If you weren’t lucky enough to catch episode 1 of Danny McBride’s new 6 episode mini-movie “East Bound & Down” this past Sunday night on HBO, you missed out on probably the best new show of the year.
The show focuses on faded baseball star pitcher Kenny Powers; a John Rocker-esque mulletted redneck baseball star; who returns home to his small town to teach P.E at the local high school after hitting a career highs by winning the world series for the Atlanta Braves at the age of 19.
The show is more than funny. It’s brutally funny. It’s the kind of funny that you’d think the people you hate would find funny. The kind of thing that you’d imagine being played in a garage full of beer drinking biker types. But the real magic comes from Danny, who creates such a self absorbed asshat that you literally can not help but root for after his first ten seconds on screen. It’s a strange dichotomy of a role: a total asshole, but one of the most – can I say it on Manolith? – loveable characters I’ve seen on television. Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold character doesn’t even come close. While Jeremy mines for laughs, Danny’s Kenny Powers lays it all on the line. It’s raw and bare and obviously shot for much, much less than say The Sopranos or (ugh) Entourage, but that’s where its charms lay. The idea was apparently thought of “sitting in a kiddie pool in the South while drinking warm beers”. It shows. Trust me: it’s one of the best TV show pilots I’ve ever seen.
Some reviewers have missed the point of the show and called it “Talledega Lite” (after Will Ferrell’s 2006 stock-car comedy romperoo). I totally disagree. There is no “… and then he figured out being self absorbed wasn’t such a good idea” character arc. You can see him wrestling with it in the opening fifteen minutes, but not once does he crack down and smile and smell the roses. And that is what, for me, makes the show so brilliant.
It’s produced by Will Ferrell, who makes an appearance in this past weeks episode as a car dealer. Check it out, and I promise you won’t be dissapointed.
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» East Bound & Down = Your New Favorite Show
March 9th, 2009 - 2:59:20 AM
[...] show focuses on faded baseball star pitcher Kenny Powers; a John Rocker-esque mulletted redneck baseball star; who returns home to his small town to teach P.E at the local [...]
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