What I’m Watching: Brockmire (Season Premiere)

Brockmire: Season 3, Episode 1 “Clubhouse Cancer” (B)

I didn’t have any clue that this show was coming back for a third season now, though it’s premiered at pretty much the same time each year. I expressed my weekly frustrations with season two when Amanda Peet mysteriously disappeared and then only showed up again a couple times, and I’m glad to see that, if she’s not going to be around, at least we’re getting a fresh reboot. Tyrel Jackson Williams is also gone as Charles, and Brockmire is in a new city with a whole bunch of people around him ready not to get along. I like that one of those people is his co-announcer Gabby, played by Tawny Newsome, and though it upsets me greatly that “Counterpart” is no longer on the air, I’m happy to see J.K. Simmons given a role worthy of his talents. Brockmire telling Gabby that despite what she might have heard about him, Matt the Bat was actually the worst demonstrates just how awful a person he is. I’m also happy to see Richard Kind as Gus the producer, who was well aware of how underappreciated he was and who knew better than to put Brockmire on the air right away lest he predictably say something untoward. We also have Martha Plimpton, the second actress who won an Emmy for guest-starring on “The Good Wife,” following Carrie Preston last season, as his no-nonsense new sponsor. I was worried at the start of the episode that Hank Azaria would be the only one to appear and that we’d have to listen to him talk about masturbating constantly, but stacking the deck with all this talent suggests potentially worthwhile pastures ahead.