattered when the writing could not support the idea. The cancellation came quickly, and it is easy to see why.
“Hoops” is not a disaster. It is a show that never figures out what it wants to be. It tries to be a comedy about failure and a drama about a man trying to find meaning. It succeeds at neither.
The final verdict is simple. “Hoops” is a missed opportunity. It had everything it needed to succeed and delivered almost nothing. It is a show worth forgetting.
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