When a new adult animated series releases, fans of the genre want to give it a fair shake. At this point, they're hopefully not looking for the second coming of The Simpsons, but one never knows when they're going to come across another South Park, Rick and Morty or Archer. With Hoops, while the series has potential, it's not going to live up to its potential until it can deal with its biggest problem: Coach Ben
Ben Hopkins is the coach of a high school basketball team, the Lenwood Colts. Calling the team terrible might be an understatement as maybe one of the players knows how to ball. But Ben found hope in Matty Atkins, a 16-year-old high schooler who is already seven-foot tall. The kid might be socially awkward, but he can dunk, pretty much while standing on the ground. However, in reality, the team is the least of Ben's problems.
For starters, Ben's best friend, Ron, is dating his estranged wife, Shannon and the school's principal Opal is rooting for the coach while preparing to fire him if he screws up one more time. On top of that, Barry Hopkins, his father, is a former ABA star who now owns and operates a popular steakhouse in Lenwood. Ben is not fond of his father and struggles to escape the immense shadow he casts, leading to an internal struggle.
At his core, Ben is absolutely his own worst enemy. A constant string of obscenities flow from Ben's mouth, often screamed in the faces of his targets. It's one of the many, many reasons Shannon left him. To his credit, Ben is not racist, misogynist or homophobic, and there are times when he actually uses his powers for good, such as defending Scott, a gay player on his team, from the bullies at school.
The problem with Ben is that he essentially throws a ten-episode long temper tantrum designed to get what he wants, which is a multi-faceted end goal. He wants his wife back, wants to show up his dad and wants to be a success. And, by the end of the season, he more or less gets what he wants, though in a more roundabout and duplicitous way than one might expect.
While Ben didn't get Shannon back, he managed to sleep with her and wreck her relationship with Ron. Then, a prep school offered Matty a full ride in exchange for playing on their team. Ben parlayed that into a job offer if he helped get Matty there, which he ended up doing. Ben screwed the Lenwood team over, convinced Matty's mom to send him to the prep school and bailed on everyone at his old school.
What's terrible and unrelatable about this is that Ben acted mostly like a selfish jerk the entire season and still managed to get basically everything he wanted at the expense of everyone around him. It's hard to root for a main character who is intrinsically, irredeemably awful. Simply put, Ben is so close to being the villain of the series that he just needs to start wearing a ridiculous costume to complete the transition.
Critics have largely panned the series, essentially saying it's not funny or interesting. As harsh as that is, it's also hard to argue with those sentiments. If Hoops makes it to Season 2, it has to do something about it's Ben Hopkins problem. Screaming obscenities at people isn't a personality, nor should horrible behavior lead to a character getting what they want. The creator has said it would be a long time before Ben starts to grow as a person, but sooner would be better than later in this case.