Eastbound & Down

modage · February 09, 2009, 04:17:09 PM

Danny McBride stars in a new HBO comedy series Eastbound & Down, premiering Sunday, February 15 at 10:30 pm.

Relief Pitcher Kenny Powers was poised to rule the Big Leagues, but two things got in the way: his fading fastball and his insufferable personality. After a spectacular career flame-out, Kenny came home to Shelby County, NC and picked up a job as a substitute gym teacher (mostly so his brother Dustin would stop threatening to kick him out). He's spent every moment since then cashing in the last of his dying fame while plotting his inevitable comeback... one beer at a time.

'Eastbound & Down' is the latest project to come out of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's comedic goldmine Gary Sanchez Productions, which also launched FunnyOrDie.com. Starring Danny McBride ('Pineapple Express'), Katy Mixon ('Four Christmases'), John Hawkes ('Deadwood') and a host of other talented comedians, 'Eastbound & Down' was created by McBride along with two friends from film school: Jody Hill and Ben Best. The hilarious new series was shot on location in North Carolina and also includes a few guest appearances by Ferrell as a local car dealer with marvelous hair.

I've only seen the pilot, but if they can sustain it, it could be one of the better new shows for HBO in some time. McBride rules. D.G.G. directs. Will Ferrell produces. Xixax discusses?

john · February 19, 2009, 05:26:50 AM

It's way too early for me to tell if this show is going to become tiresome or not but, based on two viewings of the pilot, it is really fucking enjoyable. Antagonistic and genuinely funny. I haven't been this excited about an HBO comedy in a while - which isn't saying too much, but still...

Following this and The Foot Fist Way, I'm really beginning to anticipate Observe and Report and whatever else Jody Hill delivers.

modage · February 19, 2009, 10:59:06 AM

Videogum loves it.

Holy Shit, Eastbound And Down Is The Best Fucking Show On Television

Did you guys watch Eastbound and Down last night? If you answered yes, then you are correct. If you answered no, then GET IT TOGETHER. To quote my friend Max, "Eastbound and Down is a game changer." In just one half hour episode it has already become my favorite show on television. The way I see it, there are two kinds of people in this world, people who love Eastbound and Down, and people I'm not talking to anymore.

The show follows professional baseball player Kenny Powers (Danny McBride), who's lost everything (but his jet ski) and moved in with his brother's family. He takes a job substitute teaching PE at a junior high school. That's a decent enough Will Ferrellian plot for a show, but it's really McBride's performance that makes this whole thing work. He could do an obnoxious impersonation of a stereotypical dumb redneck the phone book, and it would make me laugh.

Admittedly, obnoxious impersonations of stereotypical dumb rednecks are kind of cheap and easy laffs, but they are the BIGGEST laffs. I was LOL'ing so hard at this show! Besides, the line between Danny McBride the performer and Danny McBride the character seems pretty thin and blurry. He plays a caricature of himself as much as any overarching stereotype. This is basically the same Danny McBride from Foot Fist Way and Pineapple Express and from Tropic Thunder, despite each character being nominally of very different socio-economic means. With Danny McBride, what you see is what you get, and what you see is hilarious.

The show has already gotten some good reviews, I guess. I hadn't really read anything before watching the show last night, so I'm only catching up on the professional criticism now, but I take issue with the New York Times: review.

"Eastbound & Down" feels like a margarine, not butter, version of "Talladega Nights," the Nascar reversal-of-fortune story in which the children were ingeniously named Walker and Texas Ranger, and the exchanges between Mr. Ferrell and John C. Reilly had an addicting improvisational madness.

Comparatively, "Eastbound & Down" feels static. Unlike Ricky Bobby, Kenny shows no signs (at least not yet) of a turnaround, and it is unclear whether Mr. McBride could believably pull one off. Lacking Mr. Ferrell's vulnerability, one that comes to a great extent from resembling an overgrown 10-year-old, Mr. McBride looks like someone you'd run away from in the parking lot of a Waffle House.

I don't know what almost any of that means. What is a margerine, not butter version of something? Does that mean that it's cheaper? Because if it means that it's cheaper, of course it's cheaper. It's a TV show. And Will Ferrell is an incredibly famous millionaire. If it means that it's not as well made, then bullshit. If it's some kind of cute metaphor playing on the dietary class distinctions between people who eat butter and people who eat margarine then the New York Times needs to stop being such an asshole.

But more importantly, there's an obvious pejorative to calling this show static, and a dismissal in McBride's capacity to play his character in a redemptive arc, all of which completely misses the point. Who wants to see some hackneyed, melodramatic, Hollywood redemption story? What makes the whole thing actually FUNNY is that he's unrelentingly arrogant and cocky and obnoxious even when he is sleeping on his brother's Jennifer Convertible and teaching kids how to play crab soccer.

We don't want him to change, you stupid dummy. The New York Times is so dumb. The New York Times is who you should run away from in the parking lot of a waffle house. (Also, what was THAT all about?)

Anyway, watch this show. Did I mention that the first episode ends with Kenny Powers whiplashing a topless girl off of his jet ski into a lake and then using the jet ski to slapshot water into her face? If you don't have HBO, tell your parents to get it for you.

http://videogum.com/archives/lovewatching/holy-shit-eastbound-and-down-i_052721.html

john · February 20, 2009, 12:58:14 AM

Hey, Stereogum actually got something right!

I knew they could do it.

Eventually.

SiliasRuby · February 21, 2009, 01:39:47 AM

Its very funny, but I'm sorry to say it didn't make me care for the character. I understood him and saw a lot of people I know in him, but I didn't like him all that much. Maybe thats the point.

john · February 21, 2009, 04:23:06 AM

Quote from: SiliasRuby on February 21, 2009, 01:39:47 AM
Its very funny, but I'm sorry to say it didn't make me care for the character. I understood him and saw a lot of people I know in him, but I didn't like him all that much. Maybe thats the point.

I don't think you're supposed to. At least not yet. As it stands, he's a buffoon and a lout. He's crass and funny (obviously in a "what will he say next?" kinda way), but it doesn't look like they are gonna write him without the promise of redemption. There's not much to "like" about him in the thirty minutes we've been exposed to but, if they want, he can eventually be tremendously likable. Not that he needs to be, of course.

Either way, there's still a lot to like about this show. Unless you feel a constant need to care for him then, until any presumed redemption, you're outta luck.

SiliasRuby · February 21, 2009, 10:04:06 AM

There is a lot to really like about the show and I'll keep watching.

modage · February 21, 2009, 11:18:41 AM

Silias,

OrHowILearnedTo · February 23, 2009, 03:25:48 PM

Best show of tv? Not quite/yet, but last nights episode was fucking hilarious. "It's the eggrolls, not the ecstasy!" hahahaha

modage · February 24, 2009, 03:30:57 PM

David Gordon Green directed this past week's episode.

Bethie · February 24, 2009, 11:52:06 PM

yeah, and that was the best thing about it. i'll probably continue watching while waiting for it to get better. second one, I'm glad Powers sort of realized that hes not that great anymore. he annoys me

Stefen · February 27, 2009, 10:03:05 PM

This is kind of all over the place right now. It's understandable considering it's just starting out. Luckily it has Danny McBride who carries it. He's fucking hilarious. The way he delivers his lines just makes me laugh. He reminds everyone of someone they know.

I'm not feeling any of the other characters yet. They have enough pacifists. They need to add at least one character who is the opposite of a pacifist. What are those called?

SiliasRuby · February 28, 2009, 02:33:55 AM

They are called George Bush lovers. hehe. bad joke.

Stefen · March 23, 2009, 12:14:07 PM

This show has been gaining a HUGE meathead following.

john · March 23, 2009, 08:17:51 PM

Quote from: Stefen on March 23, 2009, 12:14:07 PM
This show has been gaining a HUGE meathead following.

I guess I don't read enough boards or interact with enough meatheads to know... but it does make sense. Racist jokes, Will Ferrell, and opening shots like this...

http://i40.tinypic.com/2roqkw7.gif

...will get you a pretty large bro contingent.

Hopefully large enough to get this show another season because what has aired so far has been really perfect. Great season finale.