Brockmire to the Rescue…

As the coronavirus destroys everything in its path, the situation got real this week when it even infected sporting events, leading to postponements of the NBA and NHL seasons and who knows what else by this weekend. Sure, we’re sad to miss conferences and business functions, but sports? Now this is getting serious! And with this week bringing news that the MLB will postpone Opening Day by at least two weeks, it’s not a moment too soon for the return of IFC’s baseball-adjacent series “Brockmire,” whose title character played by Hank Azaria has been working his way back from baseball announcer obscurity for three seasons now. And with the fourth and final season set to premiere on March 18, get ready for a comedic examination of personal dysfunction set against the backdrop of iconoclastic nostalgia for simpler times. Interestingly, the final season jumps ahead 10 years to the 2030s when baseball is dying a slow death—so the guardians of game call upon now-sober icon Jim Brockmire to save it. “They desperately turn to Brockmire to be commissioner because they don’t know what else to do,” says Azaria. His partner in crime, Jules James ( Amanda Peet), attempts to help with marketing—but it doesn’t go well, so they team up with a sentient operating system called Limon to bring baseball back from the brink. “By the end, it’s kind of a full-blown ‘Black Mirror’ episode,” says Azaria. “They partner with it because the Limon device finds there’s a reason to save baseball for its own interests.” Ultimately, this is a show about how we all stumble through our own vices and sometimes even slink back into relevance whether we intend to or not (In S1, Azaria’s initial comeback stems from a viral video of him on a drunken rampage). And who knows? Perhaps Siri or Alexa will save us from the coronavirus by encouraging us to stay home and order things online. As long as those things aren’t sold out face masks or Purell. – Michael Grebb