rivercityvibe   “Puerile, smutty, schoolboy nonsense” – My Mom

I have been waiting to post about Eastbound and Down, the new HBO comedy show written and produced by Will Ferrell until now. I wanted to give it a chance to fail. To not be funny. To be a bit crap. Something of a waste of time, as it turns out. Believe me, it is VERY FUNNY.

As a reminder, it stars Danny McBride as Kenny Powers, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, who after a disappointing career is forced to return to his hometown middle-school as a substitute physical ed teacher. The final episode has aired and it is now available only ON DEMAND.

Metacritic gives it 62/100 and Wikipedia describes the reviews as ‘good to average’. As always, I made my own mind up. You should too. Here’s a clip. Decide for yourselves……(NSFW language):

The story reminds me of my own roots as a sporting hero and the soul crushing misery that goes with failure…….

Not really.

As it happens, I am still faster than my personal trainer.

Woooh!

MojoHD is quickly turning into my favorite basic cable channel. It cannot really compete with the high budget output of HBO or Sho (Entourage and Californication spring to mind] but shows like Three Sheets with Zane Lamprey (made-up name) have made regular watchers of Joe and his buddies. Who doesn’t want to watch a guy visit the fleshpots of the world in order to test the ways in which the locals get shitfaced?

[My regular thing has just pointed out that the answer to that question is “women”. Thanks for the input]

Anyway, they’ve gone one better. Now the guy is traipsing around the world trying to get laid.

Awesome premise. Awesome show.

This time, the protagonist’s made-up name is Eric Van Wyck (trying to ‘dip his ‘Van Wyck’, no doubt. Ha.)

This is him in action:

If you visit the MojoHD website there is a forum where viewers can leave their own observations. As with most fora (or forums in internet-ese) this one is populated with some seriously strange rangers who are WAY too into this. I tell you this to warn you. Here is a cautionary example:

that’s was out of control!
what exactly was tacking place under that blanket (Mexico tour)
and what did they extract from her and put on a paper plate that was meant for a slice of pizza
first i was disgusted, and then, in a matter of seconds, I was actually turned on, SHA-WING!!!!!
so are you officially “married” now?
Eric Vanwhatchyaname YOU’RE LIVIN’ THE DREAM

…. BEAU-TI-FUL…. YOUR BEAU-TI-FUL….

It’s back on our screens. Vinny has a beard and looks like a kiddie-fiddler. Drama is in love with the French chick with a Viking fetish from Season 4. Turtle is getting laid (he has had to go to Mexico to do it….) and Eric is slowly morphing into Ari. Check out the suits on the beach:

I have always loved Entourage. Remind me to tell you sometime how similar my removal from a big agency was to Ari’s firing in Series 2 …….. My speech was better though. Apart from the fact that it was delivered under my breath in the cab on the way home.

Season 5 is on HBO 10 pm Sundays. Episode 1 available On Demand right now. I’ll probably watch it again at lunchtime.