F*** YOU, I’M KENNY POWERS!
Kenny Powers is an ex-jock with anger management issues. He’s putting his past behind him and entering his own ‘rehab’. He’s home again teaching gym at his old North Carolina middle school; unwinds with his animal print covered jet ski called the ‘Panty-Dropper’ and is focused on a comeback. The cards are stacked against his return to the Major Leagues but something tells us not to bet against that redneck charm of his.
Danny McBride stars as a cocky ex-relief pitcher who at the age of 19 became a world series hero for Atlanta in the new HBO series, Eastbound and Down. As the team started to lose, Kenny was traded to New York and quickly wore out his welcome there as well as in San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle- where he was finally released. Looking for a fresh start, he moved in with his older brother Stevie’s family to substitute teach. In one episode, Kenny tries to raise some money to pay for the extra channels he’s added to the families cable service by auctioning off memorabilia from his playing days on ebay. Kenny Powers posters, Kenny Powers masks, Kenny Powers toilet bowl seats, etc. and of course a Kenny Powers audio book called ‘I’m f***in In, You’re f***in Out. His book begins:
I’ve been blessed with many things in this life. An arm like a damn rocket. A c*** like a Burmese Python. And the mind of a f***ing scientist… They say Kenny Powers is a woman hater. Thats not true. I love women, every f***ing one of them, even the ugly as s*** ones. But don’t ask me to trust them- not even none of them. Because every pair of t**s comes with a gaping hole of need that even Kenny Powers can’t fill.
The shows’ concept came from McBride’s own substitute teaching experience after he moved back to his parents’ Virginia home. He found himself trying to justify that the job was right but quickly realized it wasn’t. The six episode series is produced by Will Ferrell and Adam Mckay’s production company, Gary Sanchez Productions (Funnyordie.com). Why only 6 episode season we ask?
‘..keeping the season small just really appealed to us. We like how The Office (U.K.) could highlight all these different characters and tell this crazy story (in this format)… it all works together like a three-hour movie,’ Mcbride told TV Guide’s Joyce Eng.
It looks like creators Ben Best, Jody Hill, and McBride could have another hit on their hands. Their first collaboration, The Foot Fist Way, premiered at Sundance 2006 where they initially caught Ferrell and McKay’s eye. The three insisted on shooting Eastbound in North Carolina to populate it with ‘real Southerners’. The attention to detail and balls-out improv energy take this show to a new level. ’We usually do the first take with what’s written and after that, we just go. It becomes trying to make the person you’re in the scene with ruin the take. That’s everyone’s motivation,’ McBride revealed.
Critics will say that this show is simply put, an R-rated Will Ferrell sitcom with a green cast. ‘So!?’, we ask? We also see a truly americana character in Powers that we couldn’t get enough of in Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express. Danny McBride is a raw comedic talent who comes to life with each new hair piece he’s given. Kenny Powers is an overgrown kid who’s grown accustomed to depending on his talents rather than hard work and is now left to sink or swim in the real-world. Powers fell from the Big Leagues, but has a second chance to be great. Think Homer Simpson meets Michael Scott meets Joe Dirt. Yeah, its worth checkin’ out.
- FYI Tivo users, HBO is replaying episodes 1-4 this Saturday, March 14th at 10:30 pm. New episodes of Eastbound and Down air Sundays at 10:30 pm.
Popularity: 31% [?]
Tags: Adam McKay, Danny McBride, Eastbound and Down, Gary Sanchez Productions, Sundance, The Foot Fist Way, Will Ferrell
