HBO’s Bonkers 4-Part Comedy Series Officially Becomes a Late-Night Sleeper Hit 13 Years Later

When discussing the greatest contemporary television showrunners, names such as Vince Gilligan, David Simon, David Chase, and Bill Lawrence are often brought up, but there’s not always the same attention given to those in comedy. Many would argue that comedy is harder than drama, but it is certainly more challenging for that genre retain a level of consistency; even the best sitcoms of all time tend to have a few bad seasons.

When looking at the most innovative comedic minds in the prestige era of television, Danny McBride and Jody Hill are responsible for some of the most absurd, cutting-edge, and satirical humor of the past two decades. Although they’ve received acclaim in recent years thanks to the success of Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, McBride and Hill proved themselves as comedic geniuses with Eastbound & Down, a cult comedy series that was ahead of its time. While it didn’t get the type of mainstream appreciation or awards acclaim that it deserved, Eastbound & Down was willing to cross lines that no other show would even think to approach.

‘Eastbound & Down’s Kenny Powers Is One of Television’s Most Unique Characters

Eastbound & Down has a narrative that grows increasingly complicated with each season, but the show is ostensibly the story of washed-up former baseball player Kenny Powers, played by McBride, who is forced to become a physical education teacher at his hometown middle school in North Carolina after being rejected by all major sports leagues. The notion of a quirky, womanizing hooligan like Kenny being forced to be part of a workplace would have been a funny premise for an entire series, but Eastbound & Down constantly reinvented itself by swinging in a wildly different direction every season. It was impossible to predict where Eastbound & Down was going, other than that each episode would include more than a few gut-busting laughs.

One of the most consistent trends among prestige television shows in the 21st century is the notion of an anti-hero; protagonists like Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in Breaking Bad, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) in The Shield, and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in Mad Men all appear to be both sympathetic and dangerous, leading to shows where they must wrestle with the darkness inside of them. Conversely, Kenny is a character who learns no major lessons and doesn’t fix his behavior because he realizes that acting selfish and entitled leads to success in America. It’s a razor-sharp satire of the type of figures that the American media tends to find fascinating, and has led to Eastbound & Down aging incredibly well.

In part due to his creative involvement with the series, McBride gives a standout performance on Eastbound & Down, making Kenny a true one-of-a-kind rather than a caricature. Even though Kenny professes not to care about anything and rejects the notion that he could ever be vulnerable, McBride is able to show how all the character’s schemes are exaggerated ways for him to feel valued. This explains why Kenny is so desperate to seduce his friend’s wife, stage a comeback in professional baseball, and even become a community hero, as he is very shallow in craving attention. At the same time, McBride’s performance is unfiltered and ridiculous while never becoming obnoxious; for better or worse, Kenny offers a sense of truth that is refreshing when so many other characters attempt to mask how they really feel.

‘Eastbound & Down’ Never Stopped Innovating Over Four Seasons

In order to avoid feeling derivative, each season of Eastbound & Down took a different approach by jumping forward in time, which prevented the show from ever feeling like it overstayed its welcome. Despite the first three seasons hilariously skewing the egos involved with sports leagues and sponsorships, Season 4 transformed Kenny into a media personality who is, once again, at odds with those who fund him; this revealed that the series was more interested in satirizing money and power than it was in making fun of baseball. It was a surprisingly salient point, but it never felt like the series was getting too preachy because of Kenny’s consistently great one-liners.

It’s rare for a show to go out on its own terms, but Eastbound & Down truly has one of the weirdest finales of all time. It was an impressive achievement on McBride’s part that he conceived of such a solid ending for the character, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like he was hogging screentime; hilarious guest roles for actors like Will Ferrell and Adam Scott proved that everyone involved could share the laughs. Although many of the creatives involved would go on to work on both McBride’s Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, the original four seasons of Eastbound & Down stand as a perfect example of comedy television.