[IMG:L]With Major League Baseball in desperate need of a tension breaker and Danny McBride poised for stardom — or at the very least a high-ranking position in the Judd Apatow/Will Ferrell Comedy Troupe — the timing for HBO’s Eastbound & Down (premiering Sunday at 10:30/9:30c) couldn’t be better.
But perfect timing is merely the icing on the cake for this hilariously vulgar comedy series, which fits perfectly alongside Flight of the Conchords’ sandpaper-dry humor on HBO’s Sunday-night block.
Eastbound is all about McBride, who does triple duty as star, co-writer and co-producer. It’s hard to think of another actor who could pull off McBride’s blend of obscenities and physical comedy. Perhaps Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell (who fittingly co-produces Eastbound) would suffice, but McBride — partly due to his lack of fame to this point — is able to deliver an element of surprise that those A-list funnymen couldn’t. With McBride in the lead role, it’s harder to predict the comic eruptions and the exact trajectory of his character.
That character is Kenny Powers, a Major League pitcher who goes from high-paid superstar to washed-up has-been in, well, the first minute of the show. Out of the big leagues after his off-field activities turn his fastball into a changeup, Powers is forced to move in with his brother (Deadwood’s John Hawkes), sister-in-law (Jennifer Irwin) and their kids in small-town North Carolina. Worse than that, he has to take a job at his former high school as a substitute P.E. teacher. And even worse than that, his onetime girlfriend (Four Christmases’ Katy Mixon), for whom he still has feelings, teaches at the school and is engaged to its geeky principal (MADtv’s Andrew Daly).
What’s great about the first episode — aside from the boundless R-rated energy of McBride — is that the path of Powers and the show isn’t entirely clear, even if the premise may seem a little hero-to-zero-to-hero clichéd on paper.
As for McBride (aka the Appalachian Seth Rogen), who viewers probably still won’t recognize even after sizable roles in Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, Eastbound is likely to be a large stepping stone on his way to Ferrell-sized stardom, which may culminate with his prominent role in this summer’s surefire blockbuster Land of the Lost (starring, you guessed it, his buddy Ferrell).
Here’s hoping McBride doesn’t become too big for the small screen once his career finally explodes. Better yet, here’s hoping Eastbound stays around long enough for that to even be an issue, because great shows like this rarely equal great ratings…
Grade: A-
