Rating:  -
I'm a girl who LOVES baseball and I also love nasty, out of the box comedy. This is probably the funniest show I've seen on TV in a LOOOONG time. I think the curly haired 90's mullet did it for me. I don't have time to watch TV (full time job/new mom) but I accidentally stumbled upon this on HBO and I was on the floor laughing my as$ off. I've seen Danny McBride in other movies (Heartbreak Kid, Tropic Thunder, etc) but Eastbound and Down's rounchy style is just what I needed. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Rating: -
first of all-let me admit. i gave this series a bias 5 star rating b/c i'm in love with danny mcbride and cuckoo for john hawkes.
with that said-as a whole the series has some good characters. i really only wanted to see it for Danny McBride and John Hawkes :-) and was not dissapointed. I'd be very interested to see if HBO brings it back and what direction they will go with it. I was furious with Kenney for being so stupid and thinking he had this deal on lock down when he hadn't even met with the team's head coach,or signed a contract for that matter!
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Eastbound and Down's Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) is obnoxiously arrogant, crass and hysterically funny. Kenny is an extremely cocky former Major League pitcher who has lost his famous fastball and ends up crashing with his brother's family and teaching physical education at his old middle school. His character is a lot like the insulting martial arts instructor in The Foot Fist Way. If you don't appreciate this humor, god help you...
Rating: -
If you think I am exaggerating about hating sports, I did not even realize my city had a new version of the Cleveland Browns until two years after they had resumed playing. I learned in a Burger King when the guy waiting on me wanted to commiserate with me over our losing the game and all I could say was, "You mean they're back?"
So for me to enjoy a sports based tv series is saying one heck of a lot. The main reason is that Danny McBride, in the lead role as the former star baseball player forced to teach school and live with this brother, is absolutely hilarious. You are tempted to really hate him. He is totally obnoxious. He is trying to do everything in his power to get back into the big time with nary a hint of regret over his own behavior which brought about his downfall. Yet there is something just so universal about how far he has fallen and how hard he tries to keep going to pick himself back up. His efforts to do so are obnoxious, humiliating, touching and hilarious. Two favorite moments for me were his trying to sell his memorabilia on ebay for big bucks and dictating his own audiobook on how to be a big deal.
Will Farrell's production company got this off the ground for HBO and Farrell himself plays the major car dealer in town who is able to lord it over the former big deal sports star. He is almost unrecognizable in his wig and other accessories but he is also hilarious as usual.
I tried watching FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, which has gotten excellent reviews, but I couldn't get past the sports in that show. I made it through one episode and gave up. So it has got to be the writing and the comedy in this show that make it happen for me.
This is an HBO show, which comes as no big surprise. I really wonder how we lived through tv shows before HBO got into doing tv series. Luckily, others are now following the HBO model.
Rating:  -
You usually can't go wrong with HBO shows and Eastbound & Down continues HBO's hot streak of quality programing. I find it funny that I've used the word "quality" to describe Eastbound because it's one of the most vulgar and non P.C shows you can watch. The premise of "Eastbound" follows the rise and fall of Major League pitcher Kenny Powers(played by the hilarious Danny McBride) who's racism, homophobia and indifference make him a controversial icon,but after Kenny's meteoric rise his pitch begins to lose it's zip and he's kicked out of the majors. Defamed and ostracized,Kenny returns to his home town can takes up a P.E teaching job at his old middle school. Now one of the "ordinary People" Kenny plots to make it back to the majors and steal the heart of this old high school flame(katy Mixon)between making his brother's life hell, starting a feud with a used car sales man, and taking a lot of drugs. At first I was a little skeptical about Eastbound because its plot seems pretty simplistic but one episode in I was a fan. What's nice about Eastbound is that it takes a completely despise able character in Powers and somehow makes him lovable. Though it is a comedy, Eastbound fells like a drama most of the time because though Powers shows a uncaring and selfish exterior we see that his sort comings and failures hurt and effect him just like anyone else. He's human, even though he'd like to think he's more than that.
My only complaint is that the season is pretty short(six episodes)but the extras make up for it. There's a blooper and deleted scenes section. There's also a full length version of the "Kenny Power" scouting video, cheesy explosion effects in all. hilarious!
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