Comedy isn't easy. Anyone who's ever told a joke that has fallen flat can attest to this fact. There are so many elements that have to come together to make something truly funny that it's astounding when any TV program manages to have a thoroughly humorous episode — let alone a whole season of hilarity.
When HBO's "Eastbound & Down" premiered for its first season last year, expectations were sky−high, and somehow it managed to blow them all out of the water. Now Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) and company are back for a second season, and so far, it's just as gut−busting as ever.
"Eastbound" follows Powers, a former pro baseball player trying to make it back to the big time. It's a story of redemption, cussing, off−color jokes, hillbillies and mullets. This season progresses in the same format as the first — that of six episodes filmed as a movie — which means that each half−hour episode doesn't always have a nice, clean arc. From start to finish, though, the season does work well.
The first season presented Powers as a classic fish out of water: Upon returning to his hometown after a busted career, Power quickly put himself at the center of attention to win back his high school sweetheart. As a whole, the season gradually set the story up and featured an unlikeable protagonist: Kenny Powers is a repugnant human being. He's a narcissistic egomaniac with delusions of grandeur and no respect for anyone, traits that make him ripe for comedy.
The second season picks up some time after the first ends. Powers is living in Mexico trying to find himself while still running away from real−world problems. The season works as a sequel, although it could easily stand alone and welcome first−time viewers into the cult of Kenny.
The new south−of−the−border setting is ripe for mockery and obvious humor, but the "Eastbound" creative team doesn't go for easy jokes. White−trash jokes are a dime−a−dozen, but Powers isn't funny because he's a hick — he's funny because he's a fully formed human being.
As we watch Powers get back into baseball — he starts the season undercover, living as "Steve the Cockfighter," but quickly joins a local baseball team — it would be too easy for him to be terrible.
A dramatic scene in the second episode is concerned with Powers' first pitch in front of his new team. A lazy show would have the pitch — which Powers assures his new coach will be over 100 mph — be a dud. "Eastbound," however, is not a lazy show: While the pitch doesn't break 100, it does clock in somewhere in the 90s. Powers is clearly a talented player, but he has to work to reclaim his ability and the adoring public.
Powers is a challenging character to play, but McBride is an insanely talented actor with impeccable timing; he manages to pull it off flawlessly.
The interactions between Powers and the locals ("villagers," as he refers to them) are possibly the laziest setup the writers go for, but they even manage to make conversations in broken Spanglish funny. In the most recent episode, for example, Powers attempts to tell his girlfriend's son to remove his headphones. The boy, who speaks English fairly well, doesn't respond at first, so Powers shouts at him: "Remove los computers from your ojos!"
To non−Spanish speakers, this line is funny because it refers to Powers' oft−referenced, deep−seated mistrust of technology. Viewers who do speak Spanish, however, get another joke that furthers Powers' characterization: "Ojos" is Spanish for "eyes." This slip−up shows that Powers is trying to learn the language, but as with everything else in his life, he's a little off.
So far, the only recurring character besides Powers has been Stevie Janowski (Steve Little), Powers' sidekick who almost certainly suffers from some mental disability.
Last season, Stevie was an uncomfortable character, and jokes made at his expense felt wrong. This season, Stevie, although still slow and awkward, is smarter and stands up for himself more (Powers changes his title to "sidekick" rather than "b−−−−").
New additions to the cast include Deep Roy in a bizarre role as Powers' dwarf henchman, Efren Ramirez — best known as Pedro in "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) — as Powers' landlord and Ana de la Reguera as a new love interest.
If anything, this season is funnier than the last. Although the fan−favorite catchphrases ("I'm Kenny f−−−−−' Powers!", "I'm f−−−−−' in, you're f−−−−−' out!," etc.) may be gone, the show has retained its unique flavor and strangely compelling characters.
In a review I wrote after the first season's finale, I lamented the fact that Kenny Powers didn't die at the end of the season. At the time, it seemed to me that he was a tragic hero and thus had to die. Boy, am I glad HBO didn't feel the same way.
