So I was going to write about how, despite this show's hype, I've found Eastbound rather underwhelming. You see, I read an article on /Film about how the second season was moving to Mexico. The article talks very positively about the show, and as I scrolled down the comments, many people spoke of the show as if it were the second coming of whatever Christ's equivalent on HBO would be. Then, hitting up IMDB to see all-who's-in I see a nine star rating. Mental process: I love edgy HBO comedies; hey, its only sex episodes, just like a BBC show; I love edgy short run BBC shows (they get in and get out like any good First off, the protagonist, Kenny Powers, is a huge prick. I never see anything remotely redeemable about this guy, and while I cringe (cringe humour) at the things that he gets himself into, never do I feel bad for him. Now, I don't need a protagonist to relate to a show, comedy is allowed to be difficult sometimes. Think Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David is not a likable character, yet I really enjoy the show. I think the success there is that while you dislike Larry, you can relate to him. He is often the person we'd like to be ourselves, the man that stands up to ridiculous social etiquette or their breaches (depends on what side he finds himself on really). But Kenny Powers is just hopelessly self-involved and never on the right side of anything.
I bet I could get passed the reprehensible protagonist if the show was funnier, though. I'm not a big believer in the complete subjectivity of funny, so I will say, yes, I may not find this show funny where someone else might, but, really, I think Eastbound and Down is a very lazy funny. The majority of the humour in the show comes from Kenny's actions. And like I've said, he's awful, so most of the humour is derived from watching a douche do douchey things. Subjectivity: some people might find this funny, I think its lazy comedy writing. Here as a writer, jokes come from setting your character up in a situation where he can be a prick, and then having your character act a prick. This lacks the more involved comedic structure of set-up and exploit. You don't need a clever trick for a punchline, just a character to curse and hurt people's feelings.
The show isn't hopelessly funny. There are usually a couple of moments an episode that are pretty funny and the show is well written in terms of dialogue and its not sitcom-y in terms of narrative. But I could see the last episode's plot, and how it plays out, coming from the second (maybe the first) episode. It goes exactly where comedies like this do. Being edgy isn't just about fucks and tits (or racism and dicks), its about pushing the norm. Yes, you have a non-typical set of characters, no you have the paint-by-numbers narrative arc.
NOW, I really want to address Katy Mixon's character, April Buchanon. But I'm going to get SPOILERy to do so. So WARNING: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. When we first meet April, she has a life in which Kenny has absolutely zero presence in and it's been so for a very long time now. And she hates him. He disgusts her. Really, she could not be less happy to see him now. He obviously treated her like crap at some point in their past and she is bitter about how things ended. Given Kenny's behaviour, its safe to assume he's mostly to blame for the relationship problems (if there were any, and he didn't just dump her when he got bigs or when he wanted to have sex with someone else). BUT, as the series goes on she falls in love with Kenny. Why this happens is not really apparent. He still acts like a douche around her, isn't respectful of her at all, and really seems to be mainly interested in her tits. There are moments where he shows something good around her, but it's usually in connection to the fact that he wants to be with her. You don't score points with a woman that hated you a week ago just because you exhibit signs of wanting to be with her.
MORE SPOILERS!! So the real reason that she falls in love with him is because the narrative arc says so. She's the leading lady so she necessarily falls in love with the leading man, despite everything about her character saying she would NOT. So what her husband is a wanker; so what she might have some pent up sexual desire for whatever dirtiness that she could get with Kenny; she still would not "fall in love" and decide to leace her life behind to follow him back to stardom-ville (the stardom-ville which manufactured his extreme sports level of douche to begin with). You know what April would do? She'd fuck him on the DL and feel slightly guilty about it. That's it. She'd exorcise her sexual demons, and move on. The character she is, would not love the character he is--nope, not unless the script says she would. So fuck that, give her character a little more dignity.
SPOILERS OVER!! The show is gearing up for another season down in Mexico, and maybe it will be better with more interesting characters, but I'm not optimistic. The writers don't seem to be able to create humorous and believable characters, or even unbelievable but funny characters, so making all of these new characters Mexican, probably won't help anything.
Watch it if you have nothing else on your plate.
Are you my caucasian?
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