“The League” S4, E12: “A Krampus Carol” Carries a Decent Tune
The League; Season 4, Episode 12: “A Krampus Carol”
This week, FX renewed “The League” for a fifth season in 2013. Before we can begin to think of another 13-episode run, the show needed to finish season 4 with another double episode. The first show, “A Krampus Carol” was another highly entertaining episode. While it wasn’t an all-time great, it continued the mini-streak the show has been over the last couple of weeks.
“Krampus” refers to the beast of folk lore who, during the holiday season, punishes bad children. Taco asks the mall manager (played by Bob Odenkirk from “Breaking Bad”) to be the mall Krampus, and of course is refused. For his part, Ruxin mixes it up with the manager over what he feels is an excessive amount of Christmas music, a scene which provides a few anti-Semitic laughs.
A sullen Pete, not having a girlfriend re-dedicates himself to fantasy football by decorating his Crown Vic cop car into “The Shiva Mobile,” complete with a picture of Shiva on the hood and the trophy atop the vehicle. Meanwhile, Jenny is trying attempts to befriend Shiva to help her fortunes in the playoffs.
The highlight of the episode, by far, was the return of Jeff Goldblum as Ruxin’s father. He offers an unusual solution to their difficulty having a second child, the “Anchor Baby.” He offers to inseminate Ruxin’s wife Sofia, but not artificially. “In the fleshy, non-technological way,” he offers, infuriating Ruxin. Again, as he did in the “Thanksgiving” episode, Goldblum steals the three scenes in which he appears.
The guys inform Andre that his decorator/fiancé Trixie has MLA, Mouth Like Anus, which provides some good lines and one funny dinner scene in Andre’s apartment.
The episode ends with a rather silly scene with Taco, dressed as Mr. McGiblets, returning to the mall to be the mall Krampus; Jenny’s shopping trip with Shiva gets interrupted by the mayhem and Shiva discovers Jenny’s lying nature. Though, like earlier in the season, we see some (mild) Jenny-on-Shiva action.
On balance a solid episode. We see a return of Ruxin to the forefront, which is always good news. Jeff Goldblum should have an open invitation to appear on the show, though we’re not in love with the Andre/Trixie situation.
