On Set with Kenny Powers for the final season of 'Eastbound & Down'

September 28, 2013 6:44 PM

Grantland visits the set of Eastbound & Down on the eve of its fourth (and final) season. "The canon of post–Tony Soprano TV antiheroes is well established with your Walter Whites and your Don Drapers. Now, with Eastbound & Down sailing into the sunset, there is Kenny Powers. He was a crass, craven, and mean-spirited buffoon — and he was our buffoon. As he fumbled, fought, and fucked — his flabby arms protruding out of cutoffs, jorts hanging just so — he carried the mantle of the Ugly American. But this was neither a tribute nor a judgment. It was a love letter to this particular American way."
posted by porn in the woods (15 comments total)

The show 'Girls' notwithstanding, I think the first season of Eastbound & Down might be the finest television ever made. Let the hate roll in, I have thick skin.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:29 PM on September 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Seconded - the first season is perfection. The others... not so much. Kenny Powers only needs six episodes anyway.
posted by boubelium at 7:35 PM on September 28, 2013

Nthed. That first season tells such a profoundly horrible, yet succinct story. I still can't explain why my Brit friends seem to like this so much more than my 'colonial' friends.

Easter egg: McBride's inablilty to pitch, he shortarms almost every single throw.
posted by Sphinx at 7:44 PM on September 28, 2013

I have such a hard time imagining Steve Little as any one other than Stevie Janowski. I'm going to try to find some Youtube clips of him acting normal.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:54 PM on September 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have such a hard time imagining Steve Little as any one other than Stevie Janowski.

It's the farthest thing from normal, but his starring role in The Catechism Cataclysm is nothing short of a comic masterpiece in an absolute mind-fuck of a film.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 9:11 PM on September 28, 2013 [4 favorites]

I still can't explain why my Brit friends seem to like this so much more than my 'colonial' friends.

The cringeworthiness of Kenny Powers reminds me of Ricky Gervais in the original The Office. Maybe an English audience has more of a stomach for comedy featuring embarrassing buffoons? I liked both, for the record
posted by Hoopo at 9:49 PM on September 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Every time I remember they claimed they had to film the second season in Puerto Rico instead of Mexico because it was too dangerous I laugh hysterically. It's like real life trolling where they inculcated the main character's deeply inaccurate worldview into their own decisions. I bet there was some kind of tax break.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 10:09 PM on September 28, 2013

i thought there were only 3 seasons, is there a 4th?
posted by cupcake1337 at 10:20 PM on September 28, 2013

I've linked to it before here, but I just love these Will Ferrell outtakes from season 1.
posted by mcmile at 10:31 PM on September 28, 2013

Bunny Ultramod, my internet connection is too weak for Youtube at the moment, but I will be coming back to that.
posted by Literaryhero at 12:30 AM on September 29, 2013

One thing I love about Eastbound & Down is how they are able to have moments of real narrative tension. You know they're not afraid to make Kenny Powers fail and be humiliated, and yet, sometimes he confounds his foes with a vast cloud of bullshit and wins. You can never be sure which way they will go, but whichever way they do it usually feels right. You want Danny McBride's crappy horrible characters to both succeed and fail.
posted by bleep-blop at 1:20 AM on September 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think the first season of Eastbound & Down might be the finest television ever made. Let the hate roll in, I have thick skin.

Whenever somebody mentions the genius of Season 1, I immediately think of this scene. It's just the perfect aside. How crazy a person on cocaine looks to a 10-year-old. Utterly hysterical.
posted by phaedon at 1:21 AM on September 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just like that Shelby, NC is the setting of both Eastbound & Down and District 12 from The Hunger Games. It's like the place has discovered its calling: being a metaphor for abject despair.
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:19 AM on September 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

But this was neither a tribute nor a judgment. It was a love letter to this particular American way.

If it's not a tribute, can it be a love letter? I know I'm probably being weirdly nitpicky, but that sentence really doesn't make sense to me, even in the context of the article as a whole.
posted by asnider at 10:31 AM on September 29, 2013

having watched the first episode: i love it. i was skeptical, but i think they've found a good way to do it. it should be a good season.
posted by cupcake1337 at 8:58 PM on October 3, 2013