Since Slo Pitch first premiered on Crave nearly one month ago, fans haven’t been able to get enough of the sapphic softball mockumentary. The Brovaries, the team of queer misfits at the heart of the show, have had audiences hooked for weeks with their charming antics, heart, and humour. For co-creator and director J Stevens, this was the goal. The series was inspired by their experience on a mostly queer Australian rules football team where everyone was dating each other—and breaking up. 

“It just got so dramatic so quickly. I was like, oh, women and non-binary folks’ sports teams—there’s something in that. This needs to be a TV show,” Stevens says.

But before it became a Crave original, Slo Pitch began as a web series. Stevens partnered up with co-creators Karen Knox and Gwenlyn Cumyn, who were working on another queer digital series called Barbelle. The trio made two seasons of Slo Pitch as a web series, but in the back of their minds, a TV show was always the dream. Then, Crave called—and it became a reality. 

Most of the cast from the original web series returned for the Crave series, including Chelsea Muirhead, Amanda Cordner, Lane Webber, and Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah. With a tight shooting schedule, only three days per episode, Stevens was thankful that the core cast already had that camaraderie—and that it translated so well on screen. “That chemistry that you see on screen…that’s happening in real life too. That’s happening on set,” Stevens says. 

Jess Salgueiro as Coach Joanne was the new addition to the team, plus two new characters created for the Crave version. Barb Barbaretti, the team sponsor (Emma Hunter), and Leanne, Joanne’s ex (Emily Hampshire), both create some friction for The Brovaries.

“We quickly realized that the show works best when it’s The Brovaries versus a problem, not The Brovaries versus each other. So making sure with Leanne and Barb that they had other problems to come up against and conquer was a huge part of developing it as a half-hour,” Stevens says.

For Stevens, when expanding from 5-8-minute episodes to a half-hour format, it was key that the characters not only had more conflict and room to grow, but also felt more grounded—even amidst the absurd situations they find themselves in (from terrible makeovers to sexy car washes). 

“Our characters can still be ridiculous at times, and they get themselves into ridiculous situations,” Stevens says. “But just making sure again that everyone was coming from a very real place where they have hopes and dreams and desires, and then they get crushed when those aren’t working out, or they get very excited when they are.”

As an audience, we get a closer look at the inner worlds of these characters through talking heads and pointed glances to the camera. When making the original web series, Stevens was inspired by two of their favourite mockumentaries, The Office and Parks and Recreation. This time, they got to experiment even more with the style, making it their own. They tell us that the mockumentary format is a big part of why so many people are connecting with the show. 

“I love mockumentaries. I’m such a fan of the camera really feeling like a character in the show,” Stevens says. “It invites the audience into the group. As folks are watching the show, they’re saying, I really feel like I want to be friends with these people.”

This style is clearly very different from the seductive drama of Heated Rivalry, although Slo Pitch has been drawing comparisons to the hit show for months. While both are queer sports series coming out of Canada, Slo Pitch is its own brand of wacky and wonderful—with a bit less sex appeal (as Salgueiro warned us), and a lot more laughter. 

“Obviously, we’ll take the comparison to one of the biggest shows of the past 10 years, and we’re so grateful for all the doors that has opened,” Stevens says. “But we also were very much like, it’s not that, and it’s not trying to be that.” 

While fans may not be getting a lesbian version of Heated Rivalry, they are getting another type of queer story—one where joy and comedy are at the centre. Stevens hopes that the success of Slo Pitch opens the door for more nuance in queer storytelling, to go beyond coming out stories and narratives centred on queerness. For Stevens, bringing a show full of dynamic queer characters to life was a dream.

“I grew up a closeted kid in Alberta, watching The L Word under my covers, imagining that this was a life that I could have for myself. So to know that this is added to that canon for folks means a lot.”

While the queer representation in Slo Pitch was important to them, Stevens ultimately wanted to create a comedy. In the month since the show’s premiere, the best part for them has simply been hearing that Slo Pitch made people laugh. 

“To see people sending it to their gay sports teams that they play on, being like, ‘Oh my god, this is totally like us.’ It’s like, yes, you get to see yourself represented on screen—that’s super cool, and you get to laugh at yourselves while doing it, which is even better,” Stevens says.

Today, as the final two episodes of the first season drop, we’re all awaiting answers about the ships that everyone’s rooting for—the slow-burn romance between the earnest, overly invested Coach Joanne and team sweetheart Sasha (Muirhead), and the enemies-to-lovers arc between Boris (Knox), and Barb, the team’s tightly-wound sponsor. Stevens couldn’t reveal much, but they did say that fans will not be disappointed with the final episode. 

After today, is there more Slo Pitch to come? They might have to warm the bench for a while, but there’s hope that The Brovaries will be back out on the field again soon. “We would love to keep making Slo Pitch,” Stevens says. “I’m right here waiting and hoping with all the fans that we get to make more of it.”

The final two episodes of Slo Pitch are streaming on Crave today.