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Review: Prime Video's TV adaptation examines an untouched side of its female baseball players lives. It also features fewer male coaches screaming at women.

Jennifer Bisset writes about film and TV for CNET

A League of Their Own is based on a true story that never fails to charm the baseball socks off.

A group of '40s housewives and wives-to-be find a new purpose in life: playing baseball to entertain America amid World War II. Demonstrating flair and athleticism, the members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League won huge audiences -- with a dash of marketing trickery, involving lipstick mandates and short skirts (unsurprisingly leading to shocking injuries).

Bottled into an inspirational, sentimental sports comedy with a surprisingly snarky sense of humor, the 1992 film was a home run. Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell and Tom Hanks seared scintillating characters into their own hall of fame, entertaining a whole new generation of baseball fans.

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The new characters in the Rockford Peaches.

After a short-lived '90s CBS TV adaptation, A League of Their Own is back in small-screen form, this time with Prime Video. Abbi Jacobson (co-creator and star of Broad City) and Will Graham (showrunner of Mozart in the Jungle) draw the lives of a new group of women we didn't see batting for the Rockford Peaches the first time round.

The modern reboot, steered by its modern sensibilities, holds its focus on a different side of its main characters' lives. In June, original Rockford Peach Maybelle Blair came out, aged 95. Prime Video's A League of Their Own is a heartfelt snapshot of queer women catching the few, fleeting chances for true happiness and love in their restricted lives. Less successful is its comedic side, occasionally coming across as loose, improvised sketches.

Clance (Gbemisola Ikumelo) and Max (Chanté Adams) work in a factory.

Playing a character who echoes Geena Davis' Dottie, Jacobson is endearing as Carson Shaw, a married woman whose husband is fighting in the war. Whereas Davis' natural leader Dottie "plays like Gary and looks like Garbo", Jacobson's Carson is a nervous public speaker who doesn't know who she is.

This character swapup is more refreshing than Nick Offerman's Casey "Dove" Porter, the coach of the newly-formed Rockford Peaches. Instead of Hanks' abrasive drunk Jimmy Dugan -- whose famous line "There's no crying in baseball!" is yelled by a different character -- Offerman's Dove is a mild-mannered mentor with less memorable advice. At least his depiction doesn't involve yelling in the faces of young female athletes with spit flying from his mouth.

The new adaptation explores the storylines of women of color, whereas the film version could only touch on the ability of Black female players in a single short scene. Maxine Chapman's (Chanté Adams) dream of becoming a baseball player runs parallel to the Peach's first season in the league. Curve-ball developments in the team's coaching staff suggest Max might join the Peaches, but her fight is steep thanks to the league's segregation of African Americans.

Carson (Abbi Jacobson) and Greta (D'Arcy Carden) play love interests.

This disparate storyline is eventually weaved in with the Peaches' in an engaging way. Prime Video's A League of Their Own explores the hidden lives of gay communities in the '40s, leading to the series' most joyful and darkest moments.

Carson shares a complicated dalliance with D'Arcy Carden's Greta, the etiquette coach's favorite girl who hides a secret fear behind her flirty exterior. This Peaches team is less ditzy (and more sweary) than their bigscreen superstar counterparts: Roberta Colindrez, Kelly McCormack, Kate Berlant, Melanie Field and more form the group of misfits. While their sincere presence ensures the series' overall warm tone doesn't fade across the eight hourlong episodes, the moments of levity are occasionally jarring -- when a '40s housewife calls her husband's armpits "stanky", you're immediately transported back to 2022.

Prime Video's A League of Their Own combines underdog triumph and feel-good camaraderie with some effective changeups from the film. Familiar faces show up in cameos and plenty of nods to the original will please fans. Although the on-field sports drama itself doesn't stir the same fizz -- with fewer "newsreel" segments or the sense each game will be the last -- other issues of the era come to the fore.

Deeper, but not better than the original, Prime Video's A League of Their Own is still an amiable, more dramatic take on a timelessly appealing true story.

A League of Their Own premieres on Prime Video Friday, Aug. 12.