Eastbound & Down Review

Kenny Powers is one of the great comic creations of the century, and the reason is that the show never once flinches into likability. He is a bigot, a coward and a bottomless narcissist, and the writing understands that the joke is not his confidence but the gap between that confidence and a man who peaked at twenty four and has been coasting on a fastball he no longer has. Danny McBride plays him without a wink, which is the whole trick: the moment an actor signals that he knows the character is ridiculous, the character stops being funny.

Jody Hill and David Gordon Green shoot small town North Carolina with a plainness that makes the delusion land harder, all beige gyms and strip mall parking lots. Steve Little's Stevie Janowski is the show's secret engine, a study in devotion so abject it becomes frightening. The real weakness is structural: four seasons is at least one more than the premise supports, and the Mexico run in season two stalls badly before the show finds its way home. It also never solves the problem of what to do with April, who exists mostly to give Kenny something to want.