“Win or Lose” is the first Pixar original television series, not set in a pre-existing universe of one of the studios’ many movies.
This fresh new setting watches a children’s co-ed softball team, the Pickles, as they prepare for the state championship. The tagline reads “it’s all how you look at it,” and much of the marketing surrounding the series, most notably its title, discussed the feelings people associate with triumph and defeat.
The very first words of the show are “Everyone is chasing the feeling of a win, but if someone wins, somebody has to lose. Or maybe, maybe winning is just how you look at it.”
I was on board for this. I innately trust everything Pixar puts out and I’ve long thought that the binary nature of the win and loss column was too rudimentary to paint the full picture. That also wasn’t the only selling point of this show. Pixar’s storytelling is unique and timeless, but for “Win or Lose” they brought it to another level.
Each of the show’s eight episodes center around a different character, going about their life in the week leading up to the championship, and each having a different storytelling “gimmick” that manifests their insecurities and defense mechanisms.
For instance, the first two episodes deal with the coach’s daughter, Laurie, and the umpire, Frank. Laurie, despite her hard work and determination, is just terrible at softball, vying to be good enough for her father. Her anxiety is depicted as a gray ball of sweat that sits on her shoulder and grows in size when she becomes more anxious. Frank, meanwhile, has a set of knight’s armor as a metaphor for his umpire gear, that he also ‘puts on’ whenever someone tries to attack or connect with him.
As the show progresses, you can see storylines overlap and previously unexplained information suddenly makes sense through a different character’s eyes, which is an apt way to view the world. It’s wonderful how it unfolds and the world feels very real in the way that different characters all interact.
However, very quickly the show loses its thesis. At first, you can see the themes of winning and losing playing out with Laurie and Frank. Laurie’s arc in the show completes with her realizing that her dad doesn’t care if she can hit the ball or not, and Frank pretty obviously has no stake in who wins or loses the game.
I think the problem lies in the fact that the Pickles are the only team showcased. By the end of the very first episode, you’ve been given a reason to root for the Pickles, and that only grows as the episodes go on.
Had they given the other side of the coin, I think the message would be stronger. Instead, the nameless red team lacks any depth at all. Their only function in the story is to lose to our protagonists. While it is not directly shown nor stated that the Pickles do rally for the win, the smiles, buzz and overall energy at the post-game dinner certainly act as an indicator.
In fact, the only moment of any storyline that eluded to jeopardy for the Pickle’s was in the seventh episode with the star center fielder, Kai. After getting caught in the middle of a classroom scandal that was started in another episode, she tries to blow off some steam by training with Laurie. She pushes herself too hard causing her to tweak her ankle, something that she hides from both her coach and father. She not only plays, but flings her body all over the field defensively, straining herself to keep the Pickles alive.
In a pivotal moment of the championship, she rounds third base and betrays her coach’s stop sign. The bum ankle acts up and she gets called out at the plate. It’s a beat in the story that rings hollow because the selfish move comes without cost.
That’s my main problem with this show, it starts out talking about the dynamics of winning and losing, and it doesn’t deliver on those points. There’s no mention about the composure the losing team has to find, an important lesson for most of the young kids watching. It’s done wonderfully in “The Bad News Bears” (1976), as Coach Buttermaker realizes it’s not worth winning at the expense of the children’s enjoyment.
I think that this show is well worth a watch. It’s super enjoyable stylistically, and I loved seeing what gimmick each new episode would provide. It is simply that for a show called “Win or Lose,” the main takeaway is not about the dichotomy of the outcomes of sporting events.
Instead, we see a wonderfully woven tapestry of everyday life, where everybody’s threads weave in and out of each other, none able to encapsulate the bigger picture by themselves.
