The Bronze

The media generally depicts Olympic-caliber female gymnasts as plucky sprites, all sparkle, smiles and American flags. That’s why it’s a hoot to catch up with 2004 bronze medalist Hope Annabelle Greggory (Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch), who stomps around her small Ohio town in a cloud of bitterness, delusion and profanity. But Hope’s life of drugging and freeloading gets interrupted with an offer: If she coaches the town’s up-and-coming teen gymnast to a nationals victory, she can earn half-a-million dollars. 

Bryan Buckley’s raunchy comedy unfolds just as you’d expect from this standard set-up, but it never does lose its bite: It remains dark, angry and, if you’re up for its brand of humor, hilarious. Its analog in both plot and style is Eastbound and Down, with its tales of a washed-up big-leaguer who can’t let go. But we expect male baseball players to be boorish; that Rauch, who co-wrote the script with her husband, blows chunks all over America’s perkiest sweethearts is just straight-up awesome. You go, girl.

This article appears in Mar 16-22, 2016.