‘Win or Lose’ review: Pixar’s first series for Disney+ struggles at plate
When Disney+ offers screeners for an upcoming season of a TV series, they tend to provide only a fraction of the collection, typically the first one to four episodes. While some platforms deliver the entire volume, the Disney+ approach is not unique.
Regardless, having only a portion of the season, while a less time-consuming chore for the reviewer, makes it anywhere from challenging to impossible to pass judgment on the work. The final episodes of a season have the potential to tie it all together in terms of story elements and themes.
Then again, sometimes you know a show is lousy from the jump.
That’s certainly not the case with Pixar Animation Studios’ intriguing “Win or Lose,” debuting on the streaming platform with its first two installments on Feb. 19. However, after viewing the first half of the eight-episode season, it’s tough to bestow upon the show anything better than an “Incomplete” in terms of grades, but it’s easy to feel at least a bit disappointed.
The episodic endeavor employs the backdrop of a coed youth fast-pitch softball team, the Pickles, approaching a championship game to tell the stories of different folks associated with the squad — players, a player’s mom, an umpire, etc. — from his or her point of view.
“Win or Lose” is the first series for Disney+ from Disney subsidiary Pixar — the makers of myriad acclaimed films, including “Up,” “Finding Nemo,” “WALL-E” and “Toy Story” — and it shows a studio struggling with an unfamiliar format.
(Full disclosure: We’ve actually seen the first five installments. Perhaps due to a mistake, the fifth episode, “Steal,” was in the place of the second episode, “Blue,” when we began watching the screeners and before a switch was made. However, viewing “Steal” served only to cement our feelings regarding the series.)
The first episode, “Coach’s Kid,” is chock full of promise. It centers on Laurie (voiced by Rosie Foss), who, yes, is the daughter of the man in charge of the Pickles, Coach Dan (Will Forte). Simply put: Laurie isn’t very talented, and while her sweet and gentle father is nothing but encouraging, she puts a ton of pressure on herself on the field, which begins to manifest in a personification of her anxiety-related sweat, Sweaty (Jo Firestone).
Unseen by anyone but Laurie, Sweaty grows and grows, becoming an albatross by the time of a big at-bat during the championship game. Coach Dan — who is splitting custody of Laurie with her mother — stops the game to have a caring moment with his daughter. It’s solid stuff that could benefit the series’ younger viewers.
Beyond that, though, there is little payoff at the end of “Coach’s Kid,” and the underwhelming feeling you’re left with proves to be the norm with “Win or Lose.” After roughly 20 minutes of middling entertainment — a few cute moments here, some clever ideas there — the credits roll.
Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates are the co-writers, -directors and -executive producers of the series. According to its production brief, the concept of a series showcasing different perspectives grew out of their time as officemates while working as story artists on 2019’s “Toy Story 4,” the pair finding they had different reactions to subjects ranging from current events to work meetings.
And “Win or Lose,” after only dipping its toes into these waters, finally explores the territory thoroughly in the fourth episode, “Pickle,” which focuses on one of the players, Vanessa (Rosa Salazar). Vanessa is desperate to raise the money she’ll need to play next season while feeling like the only adult in the house with her baby brother and her constantly filming-herself-with-her-phone mother, Rochelle (Milan Elizabeth Ray), who seemingly isn’t worried about losing her job because she’d rather be a content creator full time.
In the aforementioned second episode, “Blue” — which, stay with us here, centers around Frank (Josh Thomson), a lonely umpire and teacher — we’d seen several of the events chronicled in “Pickle” from loving mom Rochelle’s point of view. It all works as a reminder that we can’t always know what’s truly going on with a person in our lives.
Moving beyond the realm of storytelling and into visuals, “Win or Lose” also fails to wow in that arena. This looks every bit like something made for the small screen — to the point of almost being shocking given that it’s been crafted by Pixar. Character designs are run-of-the-mill and the animation is rarely impressive. There are, however, some unusual camera angles employed now and again that add a little something.
So we will wait and see with “Win or Lose” while hoping its story elements and themes will tie together artfully in the end. However, from our perspective, the show has offered only so much reason to do that.
‘Win or Lose’
What: Eight-episode debut season of animated series.
Where: Disney+.
When: First two episodes debut on Feb. 19, with two more installments being released on Wednesdays through March 12.
Rated: TV-PG.
Stars (of four): 2.