Does watching Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder) act like an asshole sound funny? Then Eastbound and Down, the new HBO comedy created by McBride and his Foot Fist Way buddies with Will Ferrell producing, is exactly what you should be watching. Playing along the lines of The Office (British), Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Action, McBride's Kenny Powers is a loser who offends with his every word. That's not to everyone's taste, but if you can take it, it's pretty hilarious.
The show starts with a quick run-down of Kenny's rapid rise and bitter fall as a star baseball star, from coining the catchphrase "You're fucking out" to the audience chanting it at him. "Several shitty years later," as the title card tells us, he's back in his hometown, living with his brother's family and teaching gym at his old high school. He also tries to get back his high school girlfriend, now engaged to the principal, when not calling prostitutes, doing coke with the bartender, or plotting his return to the big leagues.
Unlike Curb or The Office, Kenny's hijinks tend to cause less cringing, just laughing. Maybe it's because Kenny is such an outright loser that there's little hope he'll ever pull anything together. It helps that the supporting cast is made up of straight men to let Kenny shine in his delusional, foul-mouthed glory. As in The Foot Fist Way, the best targets are kids, like when Kenny tells everyone to bully one kid who dared to suggest Kenny ruined baseball. Sure, you wouldn't be able to spend a full network season with Kenny. But at a British-style 6 episode season, that's just enough time to laugh along.
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