Eastbound and Down - Season Two

After the events of season one, season two has Kenny Powers taking some time out in Mexico. He refers to it as a "spiritual journey", but really he was just too embarrassed to go back home, so he went the other way. I said in my season one post that his character didn't have any redeeming qualities, but now I think he in fact has two: his love for April, and his perseverance in pursuing both her and his baseball career. He's still sort of a jerk, but at least he cares about something.

I think I probably found season one funnier overall, but this season still had its share of hilarious moments. Having a whole new setting and almost a whole new cast, it almost felt like a spin-off series rather than a new season, so it's understandable if it feels somewhat different, though it's still told from Kenny's point of view so the tone is the same. Stevie also ends up tagging along, and he can be annoyingly needy at times (I suspect he has Dependent Personality Disorder), but he is also incredibly loyal and that's worthy of some respect, and his naivete does provide the occasional laugh. It was interesting seeing these two in the Mexican setting, Kenny being an uncultured redneck and Stevie having the innocence of a mentally challenged person, but I have to admit I was kind of relieved when they returned home at the end of the season. No need to keep drawing it out - everything Kenny did in Mexico was basically a substitute for everything he did in the United States, so he had to go back to the real thing eventually. And the next season is going to be the last one, so he's got about 6-7 episodes to tie everything up. Good luck, Flama Blanca.

Best Episode: I think I would have to go with "Chapter 11", where Kenny stays with his father (Don Johnson) in Mexico and considers living there permanently. That one was probably the funniest for me.

Eastbound and Down - Season One

When I reviewed the pilot episode a while back, I said that Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) was basically a big jerk but we root for him because he's a jerk at rock bottom. I don't think his character necessarily has any redeeming qualities, we just pity him because of his situation. Throughout the rest of the first season, Kenny tries his hardest to build hype around himself by making public appearances and a demo video and selling Kenny Powers memorabilia, then he fails to understand why nobody seems to care. "Why doesn't anybody want this shit?" he says in defeat when his collectibles fail to bring large quantities of cash on eBay. I felt like that was the moment when I really understood him. I already knew he was arrogant, but there is a slight difference in thinking you're awesome and thinking everybody thinks you're awesome. Maybe he's not arrogant at all, he just believed it when he was praised during his prime, and now that that praise is fading he's realizing that he's not so great after all. While I did feel bad for Kenny in the season finale, it doesn't really matter if you like him or not, because he is funny to watch. He is often the guy who makes the wrong choice and makes a fool of himself, which is obviously a lot more amusing than someone who makes the right choice and is a hero. I guess, in a way, that is his redeeming quality.

Best episode: "Chapter 5". After Kenny finally decides to give up his attempts at getting back into the majors, sleazy car salesman Ashley Schaffer (Will Ferrell in shades and a white wig) proposes a showdown at his dealership between Kenny and his baseball nemesis Reg Mackworthy (Craig Robinson).

This Week in Television - Nov. 22-26, 2010

It's a short week this week due to the American Thanksgiving, so just this once I thought I'd extend the post by adding my thoughts on three pilot episodes I downloaded during the week.

Glee
Sue marrying herself was awesome. Even though there are already at least one or two movies with that very plot, I still found it funny because it's Sue Sylvester. How can you go wrong with a track suit dress? Also very cool how she handled the situations with Kurt and her mother. I'm indifferent about Kurt leaving (I don't believe that he'll be away for long anyway) because, although he is apparently a fan favourite, he is an uninteresting stereotype to me. Bonus points for having a throwaway line about Lost guest stars and then having an actual Lost guest star on the show.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Recap episode this week.

Mad Men (Pilot Episode)
The written introduction about the advertising executives coining their own nickname tells us everything we need to know up front: these guys are confident, motivated, smooth-talking alpha males. The interesting thing about the pilot is that it pretends to set up Don Draper as being slightly different from the others - a more morally sound and socially conscious ad man - but it turns out that this, too, is only a dishonest image being sold to the viewer. At the end of the episode, Don proposes a shady marketing angle for cigarettes and then goes home to his wife and kids, who until that point we didn't realize he was cheating on. The show itself becomes the ad man and we are the consumer. Well played, Mad Men. Well played.

The Walking Dead (Pilot Episode)
I'm not huge on zombies but I'm starting to enjoy them after recent experiences (Zombieland, Dead Rising). I liked that, in this one, we skipped all of the initial craziness and carnage and came upon the zombies slowly, as our main character was in the hospital and only awoke once the zombie apocalypse was already over, and even then he was only coming upon the walking corpses one at a time at first. Also the zombie makeup/effects were very well done. Good production values all around, basically. I don't know if I can say the pilot has hooked me, but I am interested enough to watch another episode.

Eastbound and Down (Pilot Episode)
When it comes to comedy, you can't go wrong with a main character sporting a mustache and a curly mullet. Danny McBride plays a former baseball star who becomes washed up and has to teach gym at an elementary school. I liked the montage of his deteriorating skills as we see the speed clock measuring his pitches getting slower and slower over time. Like a lot of great characters, Kenny Powers is another of those who would be far from likable in real life but makes a hilarious TV character. He is arrogant, obnoxious, lazy, and dumb, but we root for him because he's funny and because his life has become really sad and pathetic after he once lived the dream.

Hero of the Week: Sue Sylvester from Glee. Even though I generally praise her every week, this is her first time making Hero of the Week.

Douchebag of the Week: Pete from Mad Men, because he already seems like the douchebaggiest of all the "mad men".