HBO: Bored To Death and Eastbound & Down return

HBO have announced that Bored To Death and Eastbound & Down will both start their second seasons on 26 September. I caught the pilot of this Jason Schwartzman-led modern-day detective noir, but it did exactly what it says on the tin, so I gave up.

Eastbound & Down was a show I didn't like for the first few episodes (mainly because Danny McBride isn't someone I warm to easily), but then it started to work its ribald charm on me, and I grew to enjoy it. It never reached its full potential, but there was promise. I'm probably going to wait for FX to pick it up in the UK, so my reviews are a long way off yet.

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EASTBOUND & DOWN 1.6 - "Chapter Six"

[SPOILERS] The finale to the six-part Eastbound & Down was adequate, but too predictable; offering nothing as funny or as dramatic as scenes from earlier in the run, although the way it twisted the knife in the final scene was memorable...

Unsurprisingly, "Chapter Six" saw Kenny (Danny McBride) get a chance to return to Major League baseball. A talent scout from Tampa informs him that footage of him pitching his nemesis' eyeball out has become an online sensation, so his team want to capitalize on Kenny's sudden fame and sign him as a player for the new season. Kenny accepts and sets the ball rolling for a money-spinning move to the city, and the rest of the episode consisted of him saying farewell to the apathetic townsfolk, in typically ostentatious and egotistical fashion: best exemplified by him getting Stevie (Steve Little) to set the school fire alarm off, so the students will assemble outside to hear a goodbye speech he's prepared and channeled through his truck's loudspeaker system.

There's also the problem of buxom sweetheart April (Katy Mixon), who has admitted her feelings for Kenny and slept with him, giving her fiancé Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly) a mental breakdown that sees him living rough in the woods and preparing to kill Kenny with chloroform and a handgun. April is torn between the two men in her life (who are such opposites), and Kenny is very disappointed when she decides to stay with staid Cutler, but even more confused that his professional resurrection still isn't enough to get him the girl he loves.

In the end, April came round to the lure of the city lights and agreed to accompany Kenny to Tampa, moments before Kenny receives a call from Tampa's agent withdrawing their offer. To save face in front of his joyous family, Kenny continued with his plan and left town with April by his side, only to ditch her at a gas station and leave town alone -- his dreams shattered, a few bridges burned, and having cruelly dumped sweet April for the second time.

"Chapter Six" had its moments, but it wasn't the big climax I was hoping for. With hindsight, the show reached a mid-series peak with episode 3 and has gradually plateaued out into a show that's not as clever as it thinks it is, not as funny as it wants to be. But it certainly became a lot more likeable than the hateful pilot had me expecting. And, while Kenny never truly reformed his character, he became a touch more grateful toward those who helped him in his time of need, but in a way that was still amusingly selfish and narcissistic.

Overall, Eastbound & Down was a slight misfire as a series, but it had a certain raucous attitude and trashy veneer that made it stand out from the crowd, and I was pleased that McBride softened the repugnant nature of Kenny and turn him into someone vaguely likeable, amusingly blunt, and blissfully unaware of how others see him. More could have been done with his brother's family, and Mixon's character never really convinced me (we never saw any solid reason for her being with Cutler), but there was some intriguing comic characterizations. In particular, I'm still not sure that April chose to leave with Kenny because she loved him, or was just enticed by the glamour. And there was a genuine ache that Kenny didn't risk telling April the truth and seeing if she'd join him on the road. Funny thing is, a part of me thinks he knew she wouldn't...


5 November 2009
FX/FX HD, 10pm

written by: Ben T. Best, Jody Hill & Danny McBride directed by: Jody Hill starring: Danny McBride (Kenny Powers), Katy Mixon (April Buchanon), John Hawkes (Dustin Powers), Andrew Daly (Terrence Cutler), Ben Best (Clegg), Jennifer Irwin (Cassie Powers), Steve Little (Stevie Janowski), Nora Mangrum (Rose Powers), Ethan Alexander McGee (Dustin Jr.), Bo Mitchell (Wayne) & Adam Scott (Pat Anderson)

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EASTBOUND & DOWN 1.5 - "Chapter Five"

[SPOILERS] What's this? Has Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) turned over a new leaf? It certainly seems that way, as this penultimate episode started with Kenny waking up Stevie (Steve Little) late one night to record an new audio-tape about his decision to put his celebrity past behind him...

Commendably, there's been a real sense of progression in Eastbound & Down regarding Kenny's character, even if this episode seemed to jump ahead a few too many steps. There hasn't been a smooth sense of Kenny curbing his egomaniacal attitude and bad habits, but at least ther's been a change in his character that hasn't softened him to a pulp. It would have been easy for the writers to repeat the pilot's joke and run it into the ground over six episodes (perhaps alienating a section of their audience by keeping Kenny so unlikeable), but they've actually shown a bit of growth and change.

The big sell here was seeing Kenny genuinely mend his ways: he took his P.E classes seriously, he started wearing glasses to make himself look studious, he broke up a fight in a library, he started helping brother Dustin (John Hawkes) with a building project for a rich lady (Gina Gershon), and he decided to stay clear of sweetheart April (Katy Mixon) and respect her relationship with Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly). Despite the fact the whole episode was tinged with the possibility that Kenny would eventually revert back to type, "Chapter Five" actually took things in a different direction.

Arrogant car salesman Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell) made a return from episode 2, having now secured the services of Kenny's sporting nemesis Reg Mackworthy (Craig Robinson) to drum up business for his car lot. Always one to spot a moneymaking opportunity, Schaeffer tried to organize a "pitch-off" between the two former-titans of the Major League, and Kenny was again faced with the prospect of public humiliation because he can't throw. So, he retreated into his excuse of having put his baseball days behind him, until Dustin managed to talk him into taking Schaeffer up on his offer to wipe the smile off Mackworthy's face and get some revenge on the man he blames for ending his career.

The episode ended on a very effective note (with excellent, atmospheric music), with April deciding to abandon Cutler as he participated in his Triathlon and instead support Kenny at Schaeffer's pitch-off. The tension built very nicely as Kenny's first two throws missed their target by metres, but seeing April restored Kenny's prowess and he slung his final ball straight into Mackworthy's face, with a 101 m.p.h force that popped his eyeball out!

Overall, "Chapter Five" wasn't the funniest episode of the show, and its storyline was basically a fleshed-out remake of episode 2's, but I'd by lying if I claimed it wasn't entertaining and provided no development for its characters. The only person who never ceases to make me laugh is the cheerfully delided Stevie, whose idolisation and creepy affection for Kenny is mixed with hilarious vocal outbursts meant to defend his hero. I'm still not a huge fan of McBride himself, but he's definitely become more palatable as Kenny over these five weeks, and the fact his character actually seems to be learning and improving himself is something I didn't expect to see. If Eastbound & Down is destined to be a one-season wonder, then hopefully Kenny's reformation will be completed next week in fine style, or else the story might twist to send him back to square-one in some way.


29 October 2009
FX/FX HD, 10pm

written by: Jody Hill, Ben Best & Danny McBride directed by: Adam McKay starring: Danny McBride (Kenny Powers), Katy Mixon (April Buchanon), John Hawkes (Dustin Powers), Andrew Daly (Terrence Cutler), Ben Best (Clegg), Jennifer Irwin (Cassie Powers), Steve Little (Stevie Janowski), Sylvia Jefferies (Tracy), Ethan Alexander McGee (Dustin Jr.), Bo Mitchell (Wayne), Terry Bowden (Schaeffer Salesman), Will Ferrell (Ashley Schaeffer), Jan Hartsell (Librarian), Quentin Kerr (Kevin Hickman), Craig Robinson (Reg Mackworthy) & L. Warren Young (Drug Dealer)

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EASTBOUND & DOWN 1.4 - "Chapter Four"

[SPOILERS] While not as horrid as the pilot, episode 4 was a bit of a let-down after the comparative high of episode 3, and its laughs felt smothered. What it did have was welcome development for a few characters: Stevie (Steve Little) has become a pale copy of Kenny (Danny McBride), swearing and wearing black like his idol; Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly) dropped his milquetoast persona to harangue Kenny at school; and Kenny's childhood sweetheart April (Katy Mixon) proved she still has feelings for him...

The episode revolved around a lackluster barbeque that the principal invited Kenny to. The kind of middle-class party where the promise of a game of Pictionary is sold as a highlight. To impress everyone and hopefully make Cutler's fiancé April jealous, Kenny turns up with slutty Tracy (Sylvia Jefferies) in a hideous orange outfit, and Stevie brought his homemade baseball promo of Kenny as entertainment.

One interesting element was learning that Cutler suffers from impotence and can't perform sexually (even when he gets a rare erection after watching soft porn), whereas Kenny has the opposite problem and suffers from premature ejaculation. It amused me to see starchy Cutler take a shine to trampy Tracy after getting drunk, too, while it's revealed that the boorish Kenny really does stand a chance with tweet-voiced April. She assumedly settled for Cutler when Kenny left town to be a superstar baseball player, as a high school principal is probably the town's next big deal. There exists the possibility April's only after the sex her fiancé can't provide, but now she knows Kenny's own sexual problem it'll be interesting to see her next move.

The script again let us see Kenny as a broken man to take the edge off his soaring egomania, here confiding in brother Dustin (John Hawkes) about the tailspin his life's in, and I dug the symbolism of Kenny's mighty jet ski sputtering to a stop and forcing the clothed Kenny to swim for shore. Ultimately, I liked seeing a few of the supporting characters develop (Stevie, Cutler) and the Kenny/April relationship move forward a touch, but this didn't really make me laugh or surprise me in any way.


22 October 2009
FX/FX HD, 10pm

written by: Shawn D. Harwell, Jody Hill & Danny McBride directed by: David Gordon Green starring: Danny McBride (Kenny Powers), Katy Mixon (April Buchanon), John Hawkes (Dustin Powers), Andrew Daly (Terrence Cutler), Ben Best (Clegg), Jennifer Irwin (Cassie Powers), Steve Little (Stevie Janowski), Sylvia Jefferies (Tracy), Ethan Alexander McGee (Dustin Jr.) & Bo Mitchell (Wayne)

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EASTBOUND & DOWN 1.2 & 1.3 - "Chapter Two" & "Chapter Three"

[SPOILERS] After the charmless first episode, things definitely improve in the following two installments of Eastbound & Down. A key factor of my dislike for the pilot was how Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) was far too unsympathetic, which made it an unattractive proposition to spend any time with him. Episode 2 and 3 assuaged that problem slightly, as Kenny elicited empathetic feelings in small ways, and even appeared to learn a valuable lesson at the close of episode 3. If E&D is essentially going to be about the rehabilitation of a raging egomaniac through the collective goodwill of a soft touch family... then maybe there's hope for this comedy after all...

In "Chapter Two", Kenny spots an opportunity to promote a local car lot, run by overbearing platinum-blonde salesman Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell, predictably hamming it up). Kenny's offered a scant $200 to sign autographs on the premises, which he grudgingly accepts and prepares for his return to the "spotlight". But corporate dick-sucking chips away at Kenny's "rebel" persona and an irritating fan's wish for Kenny to pitch him a baseball puts him in a difficult position, as he's lost the skills that made him a star player and will embarrass himself in public by throwing a ball...

In "Chapter Three", we open with perhaps the best example of Kenny's sociopath nature, as he intentionally crashes Stevie's (Steve Little) car he was driving while drunk, then puts a traumatized Stevie in the driver's seat to take the blame before the traffic cops arrive. Little is proving himself quite an entertaining dogsbody, actually, equally as chipmunk-faced and foolish as Kristen Schaal from Flight Of The Conchords.

The plot itself involved Kenny selling his glut of tasteless merchandise for extortionate prices; hawking memorabilia on school grounds from the back of his van, and persuading Cassie (Jennifer Irwin) to auction his stuff on Ebay. Meanwhile, in something of an undercooked subplot that deserved more room to breathe, Kenny tracked down a college baseball prodigy expected to go pro, and tried to ingratiate himself with the talent scout sent to appraise the teen.

While still a show in the grip of a bullying monster it's hard to like, these episodes had a tad more light and shade than the opener. Seeing Kenny on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing from car dealer Schaeffer was initially gratifying because he deserves a chewing-out, but you couldn't help feeling sorry for Kenny once it became clear he's lost the only talent he ever had. In "Chapter Three", Kenny even winds up realizing it's impossible to sell his career paraphernalia for the outrageous sums he was expecting, so on the advice of Cassie he allowed his nephews to take and play with whatever they wanted. It hasn't quite clicked for Kenny that his family love him because he's family (he was preparing to haggle with Cassie over commission for her internet expertise), or that his nephews really do look up to him, which is part of the sadness.

Kenny Powers is basically the American dream gone badly wrong, forced back home to re-establish himself amongst those he mistakenly believes are losers because they're not famous and have more practical values and pursuits. If Eastbound & Down can keep the rehabilitation of Kenny central to the plots, and slowly transform him into a half-decent human being over however many years the show runs for, maybe it'll be worth sticking around to see that happen.


8 October 2009 (1.2)
15 October 2009 (1.3)
FX/FX HD, 10pm

written by: Ben Best, Jody Hill & Danny McBride directed by: David Gordon Green starring: Danny McBride (Kenny Powers), Katy Mixon (April Buchanon), John Hawkes (Dustin Powers), Andrew Daly (Terrence Cutler), Ben Best (Clegg), Jennifer Irwin (Cassie Powers), Steve Little (Stevie Janowski), Sylvia Jefferies (Tracy), Ethan Alexander McGee (Dustin Jr.), Bo Mitchell (Wayne), Will Ferrell (Ashley Schaeffer), Scott Clackum (Scott), Jacob Dietrich (Weight Kid #2), Rhoda Griffis (The Teacher), Quentin Kerr (Kevin Hickman), Terry Bowden (Schaeffer Salesman), Tyler Nisbet (Fan With Football), Thomas Upchurch (Salesman #1), Jeff Clayton (Cameraman), Deacon Dawson (Mr. Nesbit), Zac Gardner (Slow Kid), Ira Menard (Bar Patron), Darryl Tucker (Cameraman) & Corshonda Springer (Angry Black Woman)

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EASTBOUND & DOWN 1.1 - "Chapter One"

Danny McBride is an acquired taste. A honourary member of the so-called "frat pack" (appearing in such films as Superbad, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Observe & Report and Land Of The Lost), it's clear that influential Hollywood players like Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow hold him in high esteem. Unfortunately, theirs is an opinion I don't really share...

Eastbound & Down is a six-part HBO half-hour comedy about Kenny Powers (McBride), a failed Major League baseball player forced to return to his hometown and become a substitute P.E teacher when his off-field antics get him the sack. Kenny's a podgy, mullet-haired, arrogant, offensive oaf with a tenuous grasp of reality and inability to see how others see him. He moves in with his soft touch brother Dustin (John Hawkes), his religious wife Cassie (Jennifer Irwin) and their three kids. At school, he quickly starts trying to ignite a romance with high school crush April Buchanon (Katy Mixon) when he discovers she's also teaching classes there, despite learning she's engaged to Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly).

In essence, it's a comedy where a misguided, dislikable burn-out returns to the bosom of his hometown and fails to realize that his antisocial, narcissistic behaviour rubs the community up the wrong way. Well, everyone apart from idolizing teacher Steve Janowski (Steve Little), an acolyte that Kenny still can't help mocking, and the sanguine Principal, who's excited to have a bonafide "local hero" on staff. In the great tradition of comedy monsters, Kenny's oblivious to the fact most people think he's a repugnant creep, and has fooled himself into believing he's still a big shot everyone should idolize. One of the few funny moments finds Kenny cruising down the school corridor basking in the adoration of the students, but it's a scene revealed to be entirely in Kenny's warped perception of their derisory stares.

While I can see the potential in this idea, Eastbound & Down does itself no favours by having a lead character with zero redeeming features. McBride works best (if he works at all) as a supporting player, so giving him an extended spotlight felt exhausting. What little humour there is in Kenny Powers' personality ebbed away after 10-minutes. Co-writer/director Jody Hill (who worked with McBride on The Foot Fist Way) appears hell-bent in trying to create a new type of comedy where the "heroes" are reprehensible freaks, but it feels like a pointless endeavour to me. As with Hill's divisive Observe & Report, the absence of any redeeming qualities in the main character will have a wearing effect on most of the audiences, and my own tolerance for Kenny became threadbare after only one episode.

Overall, I'm all for self-delusional losers in comedy, but Eastbound & Down appears to have burnt the recipe book and cooked the wrong ingredients in creating its anti-hero. If you're as insensitive and boorish as Kenny Powers, you may get a kick out of seeing someone as odious as yourself reflected on TV... but I'd take a long hard look at yourself if that's the case. The rest of us are probably best off leaving McBride and Hill to their shock-comedy posturing.


1 October 2009
FX / FX HD, 10pm

written by: Ben Best, Jody Hill & Danny McBride directed by: Jody Hill starring: Danny McBride (Kenny Powers), Katy Mixon (April Buchanon), John Hawkes (Dustin Powers), Andrew Daly (Terrence Curler), Ben Best (Clegg), Jennifer Irwin (Cassie Powers), Steve Little (Steve Janowski), Sylvia Jefferies (Tracy), Ethan Alexander McGee (Dustin Jr.) & Craig Robinson (Baseball Player)

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