In 1976, Walter Matthau’s “The Bad News Bears” began the “misfits v. the champs” kid’s sports movie genre. Their box office success was quickly followed up by the “Sandlot” franchise and it wasn’t long before Disney jumped into the rink with a hockey version of the tale. A group of misfit kids who are on the bottom of the athletic food chain ban together under unbelievable odds with a damaged coach and take on the champions who discarded them in the first place.

It all begins with an idea.

At first, Netflix top-ten (as of writing this) show Country Comfort seems to have all of the trappings of a Hallmark production: A vague title, a heroine with a beachy blowout, and a love interest who wears plaid and has a steady career. Because the marketing reminded me so much of Hallmark’s aesthetic, I expected Country Comfort to be squeaky clean, sweet, and corny. When I found out that Caryn Lucas (who wrote Miss Congeniality and was one of the writers and producers for The Nanny) created the show, though, I thought that Country Comfort might be a more unpredictable spin on a Hallmarkian sitcom.

This past, bleak February week, I figured the best way to handle the never ending winter is to hide under a blanket, eat cheese, and watch a sitcom. Combing through Netflix’s new releases section, I found Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love (originally The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia), a teen/family comedy which had one season in 2020 (Netflix tends to cancel most of its original programming after the first season or three), and decided to try it out.