These aren’t your mother’s Rockford Peaches.

The league is the same, and the team name is too, but the Prime series adaptation of A League of Their Own introduces a whole new lineup of Peaches to the world. The adaptation was created by Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) and Will Graham, who are also executive producers and writers on the series, and though it has characters analagous to the ones portrayed in Penny Marshall’s 1992 movie, there is a lot more to their stories in the series.

Jacobson plays Carson Shaw, who jumps a train to Chicago to try out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, mostly to escape her life. Her husband, for whom she has ambiguous feelings, is serving in World War II, and when he writes Carson that he is coming home soon, she skedaddles. Her character is like – and unlike – Geena Davis’ Dottie from the movie.

At the tryouts for the league, Carson meets Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place) and Melanie Field, two friends who allow Carson to join their group, much like the characters played by Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell in the movie. (O’Donnell has a guest role as a different character later in the series.)

There are other similarities here too: one character is a blonde bombshell, one a fashion don’t, one an uptight fun-killer, but the show gives them greater depth. And it adds a whole new, if segregated storyline, involving a group of Black characters, led by Max Chapman (Chanté Adams), who attempted to try out for the league but was refused.

There’s no getting around the fact that the AAGPBL did not allow Black women to play, or even try out for the team, which the movie merely alluded to in a single scene. Max desperately wants to play, though, and after league officials turn her away, the show follows her as she struggles to do whatever it takes to swing a bat for any team that will allow her to play.

Max’s story, told in parallel to Carson’s, allows viewers to see a whole new, and not very flattering, side of Rockford, Illinois, where the story is set. Max is easily the series’ most compelling character, and if the show were about her, her friends (especially her best friend Clance, played by Gbemisola Ikumelo), and her family, it would be well worth watching.

Max’s perserverence and determination, despite facing misogynistic and racist roadblocks (and her family’s refusal to support her dreams) is gripping, and Adams is an amazing actress. You feel her palpable frustration and anger with a system that at best ignores her existence and at worst actively pushes her and her needs aside. Max’s character is not flawless, but she’s the one you might be rooting for the most.

Prime’s League also explores the sexuality of its players, with more than one lesbian affair between the characters. Given the time, these relationships must be kept way out of sight of society, which causes a lot of drama, as the women must pass as straight at all times. The show’s writers give these romantic entanglements depth and nuance.

Nick Offerman plays the team’s coach, Dove Porter. Unlike Tom Hanks’ character, he is not a drunk, but he’s not there for his team the way he ought to be, either. We see the maddening ways he and the other male characters in charge slight and belittle the women, and the show tries to stay true to its time by having the women respond in ways that are not anachronistic. The writing does a good job finding a balance between modern sensibilities and the period-accurate ways characters can respond.

League has eight episodes available to stream right now.