HBO’s hit comedy Eastbound & Down returns this Sunday, September 29 at 10 PM ET in case I haven’t mentioned it each night this week, and I spent a little time today traveling back in time on some websites and the Twitters and Tumblrs to see what people think about the existence of this fourth season. After all, we were all under the impression that the third season was it, and that Kenny Powers had faked his own death so he could live a quiet life with April and Toby. And a surprising number of people were pretty upset that Danny McBride and Co. would roll the dice and push their luck with another season of Eastbound & Down.

My response to any concerns or complaints that fans of the show may have about this fourth season is simple – we get more Kenny Powers. Does it really matter if the series ends with KP faking his own death or riding his jet ski off into the sunset? (I don’t know if that’s the actual ending, but that’s how I picture it.) No, because we still have eight more episodes of one of TV’s all-time most hilarious characters left, when just a few months ago we thought we had none.

Just how much do people love Kenny Powers? I thought we’d explore that with this little gallery of some awesome Eastbound & Down fan art that I dug up. Come for the baseball cards, stay for the chest tattoo. Seriously.

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We’re just four days away from the premiere of the fourth and final season of HBO’s comedy Eastbound & Down, in case you’ve missed my nightly tributes to my favorite show in the world in the history of all-time and forever. HBO released two new clips today, and I’ve got the first right here to whet your whistle a little before Sunday’s new episode at 10 PM ET. In it, we see that Kenny Powers is living the normal life, working in a car rental place, and that’s clearly something he was never meant to do. Will he snap out of it and try to pursue a way back to fame and fortune? Of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be a fourth season.

NFL Thursday Night Football: 49ers at Rams – 8:25 PM ET on NFL Network

Can Colin Kaepernick stop making me tear out my beautiful hair? Probably not.

NCAA Football: Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech – 7:30 PM ET on ESPN

I don’t want to sound like a dick, but Tech-nically this game blows.

Just kidding, I’m sure it will be great.

NCAA Football: Howard at NC A&T – 7:30 PM ET on ESPNU
NCAA Football: Iowa State at Tulsa – 7:30 PM ET on Fox Sports 1

Well, at least FS1 can beat ESPNU tonight.

MLB: Angels at Rangers – 7 PM ET on MLB Network

The Rangers trail the Cleveland Indians by a game for the second AL Wild Card spot, and I really want the Indians to get it so Brandon will be happy. Otherwise, he beats me.

Eastbound & Down returns this Sunday for its fourth and final season. The GIF you see above was taken from the first official trailer. It is the best Kenny Powers GIF, which is saying something, because there have been many, many great Kenny Powers GIFs. I will now rank the Top 5 parts of it:

5) Kenny’s t-shirt. Tucking your t-shirt into your jeans is generally not advisable unless you are a 50-year-old suburban dad and it is a Saturday afternoon, but exceptions can be made in extreme circumstances. I think we can all agree “Kenny Powers dancing next to a child who is firing an automatic weapon” is an extreme circumstance. Also, if the shirt was untucked no one would see the gold belt buckle that matches his bracelet and chain, and then what’s even the point of any of it, you know?

4) The fact that a child is firing an automatic weapon. I’m cool with if it Kenny’s cool with it. Kenny appears to be very cool with it.

3) Kenny’s gold gun chain. Kenny Powers has a gold chain that is shaped like a gun. Please make a note.

2) The fact that the action is taking place in front of a backyard clubhouse with a blue plastic slide. There are many things to look forward to about the upcoming season of Eastbound & Down. Figuring out what the hell is happening here is at the top of my list.

1) The Kenny Powers Shimmy. Number one with a bullet. Or many bullets. Fired from a gun held by a child. In front of a plastic slide.

The other day, my good friend (we’ll call him Ted Notarealperson) asked me, “Hey Burnsy, what’s with all the Eastbound & Down posts? Are you shilling for HBO or something?” And I said, “No” because I’m just a huge Eastbound & Down fan; however, I’d gladly shill for just about anybody if they asked (especially you, Taco Bell and/or Jeep). Tomorrow night at 10 PM ET, Kenny Powers will make his magnificent return for the fourth and final season of Eastbound & Down, and it will be awesome because this show is simply awesome.

But to make his return even more glorious than it already is, Kenny Powers (or Danny McBride to some sticklers) has recorded a series of messages to the fans of baseball’s biggest cities, each one more ridiculous and outstanding than the next. So I went ahead and gathered several (or 10) of my favorites and paired them with my equally favorite Kenny Powers fashion statements from the first three seasons.

While everyone was talking about the finale of that one show with the guy who did bad things but may have been a good guy at heart or whatever – like anyone even remembers that show anymore – a lot of us were also getting ready for the return of TV’s greatest, most foul-mouthed antihero, Kenny Powers. HBO’s hit comedy Eastbound & Down returned for its fourth (and probably final) season last night, and it’s safe to say that Kenny is a changed, broken man and a bitter, self-loathing hollow shell of his former self.

Picking up three years after he walked off the mound in his return to the big leagues and ultimately faked his death, Kenny is living the suburban life with his wife April and their two kids in a large home that they can barely afford on his salary as the assistant manager of a car rental company. But while Kenny has mostly changed to his family and friends, we get to see that he’s still the same maniacal party animal on the inside, and he’s just itching to break free.

Chapter 22 wasn’t the most hilarious episode of Eastbound & Down, nor was it very funny in general. In fact, it was sort of depressing until the very end, as Kenny realized that he wasn’t a star anymore and began feeling the urge to take back what he believes is his – fame, fortune and f*cking everything in between.

So What Happened After “Death”?

I’ll be honest, I was a little sour with the quick recap of the past few years between Kenny faking his own death and celebrating The Human Centipede with his daughter, because I would have liked to have seen some of those highlights played out. Hell, at least give us an episode of the funeral and/or several episodes in prison. I feel like we were robbed of this show’s best humor by not expanding on those plot points. (Especially the whole fraud angle, since faking your own death is sort of frowned upon in legal circles.)

Kenny Has Three Kids Now?

It’s safe to say that when Kenny greeted a mourning April to let her know that he had faked his own death so they could live the simple life together, they had unprotected sex and produced their young daughter. And I say three kids because we already know that Lindsay Lohan is showing up at some point this season as Kenny’s estranged daughter. How they’ll explain that Kenny has a 27-year old daughter who looks 45 is beyond me. But I already feel bad for Toby with the way Kenny talks about him. I would have made Toby a little faux-hawked douche toddler or at least given him the same hair as his father. Toby should be kicking ass at school and wreaking havoc on his teachers, not struggling to eat his carrots.

Mark Is The Absolute Worst

If the end of Chapter 22 marks the last that we’ll ever see of Mark the car rental company manager, then this season is already a success. This show’s writers have the amazing ability of developing some awesome and horrible characters all at the same time. There have been plenty of both, but in the annals of purely awful, “I want to crack this guy’s nose with a rubber mallet” characters, Mark may take the cake. That’s why this ending was so damned satisfying.

(Image via, GIFs via)

HBO

I honestly never expected to see Kenny Powers again.

The end of the third season was such a decisive conclusion, giving him the happy ending that he needed instead of the one he wanted, that I figured we were done with him as a character. After all, heading into that season, Jody Hill and Danny McBride and David Gordon Green all seemed relatively sure that they were done with him, and if they felt like they were finished, who were we to argue?

The very end of that final episode, though, threw so many big ideas at us so quickly that it went from feeling like the finish of something to feeling like a giant challenge. Once your lead character fakes his own death to walk away from his dream life in professional sports, can he really just go home and live a happy domestic life?

Yeah, right.

This season’s first episode had the misfortune of being aired on Sunday night, when pretty much everyone’s full attention was focused on the end of “Breaking Bad.” I hope people double back, though, because “Eastbound and Down” came out swinging with their first episode, checking in on suburban dad Kenny Powers, and from the very start of the episode, with him sitting in his car on the way to work, happily observing to himself, “I love NPR,” it’s obvious that things have changed for Kenny.

It’s amazing how even today, even in an age where pretty much every extreme has been captured on film, something as simple as language can still retain the power to shock. The greatest strength of Kenny as a character comes from his absolute lack of restraint in how he speaks, how he thinks, how he parties. There’s not a thought that passes through his head that he won’t vocalize. Watching him struggle to live this family life, he is in obvious pain. He hates his boss. He hates being anonymous. And more than anything, he hates that April (Katy Mixon) has eclipsed him. The script he’s writing (complete with on-set bloopers over the end credits) is one more chance for him to rewrite his own mythology, something that has been important to him since the first episode of the series. Kenny doesn’t just want to live a noteworthy life; he also wants to be the one who decides how that story is told.

There were so many golden observations in this episode. When he’s talking to his kids about movies, he asks if they know what a motion picture is. “Human Centipede,” answers his adorable little four year old daughter Shayna (Emma Salzman). “They ate poo poo.”

“And someone had to write that they ate poo poo,” Kenny explains. “That’s what a screenplay is. That’s what your dad just did.” You know the old saying that you love all your kids equally? Well, that is not the case for Kenny. He seems to have grown permanently annoyed with Toby, who was an infant in season three, while he dotes on Shayna. Watching him try to be the perfect husband and swallow all of the impulse control problems that define him, you know it can’t last, and just seven minutes into the episode, we see how Kenny’s just wearing a happy face while, in private, he struggles with his rage, throwing tiny little passive-aggressive fits that involve smashing a vase or mooshing the donuts.

McBride gets better each time he returns to the role, and I love what he’s doing this season. There is real anger here, just below the surface, and I love that he never plays it as a joke. There’s a moment during a dinner party where he breaks out a racist impression of another couple’s adopted kid that is deranged, and the aforementioned mooshing of the donuts is played like a beat in a horror film, complete with creepy score.

One of the things that I find fascinating about the series is the way it offers up a very different portrait of the modern South than most films. Jody Hill, Ben Best, David Gordon Green, and McBride are doing their best to capture the South the way they see it now, not the way it has been traditionally handled, and it’s a fascinating portrait, without apology.

Little by little, Kenny’s resolve gets chipped away over the course of the episode. He runs into Guy Young, an old teammate played by Ken Marino who wants to talk about the glory days, telling profane and horrifying Kenny Powers stories. Kenny tries to paint a happy picture of his life, saying at one point, “The only drug I get off on is my wife and kids, and I get fucked up on them every single night.” He’s got no poker face, though, and it’s obvious he is very close to a major crack-up.

Katy Mixon has gotten better and better over the course of the series, and she is so sweet, so happy, that it makes Kenny’s impending meltdown even worse. “That places smells bad inside. It smells like dog shit and pot stickers,” he offers after he marches out of an awards ceremony for April, and even when she sees how angry and unhappy he is, she still tries. She loves Kenny in a very direct way, even with his faults and flaws.

Marino’s speech at an AIDS fundraiser is a perfect example of what I like about the writing on this series. These characters are not self-aware. They do their best with what they have, but a dim bulb is a dim bulb, no matter how noble their intentions. Kenny has an “It’s A Wonderful Life” moment at the afterparty, realizing just how much he gave up when he decided on his family instead of his career, and it ends up being a turning point. Kenny gets up the next day and realizes he can’t do it anymore. He can’t be the Kenny Powers anyone else wants him to be. He has to be the Kenny Powers that he is inside. A rejected loan application is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and that one last disappointment sets him off.

From the moment Kenny floors it to drag race the tattooed jackass who insulted him at the start of the episode to the end of the episode, it is one long expression of Kenny’s id, finally off the leash and free. His epic speech to his boss as he quits is pure Kenny Powers, complete with graphic sexual metaphor and self-aggrandization, and it leaves the rest of this season as a giant question mark. How do you rebuild your life after you were dead to the world? He walked away so completely that I can’t imagine how the process of returning to baseball even begins. The version of “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” that plays at the end of the episode is perfectly utilized, especially considering how crazy that tackle box full of drugs is. And what is it that we see Kenny digging up in his backyard?

I guess I’ll have to tune in next Sunday to find out, and I can’t wait. Here’s hoping we have an epic season ahead of us. It was a great start.

“Eastbound and Down” airs Sunday nights on HBO.

HBO

At the end of the first episode of the new season of “Eastbound & Down,” I was left unsure what to expect from the rest of the season, and I liked the feeling. Often, a season premiere sets up certain expectations and then we just watch whatever it is play out for the rest of the episodes. Here, I had no idea where they were headed. I feel like I have a slightly better handle on it at the end of episode two, but only in broad thematic terms. How they’re going to actually get there is still a mystery to me, and I feel like they are already doing such amazing things that anywhere they go is fine by me.

Kenny Powers has never been a hero. He’s the lead character of the series, certainly, but his egocentric worldview has always been something to be observed, not emulated. Until this year, I’ve never been particularly emotional about Kenny or what he’s been going through. The end of the second episode, directed by Jody Hill, left me in tears, though, and for the first time, I am genuinely rooting for Kenny to get what he wants, and the stakes have never felt higher.

To some degree, these first two episodes almost feel like a response to the reactions people had to the end of season three. Many people complained about the way things wrapped up, with Kenny walking away from baseball after working so hard to get back to it, faking his own death, and going back to his hometown to be with April (Katy Mixon). As we saw in last week’s episode, though, the life Kenny ended up living is not the one he expected, and he is unhappy, unable to pretend anymore. The episode ended with a spectacular flame-out, as Kenny quit his job, broke open his drug stash (a truly remarkable collection of items that looked like it would kill most mortal men), and started digging a pool single-handedly in his back yard.

As the second episode opens, he’s still working on that pool, and April learns about Kenny’s epiphany. She is not onboard at all, and who can blame her? The idea that their family just lost an entire income and now Kenny’s on drugs in front of the kids is, to say the least, upsetting. Kenny goes to Guy Young (Ken Marino), the old teammate who invited Kenny on the night out with the guys that led to his realization that he wanted back into his celebrity lifestyle. The difference this time is that Kenny may not have the ability to be the wild man who was famous before. He still wants April. He still wants that part of his life. He just wants fame and fortune to go with it, and those twin desires may not work together.

This episode also saw the return of Stevie Janowski (Steve Little), the long-suffering sidekick to Kenny, and at the start of the episode, Stevie is at an all-time low in many ways. He’s married to Maria (Elizabeth De Razzo) now, with four kids, and his kids all seem to bulldoze right over him. They’re also struggling with money troubles, and Stevie seems unsure how to turn things around. The first encounter they have in the episode is perhaps the first time Stevie actually says no to Kenny, and it ends with the two of them declaring that they are now officially enemies. When even Stevie seems like he can’t back Kenny’s play, it shakes Kenny’s confidence on a profound level, which probably does him no favors when he talks Guy Young into having him guest on “Sports Sesh,” the panel talk show that Guy hosts.

That appearance is a disaster, with one of the other panelists running over Kenny completely, and it looks like Kenny has reached the end of his short-lived comeback. No one can even pretend to him that it was good, and Kenny seems broken by it. He wants another chance, though, and Guy explains what it was that he wanted from Kenny. That other panelist has started to take over the show, and Guy hates him. He hates the tone of the guy’s comments, he hates the way he expresses himself, he hates the way he talks over everyone else. What Guy was hoping for was the old Kenny Powers, the one who absolutely won’t take shit from anyone, and he wanted Kenny to take the guy out.

The thing that ultimately knocked me flat about this episode is seeing how Old Kenny and New Kenny have to coexist if he’s really going to succeed, and that’s where the emotion came in. I am a big fan of seeing people redeem themselves, but up till now, I never really felt like Kenny Powers could be redeemed. The work that Danny McBride is doing this year is some of the best he’s ever done in anything. To show us real vulnerability from the character is an evolution, and yet he retains everything that made Kenny so funny in the first place. It’s an amazing performance, and when he finally comes roaring back to life during his second appearance on Guy’s show, it is so compelling, so emotionally rewarding, that this could easily have served as the show’s finale. Knowing that they’re still just getting started for the season makes it even more exciting.

I know they’re calling this the “final” season again. But can this be the second of about forty final seasons? If this is the new and improved Kenny Powers, then I don’t want to say goodbye.

“Eastbound & Down” airs Sunday nights on HBO.

The most important moment of Episode 22 that i forgot.

Love them or hate them, Eastbound & Down’s characters are almost always so magnificently written that it’s hard not to think of them as the best of their kinds. But then, that’s a pretty easy accomplishment seeing as they’re almost all one-of-a-kind compared to some of the lamer, cookie cutter characters on today’s half hour comedies. And with just eight episodes in this fourth and presumably final season, there’s no time to dick around with storylines and plot development like a certain HBO show about vampires did so much this season.

But last night’s episode of Eastbound & Down (“Chapter 23”) was anything but pointless or dragged out, as we watched Kenny Powers finally rise from the ashes while Stevie continued to be the most damaged and pathetic character on TV today. In fact, let’s dive right into Chapter 23 by talking about just how terribly pathetic Stevie has become.

If you asked me to list the one million strongest male characters in TV history, you wouldn’t find Stevie Janowski anywhere on that list. If you asked me to list the 10 characters that are so horribly painful to watch and respect as human beings, however, I would probably write Stevie Janowski’s name 10 times and call it a day. But every time that I think that we’ve seen the lowest of Stevie, he’s being called a “dick licker” and “pussy” by his children in a supermarket, only before he hits that rock bottom moment that most college students know too well…

I don’t ever wish death on a human – okay, there are some exceptions in rare moments of unbridled hatred – but because Stevie is a fictional character, I feel fine saying that I wish death on him. He’s a worthless used Band-Aid stuck to the bottom of a homeless man’s ill-fitting Crocs. Yet he’s so incredibly necessary to the existence of Kenny Powers, because without him, as Kenny’s one true best friend, Kenny wouldn’t have ever had the balls to snap out of his funk and take the fame that is rightfully his.

Of course, that fame is now a spot on Guy Young’s “Sports Sesh,” which is a far-too-accurate send up of today’s mindless ranting sports talk shows that have become more important to the landscape of athletics than the actual people playing the games. Guy, as we learned in “Chapter 22,” is Kenny’s former teammate and friend willing to help the former car rental company employee find his way back into the celebrity light, as he’ll to have him on an episode of Sesh as a co-host.

That is, if Kenny can stand up to Dontel Benjamin, a former athlete with a louder mouth than anyone else on Sesh and the only opinion that ultimately matters. Like the fake show, Dontel isn’t too far off from reality. Regardless, Kenny’s initial go on Sesh is a complete failure, as he freezes on camera, gets caught up in a racially-charged moment and finds his hilarious wardrobe the butt of every co-hosts joke.

Before he even has the chance to make an ass of himself, Kenny is warned by Guy that we don’t become celebrities overnight, and that’s proven emphatically when he fails. Fortunately, Guy offers Kenny another shot, and we all know that this can only happen if Kenny has the support of the two most important people in his life. First up, he needs Stevie, because only with Stevie’s completely pathetic existence can Kenny start to feel better about his own pathetic life.

Stevie’s not in, though, and that leaves Kenny on his own. Especially since the other person he needs is April, and she’s not excited at all about the prospect of losing her husband to a life of fame again. Also, this scene has been done to death over the years, but I will never not find it amusing:

Eventually – probably because we only have 30 minutes – Stevie comes around and begs for Kenny’s forgiveness and acceptance. That’s one part of the equation, while April is still the other. Without April, Kenny just has flash and pomp, but he lacks confidence. It’s in that detail that we’ve always seen just how important Kenny and April are to each other, as they’re easily one of the best TV couples in the history of the medium. I will argue this til my death by using knuckles and hard slaps. Like a man, damn it.

I’m gonna be real for a second – April doesn’t get the credit that she deserves for being the most powerful character on this show. She is the driving force behind Kenny Powers and the difference between an empty, unemployed stoner digging a hole in their backyard and a confident, ass-kicking purveyor of hot, nasty truth.

So once Kenny has completed the first step in his tangential road to redemption on Sports Sesh – getting himself a killer suit and an $80,000 green Viper…

… All he needs is the approval of his woman, so we can watch him thrash Dontel. To be completely honest, the majority of this episode, just like Chapter 22, was depressing. It’s hard to watch two guys at their lowest try to work together to climb back above it all, because there are so many cringe-inducing, “Oh man, I can’t watch” moments, but again, that’s why we need April. She the glue and fuel, the most important character on the show and Kenny Mother F*cking Powers’ muse. Without her, he’d never have the balls to not only call Dontel a Milk Dud, but then knock him to the ground.

And that’s where we stand after two episodes – Guy told Kenny that nobody can capture fame in one shot, and Kenny proved him wrong. Next up? Kenny’s going to go way overboard with his newfound success the way that only Kenny can. It should be absurdly offensive and hilarious.

(Caps and GIFs via here, here, here, here, here and here.)

HBO

“Okay, I can’t take you seriously right now because you’re dancing with a robot.”

The third episode of what is rapidly evolving into my favorite season of “Eastbound and Down” deals primarily with the relationship between Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) and his wife April (Katy Mixon). From the opening scene in the parking lot after last week’s triumphant “Sports Sesh” appearance to the final moments with Kenny and April laying in the early morning sun in a hotel room, everything this week examines why these two people are together and why it works.

One of the things I love most about “Eastbound” is the way they pick the still for each week’s opening title, and this week’s was a complete winner. Katy Mixon’s smile and her brilliantly dismissive “See you later, pumpkin!” in the midst of Steve Little’s insane hand-shattering meltdown pretty much sums up right away how much deranged fun this season has been so far.

And if there’s not a gallery of every one of those title card images, there should be. Get on that, Internet.

I didn’t realize until now that this is the story of someone struggling with his addiction. For all the drugs and abuse that he’s ever piled onto his system, none of that ever seemed to be the problem. Now it’s apparent that it is fame that he needs and craves, and watching everyone start to stress out about what even a hint of fame is going to do to Kenny is like watching a family freak out because someone just bought a bag of coke. They know what’s coming, and it terrifies them in a very tangible way.

So the question this season appears to be two-fold. Can Kenny Powers turn that one TV appearance into a real media comeback? And if he does, will he survive it with his family and his soul intact?

I can’t believe I’m writing about Kenny Powers even having a soul, but that’s what this season has managed to accomplish. I believe he genuinely loves April. I believe he wants to live his family life. I think he has never been a good person, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for him. It wouldn’t work if he were married to 99% of the women on the show, but April’s different. April seems to be wired exactly right for Kenny, and it’s been true since the first year of the show. He may drive her completely insane, but he also gets deep under her skin and she is unable now to imagine life without him.

April cuts loose when she cuts loose. That’s one of the reasons she and Kenny are a sort of scary mix. He can absolutely push her buttons, and when she starts drinking at the water park, we see how easy it is for her to tip over from “Having a good time” to “shooting beer bongs with total strangers.” She gets hammered. She is barely functional by the time Kenny carries her up to the room, and he seems like he’s being a good husband at that point.

Then he leaves the kids.

Sure, I laughed as he’s discussing what to turn on for them on PPV. “How about ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’? I didn’t really appreciate it the first time I saw it, but upon repeat viewings, it really holds up.” But then he slips out of the room and goes downstairs to party.

I’m fascinated by the use of Tim Heidecker. He’s turning into a go-to representation of a sort of formless, gooey white dude. He takes a gnarly punch to the face, too, and he never sells the obvious version of the joke. I love that in “Bridesmaids,” he basically doesn’t speak. He’s wallpaper, dull as dirt. The movie has no opinion on him because he’s utterly irrelevant to the story. It’s all about Wiig and Rudolph and what happens between them, and he’s just the thing that sets the plot mechanics in motion. Here, he seems like the exact opposite of Kenny in almost every way.

Ultimately, Kenny does the right thing… or does he? Is there any room for that to be a matter of degrees? I think the moment he walks out of the hotel room with April passed out and his kids sitting there watching TV, he’s wrong. But on his sliding scale, is it a major victory just for him not to screw the dude’s sister once the party moves to someone’s room?

And when he does go down the hall and gets rejected, I can’t recall ever being more disappointed by him. When you’re just a piece of crap and nothing you do matters because you answer to no one, it doesn’t matter. But when you are trying and you stumble, it hurts in a very different way. And it doesn’t just hurt you. That shot of Toby in bed watching his father the next morning is upsetting. What does he think happened the night before? And how much does he really understand? He was the one shaped by that experience from last season, after all. He knows that his father favors his sister completely, and I’m curious what he remembers about his mother abandoning him. Even when the show is funny and outrageous, like when Kenny is giving his family their gifts and he gives Toby a wolf, there are things going on under the surface that are very real and very difficult, and that’s what continues to make “Eastbound and Down” such an impressive surprise each week.

I find myself thrilled by what Jody Hill and David Gordon Green and Danny McBride are doing with this season, and the way the show has become something more genuine than joke is one of the year’s most unexpected evolutions.

“Eastbound and Down” airs Sunday nights on HBO.

There’s a higher power watching out for Kenny Powers. At least that’s the main point that I’ve taken away from the third episode (“Chapter 24”) of the fourth and (presumably) final season of HBO’s Eastbound & Down. Because as he’s in bed with his hammered, passed out wife, contemplating the ultimate Kenny Powers question, he asks God for some advice, and yet somehow… Kenny ends up in the clear. I guess we could say that he made the right decision by default, all while making possibly the worst decision of his life.

This is where we stand with Kenny Powers now, though. He has regained his fame and fortune (at least he thinks he has) and now he just has to take care of the hard part – keeping it. Obviously, it’s not going to be easy, as Chapter 24 showed us just how quickly the fortune might go away.

Just When We Think That Stevie Can’t Get Any Lower

With Kenny back at what he believes is the top of his game, Stevie thinks that he’s heading back to the top as well. But because Stevie lives his life underneath a mile of dog sh*t, his top is still worse than any regular man’s bottom of the barrel. Chapter 24 picks up right where 23 left off, with Kenny, April and Stevie leaving the studio after Kenny’s incredible takedown of Dontel, and Stevie’s higher on life than 1,000 junkies shooting up that new bathtub heroin that devours your skin.

There are two people, though, who can ruin Kenny’s new success: 1) Kenny himself and 2) Stevie. Because the latter is always the best at the quick buzzkill, he handles that this time by not only asking “the Lady Powers” about her lady parts, but by also punching out a random car window. After each episode, I ask if Stevie can get any lower, and after each episode I answer my own question with, “Holy sh*t he’s a horrible human being.”

At some point, Steve Little should win something for how incredibly he portrays this pathetic character.

(Caps via)

There’s That Screenplay Again

We’re three episodes into an eight-episode season – again, I won’t believe that it’s over until it’s actually over – and Kenny has mentioned his screenplay three times. I’m hoping that we get two episodes devoted to that screenplay, whether that means we see him out in Los Angeles trying to actually sell it, or the sale process goes quick and we jump right into the casting and/or production. Like I said last week, you could have given me an entire season of just this movie being made, but I like where we’re going so far.

That said, does anyone else get the feeling that Guy Young is stealing the movie? Because that’s how I feel. Damn you, Ken Marino. Don’t make us hate you.

Kenny’s Blowing Money Like Yadda Yadda Cocaine Or Dick Joke

If HBO decides to order a fifth season of Eastbound, I would watch eight episodes about Kenny and the dancing robot. Especially if he adds a robot butler that brings him cocaine and booze the whole time.

Who Doesn’t Love A Free Trip To The Water Park?

I don’t, actually, because water parks turn me into Puddy when he learns that Kramer made their salad in the shower as he bathed. Ugh, just thinking about a water park gives me pink eye. But when Kenny openly plans to pee in the lazy river, I guess it’s the perfect place for him. He’s still having a hard time getting his brother’s family to accept him back into their lives, but that’ll happen when you kick the door open with pantyhose over your face while screaming, “HOME INVASION!” instead of simply knocking on the door and saying, “Hello, brother.”

Just When We Think That Stevie Can’t Get Any Lower

Jesus, Stevie. You are the most pathetic character in the history of TV. Period. I can’t think of anyone worse.

(Caps via)

Party April Is Our Favorite April

The interesting thing about Kenny’s re-rise to fame and fortune is that April’s susceptible to the same demons, and that means we get sexy, trashy April funneling beers with the poolside bros before Kenny eventually has to put her drunk ass in bed. Even when she’s a drunken mess, April is the best.

When April’s Asleep, Kenny Will Do A Ton Of Drugs

It can’t bode well for Kenny that he took Gene and the “Taliban cleric” on his little drug adventure with the unholy white trash family, as I’m sure that Gene and his freshly-punched face are going to rat him out at some point. I mean, I hope he doesn’t, because THAT WOULDN’T BE COOL, GENE. But April has to find out that Kenny’s being a dirtbag, because otherwise there’s no real drama other than the incredibly uneasy feeling that Kenny’s about to crash harder than he’s ever crashed before, and he’s taking his entire family down with him.

Of course, the drug rampage led to the foreshadowed moment of infidelity, as Kenny’s starting to realize that other thing that he’s missing out – the company of many, many ladies whenever and wherever he pleases. Like I said, I think Kenny has a guardian angel helping him out on this quest to rise back to the top, but how many sub-chances will he continue to get within this overall third chance? Hopefully enough to make it entertaining.

A Quick Word About Tim Heidecker As Gene

Tim Heidecker is at his best when he’s playing his most ridiculous characters; however, I think that plain, boring Gene might actually be his most ridiculous character. He’s just a snobby, stuck up, vanilla ice cream asshole whose best stories involve him not remembering that his computer password is “Wake Fore$t.” Gene may come in small, quick doses, but his presence does wonders for building Kenny Powers back into the ultimate scumbag a-hole winner.

On Next Week’s Episode: Guy invites Kenny to go on the road with him. At some point, I’m hoping they explain how much money Kenny is being paid, because they haven’t mentioned that (unless I completely missed it) and I’m waiting for Guy to tell him he’s not making anything. Something terrible is happening eventually, it’s just a matter of how soon.

Today’s Reddit AMA with “Eastbound & Down” star Danny McBride and co-creator Jody Hill was a reliably crude and gut-busting affair, and to give a taste of what the dynamic duo had to offer we’ve listed ten of the most uproarious, inappropriate and hilarious moments from the highly entertaining discussion on topics ranging from Channing Tatum’s delicious booty, Kenny Powers’ child-rearing tactics and why NFL linebacker/K-Swiss pitchman Patrick Willis will totally fuck you up.

1. @daaaabear says: “What was it like buttfucking Channing Tatum?”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “dude’s booty is made of gold.”

2. @spidersscareme says: “I accidentally watched This is the End last night. I meant to watch World’s End. Anyways, Danny, when you walked out in the movie, it was the only time in our relationship that I heard my boyfriend ‘cheer.’ I don’t know how else to describe it. Thanks for pleasing him in ways that I’m unable to do.”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “Your welcome. I do what I can. Where do you guys live?”

3. @MustacheDanger says: “How did you guys lose your virginity?”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “My Uncle.”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “that was Jody. Mine was my dad.”

4. @trueblue2968 says: “I just want to let you know, to the right crowd, Your Highness was an absolute success. Also, for some time, I used “I can feel it down in my plums” as a ringtone. You’re the shit, looking forward to future works.”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “Thank you, thank you. The right crowd is the only crowd I care about. The rest can suck it. Suck them plums. Thanks for watching.”

5. @kimmikazee says: “Hi there! Danny, one of the only things you have in common with Kenny Powers is that you are both dads. Would you take any fatherly advice from Kenny? (PS You are my favorite)”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “Putting a kid in a hole to protect him from kidnappers has come in handy a few times. But for the most part I just think about doing exactly the opposite of whatever Kenny Powers would do and that pretty much gets the child rearing done.”

6. @bwurtsb says: “How was it working with mother fuckin’ Patrick Willis? He is a scary looking dude, not because he is black…. just looks like a dude who could rip your head off at will.”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “he actually talked about you. Stay away. He said he would rip your head off. He was cool to us though.”

7. @Eigenspace says: “How does it feel to wake up in the morning knowing that you are Danny McBride and Jody Hill?”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “Every morning when I wake up, roll over, and look at jody I ask him the same thing.”

8. @TomRalphio says: “What’s the weirdest thing to have happened on the Eastbound & Down set?”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “someone almost died in puerto rico. Jody saved his life. Magic powers came out of his hands. And then one day Don Johnson showed up.”

9. @AndroidsEatApples says: “Danny quick question! How much pot you smoke a day?”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “all the pots. all the days.”

10. @wgresser says: “Can you send me a signed Kenny Powers baseball bat”

@Eastbound_Down replies: “no fucking way.”

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Eastbound & Down star — and person you can’t look at without cracking up — Danny McBride sat on Jimmy Kimmel’s couch last night and regaled the host with some outstanding tales from the set of his hit show. The tidbits about guest stars Lindsay Lohan, Marilyn Manson, and Matthew McConaughey are entertaining, but the real gift is a breakdown of the one scene that was actually too depraved for Steve Little (who plays the otherwise shameless Stevie Janowski) to go through with.

McBride kicked off the festivities with a story about injuring himself rollerskating on set (he brought video evidence) and how he milked the mishap to freak out crew members.

Next it was on to explaining Marilyn Manson’s guest spot on Eastbound & Down, and the bizarre circumstances that unfolded in his hotel room after filming.

After a sneak peek at an upcoming episode, things really ramp up when Steve Little joins McBride and Kimmel. Little explains the one scene in the show’s history he refused to shoot — oh, it’s a doozy — before moving on to his fantastically futile attempt to impress Lindsay Lohan.

Little brings it home with his tale of soliciting Matthew McConaughey for tips on bedding the ladies.

Jimmy Kimmel Live

HBO

One of the things I want to emphasize about this year’s “Eastbound & Down” episodes is how thematically strong the writing’s been. This week’s rumination on the idea of how to be an alpha is a great standalone piece of work, regardless of where it fits into the larger arc of Kenny Powers. Written by Jody Hill & Danny McBride & Justin Nowell, there’s so much meat to what they did this week that it’s hard to believe they packed it all into a mere 28 minutes.

Who is the alpha this season? Guy Young (Ken Marino) has stepped up to play a huge role in the life of Kenny Powers (Danny McBride), basically plucking him out of a life that was threatening to destroy Kenny completely and giving him not one but two chances to prove himself. Kenny knows full well how much he owes Guy, and yet he seems determined to cast their relationship as a friendship because that way they are equals. Kenny isn’t built to be someone else’s sidekick. Stevie (Steve Little) is about as far from being the alpha even in his own house as he can be, and it’s obviously impacting him. Watching how Guy Young handles anyone at work who shows him up in any way, it’s obvious that he doubts his own status as alpha, and he’ll destroy anybody who threatens to change that perception. Within his neighborhood’s cloistered social circle, it’s obvious that Kenny sees himself as alpha, but he’s worried that Gene (Tim Heidecker) might somehow take that from him. And even Kenny’s son Toby (Steele Gagnon, so good in last year’s “Looper”) is having to grapple with his own place in the food chain thanks to Kenny’s purchase of a wolf named Dakota.

By the way, if they keep the wolf and the robot in the series all the way to the end of the season, I’ll be a very happy man.

“Guy Young has AIDS! Why can’t I get AIDS? I want f**king AIDS!”

The entire episode this week pivots around Ken Marino’s character, and Marino is doing stellar work as Guy. He’s able to play massive egomania and blatant narcissism in a way that seems real and not like a cartoon. The way his insecurities color everything while he somehow constantly rewrites reality even as it’s happening to make himself the good guy is impressive. Guy has built this thing for himself and any threat to it sends him into overdrive. He was shrewd in the way he sent Kenny after Dontel (Omar J. Dorsey) on the air, because not only did it destroy Dontel on the show, but it also made Kenny owe him, and it left Guy’s hands clean. Brilliant, really.

Steve Little is also doing some heavy lifting, and I had a conversation last week about how sometimes it’s easy to overlook just how good Little is on the show. People make that very simple mistake of thinking that he is the character, which is both a testament to how well he plays Stevie but also horrifying because of what a deranged and damaged character Stevie can be. Stevie’s dedication to Kenny is at a pathological level, but he always manages to find the grace notes to play that make Stevie real. Pathetic, but real.

The relationship between April and Kenny has been developing this season in some fascinating ways. The two of them have never been a team on this level before, and they’re determined to keep things together. But Kenny’s default setting is self-sabotage, and his lies to April are starting to get terrifying. If this blows up, he may not survive it. I think he could take the loss of his job and the loss of the fame again, maybe, but the loss of April would be too much for him. If they ever do end up splitting permanently, I’m not sure I could sit through that scene. These guys always go for the most painful and raw and real version of a beat, and if April every truly went nuclear on Kenny, it might be too much to take. Right now, April is so happy, and I think that’s what makes the show scary this year. It’s taken a long time for her to reach this place with Kenny, and it feels like a tightrope that he’s walking, trying to keep himself together so he doesn’t destroy this one great thing in his life.

Kenny’s “Dangerous Minds” moment is remarkable. It is every horrifying, cringe-worthy “white teacher saving black kids” cliche that Hollywood has ever hard-sold, all wrapped into one grotesque monologue. The entire idea of doing charity work is alien to Kenny, and watching him struggle to do the right thing no matter what the reason is mesmerizing.

Perhaps the biggest reaction I had to the episode was, to my eternal shame, when the clip from “Heartbeeps” came up on the screen. The image of Kenny holding his robot like a baby is already insane enough, but the idea that he’s watching “Heartbeeps” with the robot is doubly insane. If you aren’t familiar with “Heartbeeps,” it’s the story of two robots who fall in love and run away, picking up an impromptu robot family en route. That sounds normal, but the film’s got the stink of crazy on it from top to bottom, and it’s one of those movies that sounds like a dream when you try to really describe it to someone.

Tim Heidecker finally goes off like a bomb in this one. He could easily destroy Kenny if he was able to see just how ready Kenny is to go to war, but he makes the mistake of telling Kenny what leverage he has over him and then not using it immediately, Kenny has enough time to make a strategy, and he’s damn near superhuman when it comes to bullshit. He doesn’t stand a chance against Kenny, and I think Heidecker’s performance this week is spot-on.

Kenny seems like he’s aware of who Guy Young really is, and in the next few episodes, we’ll see if Kenny is going to protect himself or if he’s going to let himself be run over by Guy. If nothing else, it appears that we see Toby make a choice this week to be the alpha, and considering the groundwork they’ve laid all season long, this might turn out to be a lesson Kenny regrets teaching his boy.

I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. “Eastbound & Down” is currently airing its fourth season on Sunday nights on HBO, and they are positively killing it.

There are times that I’ve been watching the first four episodes of this fourth season of Eastbound & Down and I’ve found myself thinking, “Maybe they should have called it quits with the faked death.” But that’s not because I’m not enjoying it and laughing hysterically at the horribly offensive comedy like I had through the first four seasons. It’s more because I just don’t have the first clue where Danny McBride and Co. are taking this crazy train known as Kenny Powers as the presumed finale approaches.

Speculation be damned for now, though, because this is about Chapter 25, the fourth episode of this fourth season, and the resurgence of Kenny and Stevie Janowski in their respective quests to regain fame and fortune and make the dick work again. Well folks, we’ve got great news on both fronts this week.

First and Foremost, About Chapter 24…

One of the reasons that I’m reluctant to do these episode recaps is that my brain gets all jumbled with inconsequential and silly thoughts, and I forget all about some of the best aspects. For example, the pet wolf that Kenny gifted to Toby last week. I seriously hope this thing doesn’t maim the poor kid at some point this season, but if the closing scene of Chapter 25 suggested anything, it’s that Toby may have his very own badass sidekick by the time this thing’s over.

And if I’m an odds maker? I’m laying 2:1 odds that the wolf ends up saving Kenny’s life in a hilarious manner.

It’s the Subtle Things that Get Me

Twenty years down the road, someone may ask me, “Hey Burnsy, what did you love the most about Eastbound & Down?” and my first three answers will be April, because I love her and she’s my favorite semi-white trash WAG on TV and/or in reality. But my fourth response will be, “The subtle things,” because this show’s writers kill me at least once per episode with the most under-the-radar lines. This week’s was, “I need to check my Palm Pilot.” Kenny’s technological cluelessness is hilarious, and I say that as a person who still used WinAmp years after iTunes hit the scene.

Okay, the Bigger Lines Get Me, Too

This week’s closing line was awesome, especially laid over Toby overcoming his fear of feeding the deadly killing machine that was destroying his family’s garage and starving for animal blood.

“Mortals falter. Kings act. And the mortal who acts, well, that motherfucker becomes king.”

Again, I think that the wolf will play a hilarious role in the series finale or at some point before it, but trying to predict the plot of a comedy, especially one as wicked and sick as Eastbound, is asinine and futile. I can only hope that the wolf ends up tearing Guy Young’s throat out, or something to that effect.

The Big, Ol’ Wake Forest Loving Elephant in the Room

Obviously, Kenny was going to have to come to terms with the fact that Tel and Gene were eventually going to rat him out to their wives for doing a balloon’s worth of drugs with the creepy as hell family from the water park resort. For Gene, it came right away, because Dixie saw the bruise that Kenny left Gene with after their one-sided throwdown in the hallway. While we knew that was the catalyst for Dixie not inviting Kenny and April over for spaghetti night, April didn’t and that aura of “Oh fuck” was left lingering for the first half of the episode. Especially when Kenny visited Gene and Tel at the golf course.

I touched on it last week, but Chapter 25 was so much bigger for both Gene and Dixie, so I want to reiterate that Tim Heidecker and friend of UPROXX Jillian Bell have been phenomenal this season with their stereotypical, miserable and all-around horrible suburbanite married couple.

(Caps via)

That Leads Us To…

Kenny flipping the script on Gene and Dixie was hilariously evil. Two-parts evil and two-parts awkward as hell, watching Gene pack up the U-Haul at the end was such a wonderful moment, not because I want to ever see an innocent couple be torn to shreds over some a-hole sociopath’s lies, but because I want to see this innocent couple destroyed, because holy God they are just so damn unbearable. It’s truly remarkable the power of this mulleted antihero, that he can make me wish terrible things on good people.

(GIFs via)

The Fame and the Fortune are Beginning to Reveal the Ugliness

It’s inevitable, right? Like, we all see the horrible downfall coming again, don’t we? It’s just a matter of how it happens, who causes it and how Kenny reacts. Because that’s pretty much the basis of this entire show. But it begins with the pool builders, the racist mockery and the awarding of April’s great-grandmother’s priceless jewelry for digging the fastest. But like the Palm Pilot joke, Kenny’s reverse charm shines through with his use of a disposable camera. From the hideous green Viper to every piece of clothing this man owns, Kenny Powers is stuck in a different generation. And I’m not even sure which generation that is.

So About Guy Young and the Looming Meltdown

With Dontell’s visit and the ominous words of the other co-hosts of Sports Sesh, it’s clear that he who giveth (Guy Young) will also be he who taketh away. Perhaps the silver lining of this impending downward spiral back to the barrel’s bottom is that Kenny and Stevie have taken on the task of teaching the urban kids how to play baseball. Honestly, just like the whole screenplay angle that’s being ignored, I’d kill to see an entire season or at least a few episodes of Kenny teaching the kids how to play baseball. Imagine that entire introduction speech stretched out over three or four episodes… I’d suffocate from laughing so hard.

(GIF via)

And now my two favorite parts of Chapter 25 will be on the following page, because they involve some male nudity – dudity, if you will – so cover the kids’ eyes if you’re a good parent.

HBO/Fred Norris

“Water. Mother Nature’s piss. It’s what brings us here today.”

Kenny Powers has learned absolutely nothing, and it terrifies me.

On the one hand, Kenny and April speak to each other in a way that they never could in previous seasons, and the scene where they’re in bed at the beginning of the episode and Kenny’s making it rain is both vintage Kenny but also tender in the only way he seems capable of being tender. He’s kidding, of course, and he makes a few crazy ladyboy jokes, but underneath that, there’s a different level of communication. When you look back at that first season, April is right to treat Kenny like he’s garbage, because he pretty much is garbage. Maybe that’s why I’m so invested in seeing Kenny pull things together this season. He’s come so far, and if he ruins things this time, I don’t see where he gets another chance at things down the road.

He’s already defied the odds repeatedly, and it feels like he’s unaware of just how lucky he’s been.
Ken Marino’s Guy Young is the wall that Kenny’s racing towards at 150 MPH, and I’m not sure Kenny even knows where the brakes are. It’s like Kenny has no radar whatsoever for when he’s starting to seriously antagonize people, and he expects that when things in his life start going well, then everyone else has to feel the same way he feels. He wants to see April enjoying their new success the same way he’s enjoying it, and he wants his brother (John Hawkes, who always grounds the show in a different sort of reality when he shows up) to forgive him for past offenses simply because he’s flush, and he behaves like he’s rich when the truth is that he’s employed, and nothing more. Kenny strikes me as one of the most quintessential modern American characters on film or TV because of how firmly he seems to be able to simply shrug off reality when he doesn’t like it.

The sad fact is that Kenny seems to be getting worse every week now. When I wrote recently that it finally occurred to me that this is an addiction story, and Kenny has relapsed completely as he’s gotten his life back on track. When Guy Young asks Kenny to take things down to a 5 or a 6 versus his typical 11, what scares me most is that I don’t think he’s got a 5 or a 6. He is literally unable to sit in the passenger’s seat, so to speak, and when he gets up to interrupt Guy’s bit with the monkey in the closing moments of the episode and then skips couples therapy to go screw around with the jet pack, it’s clear that he has no instinct for self-preservation.

There are three episodes left after this one, and there has to be some way for Jody Hill, David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and this year’s co-writers Hayes Davenport, Carson D. Mell, and Justin Nowell to humble Kenny without destroying him. He’s come too far, and there is real good in him now. And if they’re not going to save him or allow him a redemption, then I hope they go the other direction and the series ends with most of the eastern seaboard in flames and Kenny Powers at the helm of a nuclear submarine making a strike on Guy Young’s beach house. This show has never been afraid to burn the status quo to the ground, and it feels like an either/or proposition this year. I don’t believe Kenny Powers is capable of the middle ground. We’ve seen him try to just live a quiet “normal” life at the start of this season, and it almost killed him.

Katy Mixon’s been doing great work this season and she’s quietly amazing in this week’s episode. She can feel this life slipping away with every bad decision Kenny makes, and she knows that this money that is suddenly everything to Kenny isn’t going to last. There is such sadness in the moments they share in this one, even when she’s “happy,” that it starts to get hard to watch. April’s struggling, and Kenny doesn’t see it. If she leaves him, I can’t imagine what that Kenny Powers would look like. He’s been a monster in the past, but a not-single-by-choice Kenny sounds like a starving bear turned loose in a pet shop. All you’ll be left with in the end will be blood and chaos and a ruin of what used to be, and while I’ve loved seeing these guys take Kenny dark in the past, this is the first season where I need to see him pull it out of this spiral.

First final thought: Danny McBride should always carry opera glasses with him.

Final final thought: where the hell was that robot going?

“Eastbound & Down” debuts every Sunday night on HBO.

A lot of times when talking about shows like Breaking Bad or Dexter or Eastbound & Down, we really need to remind ourselves that the lead characters that we’ve grown to love for what they are really don’t deserve our love. They’re horrible, awful characters that deserve the most rotten of endings, but we find them endearing and we attach ourselves to them on an emotional level because they’re flawed like us. Except, these flaws aren’t like ours at all, unless you are actually meth kingpins, serial killers or washed up, racist, sexist, homophobic, sociopathic baseball pitchers. In which case, we’re glad to have you as part of the UPROXX family.

Chapter 26 of Eastbound & Down was my reminder that Kenny Powers is a horrible person who doesn’t deserve an ounce of compassion for anything that he does. I downright loathed him in this episode, as I imagine that was the point.

Nobody Gives A Crap About Your Pool, Kenny

If anything, Kenny’s little rant about how awesome he is for building a pool is a reminder that he broke up a perfectly good marriage between Gene and Daisy. Granted, they’re two of the most vanilla people on this planet and that made them borderline unbearable (except for the fact that they’re played by Tim Heidecker and Jillian Bell, whom we love), but Kenny ruined their marriage with an awful lie. But add to the fact that he mocked his wife and brother in front of all of their friends, and Kenny’s taking the shitheadedness to a whole new level through this fifth episode.

Honestly, I wanted someone to piss in his pool.

But It Doesn’t End There With April

So how do you make it up to your wife after you tell everyone she loves that her success made you miserable? Treat her like a whore by throwing money at her. Yes, I giggled when Kenny invoked the spirit of Rick Ross, but come on. April deserves a little better here. There are three episodes left in this season (and presumably series) and I really want her to lay down the thunder and give me a little power a la Tara Teller from Sons of Anarchy (another show full of characters that we should cheer as they each meet their demise).

Oh What I Wanted To See That Assault Rifle Do

If there’s a character on this season of Eastbound & Down for us to respect and admire, it’s Kenny’s poor brother. Of all of the awkward, eye-covering scenes that this show has given us through 26 episodes, Kenny trying to buy his brother’s love back might have been the hardest to watch. I loved that he cracked long enough to admit that he has problems with apologies and doing what’s right – in fact, loved seeing the armor shatter for a moment – but then he went right back to shitting on his own blood as soon as Guy Young texted him.

I’m not a violent man, but I wouldn’t have minded if Dustin took a quit swing at Kenny’s throat with the butt of that rifle. Seriously, my blood was boiling through that scene.

We All See The Two Trains About To Collide

As I’ve written several times throughout this season, it’s almost impossible to predict the writing on a good comedy show. I could be in a coma for two decades, suddenly snap out of it and probably predict what’s going to happen on a Chuck Lorre sitcom, but Eastdown? It’s not even worth it to try. That said, I honestly thought that the two rams, Kenny and Guy Young, would lock horns much sooner and Kenny’s demise would be more focused on how his antics were affecting his personal relationships and/or finances.

But here we are, with Kenny and Guy still tap dancing around their alpha male conflict. It’s remarkable, too, that Guy is also such a worthless schmuck, but his entire childish rant at Kenny was right. Guy has earned his open water jet pack. Kenny has not. But Kenny will never, ever recognize that.

I loved watching Guy Young talk about the jet pack, though.

Nobody’s Getting Through To This Guy

While it wasn’t as awkward as the scene with Dustin, Kenny’s “date night” with April was equally awful. Granted, it’s important to point out that this isn’t my indictment of the show and this season. I still love everything that’s happening, despite the fact that I want to see very bad things happen to Kenny. If anything, the writers are doing an incredible job of reminding us that we’re supposed to loathe Kenny Powers because of the way he keeps throwing money at people as if it’s a Band-Aid.

The moral of the story is clearly that Kenny cannot buy the people that matter most, but he’d still rather ignore that and get coked up at the opera. Leave him and come live with me, April.

I wouldn’t have minded if one of the old people next to Kenny tried to slap him. He deserved it.

Stevie’s Gone From Suck To Blow

First thing’s first – look at this mother*cker. LOOK AT HIM. If I had to name an MVP of this season of Eastbound thus far, it’s Stevie Janowski hands down. Steve Little has been incredible in bringing this character from the bowels of hell to another area of hell that’s equally as bad, but totally misguided and depraved.

Kenny’s grand new plan is that he wants to open his own chain of restaurants, and like the screenplay, I could have watched a whole season of Kenny and Stevie trying to bring a breastaurant to life. But if he’s trying to get me excited about chicken wings and meals with “bacon tits” on them, I’m gonna need to see less of Stevie checking his wife’s oil. Again, that’s my MVP, but fingering the 2-hole? Cut it out, bro.

I want this restaurant to be real, if only so I can eat there before Hulk Hogan’s stupid place.

Guy’s Demand Is Clearly Taking Its Toll On Kenny

This was my favorite, most random scene of this episode. I wish that, had Kenny been written as a better character (one that we should actually love), we could see him go off on adventures with his robot friend. Yet here I am, wishing that he’d accidentally take it into the new pool with him.

(Caps via)

Kenny Was Never Meant To Be A Scottie Pippen

STEVIE IS RIGHT, KENNY! LISTEN TO STEVIE AND WE CAN ALL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING!!! If Kenny would just take a few steps back and earn his place by Guy’s side, he could have everything that he’s ever wanted for as long as the American public is willing to listen to a bunch of arrogant former jocks talk about their stupid opinions on sports. (On the reals, I hope the American public is getting tired of that right now. If this season has been anything, it has been a remarkable example of how awful sports talks TV truly is.)

(Caps via)

He Just Won’t Learn

We can scream at our TVs all we want, but Kenny won’t listen to anyone but himself. That’s gonna cost him the show, and probably April.

Three episodes to go.

On The Next Eastbound & Down: April’s approaching her tipping point, as is Guy. Kenny’s heading back to rock bottom, but Stevie’s the only person he’s taking with him. Also, we better see some more of that wolf and less butt crack fingering.

The episode of “Eastbound and Down” featuring a cameo from a makeup-less Marilyn Manson aired last night, and I’m disappointed to report that the musician did NOT play my Aunt Susan. Or Liberace’s boyfriend, or one of the Flock of Seagulls after a mid-day nap.

Nope, that feathered hair and normal guy attire (normal for Marilyn, anyway) was in service of playing a waiter at a rollerskating rink Kenny and April fine-dined at. His collar is popped! And he’s wearing skates! This look is the very opposite of goth, but it may be even more terrifying.

(via)

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HBO

“Move. Get out of the way. Worst goddamn Fix My Marriage Party ever.”

Can you think of any other TV show that has ever gone the places that this one is going this season? At this point, describing “Eastbound & Down” as a comedy is doing a disservice to the show and to the work that Jody Hill, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green are doing from week to week.

There are two episodes left this season, and I can’t imagine how they’re going to wrap it all up, and more importantly, I don’t want to imagine it. I am not speculating. I’m not searching for spoilers. I just want to sit back and watch it play out and enjoy, because at this point, I know these guys have it. I know they’ve hit a groove and they’re playing out some amazing material and they’re pushing these characters to a very real breaking point. You can tell when a creative team is in a groove, when they’re just crushing it from moment to moment, and the energy around this season is genuinely impressive.

This is a huge episode in terms of what actually happens as the two main threads both reach a point of combustion. April and Kenny’s marriage seems to end, and honestly, it should at the point they’ve reached. There’s nothing good left for them now. The party that Kenny throws for April is about as pathetic as anything he’s done over the full four seasons of the show, a low point for him as a man and as a husband.

In addition, Guy Young’s pure unfettered evil finally stands revealed. As soon as Guy tore into Kenny backstage, I knew they were going to go for the hot mic joke, but it’s fantastic because Guy is that stupid and that venal. He’s proven that he will say those things, and all Kenny does is lay out the bait. It’s satisfying because of how nakedly Ken Marino has played the insecurity and the cruelty that drive Guy, and both McBride and Marino crush it in the episode.

What I find really fascinating about Danny McBride as a filmmaker and as a performer is that he doesn’t remotely seem to care about expectations or what he should be doing to build a “career.” Instead, he is drawn to chronicling a certain type of voice, a distinctly modern and American character, and he plays him without vanity. It would be easy to play Kenny if he made sure to always wink at the audience to let them know that underneath it all, Kenny’s a good guy and you shouldn’t worry. In “Eastbound,” worrying is part of what makes it so hard to look away from what they’re doing right now. They made us like Kenny again and believe that he could be redeemed, and now they’re punishing us for that faith in him, just like he’s punishing April. It’s telling that he keeps saying April needs to enjoy what she has, when he’s the one who is truly unable to realize how close he is to throwing away everything good he has.

And what a difference one week makes. Last week I was starting to really like the energy between Kenny and April, and this week, it’s just toxic and rancid and sad. The party that Kenny throws is one of the most depressing displays I can remember. When Kenny finally melts down, it is so awful, so mean. You can’t take these things back, and she’ll never really see him the same way again. It’s not impossible to rebuild from a moment like that, but it’s not easy, and Kenny seems to be choosing the show and his fame and the rush of being rich over the single best thing that has ever happened to him on a personal level. Katy Mixon is amazing this week, and I am so impressed with how funny she’s been this year and how real. On a recent interview for “The Nerdist,” McBride and Hill talked about how much of what they’re doing this year is stuff they wanted for last season, only “Mike & Molly” wouldn’t let Mixon out of her contract, and the schedules just wouldn’t work. They had to rebuild last season to be largely April-free as a result, and now this season, they feel like they’re finally getting to do this material that they have been eager to get to for so long.

Here’s how I know this show has me completely on the hook. When Kenny opened the garage door and took out his gun, I had no idea which way that was going to end. The wolf is free, both literally and figuratively, at the end of this week’s show, and I’m just hoping no one gets hurt.

“Eastbound & Down” airs each Sunday night on HBO.

With three episodes left in the fourth and (presumably) final season of HBO’s Eastbound & Down, there are a lot of questions left to be answered. So many, in fact, that I was starting to get pretty irritated by the lack of actual conflict between Kenny Powers and Guy Young, but then this week’s episode, Chapter 27, came along and was by far the best of this season, in this humble blogger and handsome gentleman’s opinion.

Not only did we finally get Marilyn Manson’s long-awaited and very curious cameo, but we also finally witnessed the culmination and conclusion of the showdown between two arrogant and childish pricks, and I have to admit – KP fooled me with his nasty curveball. Let’s recap and ponder, shall we?

Holy Crap, Look At Marilyn Manson, You Guys

We all knew for a while that Marilyn Manson was going to be making an appearance on an episode of Eastbound this season, but we didn’t really know why, other than he’s a huge fan of the show. You know who else is a huge fan of the show? Me. But I’m not on the show. I guess I should have taken my high school goth band a little more seriously.

Anyway, on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being “Worthless” and 10 being “Crucial,” Manson was a whopping 1 as far as his character’s necessity. However, his presence was still great and his personal transformation should win an Emmy for makeup or costume design if those exist. Otherwise, it really makes me wonder what Lindsay Lohan is going to look like. I really hope it’s pre-strung out Mean Girls Lindsay Lohan.

Just kidding, this isn’t Rick Baker makeup work that we’re talking about.

(GIFs via here and here)

Guy Young Is An Evil, Evil Bastard

Okay, so after last week’s episode, Chapter 26, I didn’t think that we could have a bigger piece of sh*t villain in this season than Kenny himself, as he was sacrificing everything that he had to become famous again, all while throwing money around like that’s what truly matters in personal relationships. But HOLY SH*T Guy Young was an absolute monster in the opening scene of Chapter 27. You kind of knew what was coming with the lowly, old janitor being called in for his honest opinion, but Guy screaming at him and telling him there’d be no Christmas was downright psychotic.

When all is said and done, Ken Marino deserves Emmy consideration for this season. He won’t get it, obviously, because shows like Eastbound & Down aren’t ever taken seriously because of their vulgar nature, but Ken should know he deserves it.

Meanwhile, Stevie’s Back To Screwing Everything Up

There was nothing about this entire Taters N’ Tits scene that wasn’t cringe-inducing. Maria’s new breasts were borderline terrifying, but once Stevie started sucking on her nipple in the middle of the mall, I honestly felt ill. Again, there will never be enough credit given to Steve Little for how warped and depraved of a character he has given us, but what Stevie is pulling off this season is disgustingly magnififcent.

Also, while Stevie probably wants to go with the John Kerry, we’d all be lucky to have a chin like Aaron Eckhart’s. You can set your watch to that incredible butt chin.

(Cap via)

At This Point, Kenny Doesn’t Deserve His Marriage

A true sign of remarkable TV writing and storytelling is how well the characters can trick you into emotional investment. I don’t give two shakes of Maria’s giant breasts about Gene and Daisy as characters, because they’re possibly the most boring people on the face of the planet (which, again, is a massive compliment paid to Tim Heidecker and Jillian Bell). But with what Kenny has done to their marriage, not only do I silently cheer for Jillian to tell Kenny to go f*ck himself as he demands that she help him with his problems with April, but I also want him to come clean for once about how Gene didn’t do anything wrong.

As he finally did that in this episode, I realized that I don’t want April to stay with him. Is it because I have a pathetic crush on a TV character? Probably. Am I ashamed to admit that? Strangely not.

Kenny’s Advice For Tobey Is Very Important

This scene killed me. This is so brilliantly written and executed that I can’t even pile on with my gushing appreciation for it.

The Showdown On The Lake Was Perfect

Perhaps I’m being overly positive about Chapter 27 because I haven’t enjoyed this season as much as I’d hoped from a season that should have probably never existed, but if I decided to burden myself with a Top 5 list of the best scenes from the entire series, this would definitely be included. The fact that these two assholes are ultimately fighting over their childish pride and despicable arrogance could not have been displayed better than by Kenny and Guy shouting at each other over the sound of their open water jetpacks that were the original source of dissent between these two “friends.”

By the way, if this season has done anything well, it really is capturing the douchebaggery of these jetpacks. Should I ever find myself in the position where I have the disposable income to afford one of these stupid devices and I’m handing over my debit card to complete the purchase, I pray my pet wolf attacks me.

The Hit Gone Wrong

My only real complaint about this episode was how anticlimactic Guy’s response to the hit gone wrong was. Sure, Kenny had already humiliated himself in front of the Sports Sesh audience by complaining about the new female “wild card” while he was peeing, in a scene right out of 30 Rock, but when Stevie picks the wrong Baby Huey to mess with Guy, there should have been a more serious blowback than what actually happened. It felt like a big step was missed, and it would have made Kenny’s burden so much greater with April finally deciding to leave him after his horrible meltdown at the party that he threw for her.

Instead, Kenny Actually Comes Out On Top

It’s pretty obvious from the preview for Chapter 28, which is the second to last episode of the fourth season, that when Kenny takes over Sports Sesh for the now humiliated and outcast Guy Young, things aren’t going to work. But the switcheroo that Kenny pulled on Guy had me momentarily cheering for the antihero again, before I had to remind myself one more time of my mantra for this season: “Kenny Powers is a horrible man. He is not the character that we want to succeed. He must pay for his terrible behavior.”

I predict that we get a very warped Christmas realization out of Kenny by the end of Chapter 29, but only after we see him at his absolute worst in Chapter 28. And yet I’m sure that I’m wrong.

HBO

If this is what rock bottom looks like, Kenny Powers may never learn his lesson.

Last week’s episode concluded with a brutally ugly implosion between Kenny and April, and I wrote at that point that I can’t imagine how this marriage is fixed after something that awful. This week made it clear that while Kenny expects there to be a magic reset button, that does not appear to be the case. April wants out of the marriage, and she wants to try to wrap things up without causing each other any more pain. Kenny, on the other hand, reminds me of a Randy Newman song with the way he’s behaving this week.

“I ran out on my children / And I ran out on my wife / Gonna run out on you too, baby / I done it all my life / Everybody cried the night I left / Well, almost everybody did / My little boy just hung his head / And I put my arm, put my arm around his little shoulder / And this is what I said: / ‘Sonny, I just want you to hurt like I do / I just want you to hurt like I do / I just want you to hurt like I do / Honest I do, honest I do, honest I do'”

Kenny would rather keep hurting the people in his life than ever confess his own weakness, and it feels like he is at the absolute bottom of this cycle of addiction that’s been playing out over the course of the show. Kenny’s biggest problem is that he really does buy into the myth of fame. He believes that it entitles him to behave any way he wants, and that it forgives any weakness or failing on his part. He is a child who is desperate to avoid having to actually be a man, and it’s never been more evident than it is this week. He is basically having one enormous tantrum, and he’s not going to stop until there is no one left in his life.

And did I mention dark? Holy cow, this week goes to some demented places. Steve Little’s arc is so crazy that I’m still surprised it actually happened. By the time we reach that scene in the cheap motel room, with Kenny and Maria begging Stevie not to hurt himself, I was once again feeling like anything can happen. That may be the greatest strength of this show. Thematically, these are really beautifully built seasons, but even so, it feels like anything can happen. It is so rare that I watch something where it feels like normal rules don’t apply, but that still plays by the broader definitions of genre, that “Eastbound” leaves me buzzed each week. It’s a rush to be watching something like this, braced for both the best and the worst, especially when they pay things off as well as they do each time.

Danny McBride isn’t playing this funny at all at this point, and while there are some huge laughs in the episode (his Michael Jackson behavior at the meeting with April is absolutely bananas), there are some harrowing moments as well. His meltdown during the Christmas special isn’t funny at all. At one point, Jody Hill cuts to a close-up of Kenny bellowing directly into the camera, and the pain is palpable. Those eyes of his are fascinating, because he’s so intelligent, and you can clearly see that, but when he’s raging, it’s like a shark that’s eating, like everything goes dark and he’s just out of control. I prefer it when a comedy verges on the terrifying like this, and it’s obvious that these guys do, as well.

While the final moments of the episode hint that Kenny does indeed know what he stands to lose and how his actions are affecting others, he continues to think that grand gestures are the solution. Yes, it is wonderful that he brought the man-eating beast home for his children, but it’s still a wolf, and they’re still kids, and he’s still a crazy person.

As we head into what could easily be the final episode of the show ever, they are in a much, much stronger place than they were at this point last year. It matters what happens in that final half hour. It matters how Kenny ends things with his family. It matters what happens now that “Sports Sesh” appears to have been burned to the ground. It matters because we have seen both the best and the worst of Kenny Powers this season, and this final episode will be a battle to see which of them wins out.

I have a feeling it’ll be too close to call.

“Eastbound & Down” will air its final episode next Sunday night.