Beer, tits and of course sports are the holy trinity that keep magazines in print and the average lad occupied on a day-to-day basis. Of the three, I have to say that personally I find sports by far the least interesting. Apart from a brief spell in primary school I’ve never supported a kickball team (y’know, kickball? Where the two gangs of men in shorts try to get the roundball in each other’s rectangle?) But despite this handicap I can still find myself engrossed in the great American genre of Sports Comedy, where the down on his luck outsider overcomes his personal obstacles to rise like fresh cream to the top of the milky world of his chosen athletic pursuit. Think Happy Gilmore, Dodgeball, Talladega Nights and Blades Of Glory. You don’t have to like or even understand sports (or milk) to get a kick out of any of these, especially when Will Ferrell is involved, as he frequently seems to be.
In Eastbound And Down Ferrell’s role is decidedly more behind-the-scenes than most of his movies. Most of the credit is due to star and writer Danny McBride and fellow writers Jody Hill and Ben Best (all three of whom were plucked from relative obscurity by Ferrell after making martial arts comedy The Foot Fist Way together in 2006). With support from Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez Productions the trio have taken the familiar template of Dodgeball et al and broken it down to its bare essentials, adding in lashes of pathos and laughs aplenty despite the truly unlikeable nature of antihero Kenny Powers, ex-Major League baseball pitcher who has returned to his roots with a colossal thud. By now we’re all familiar with the down-on-his-luck hero but it’s rare that we see such a lack of humility or such a spectacular fall from grace – celebrity athlete Powers is forced to move back to his small hometown, into his brother’s spare room and to take a job teaching the gym class of his former Middle School.
A lot of the laughs come from the fact that through lack of mental acuity or just reluctance to accept his harsh reality Kenny Powers is completely unable to adjust to life as anything other than a big-shot celebrity. Too big for his boots even when he was a professional ball player, his catchphrase “You’re Fucking Out” summing up his obnoxious approach to the world, he immediately rubs a lot of people the wrong way trying to maintain his former lifestyle of drugs, sex and adoring fans. The concept that nobody really cares who he is, that girls don’t necessarily want to jump into bed with him on demand and that he can’t really justify the expense of owning his own Jet ski does not sink in easily. Powers’ ego clearly needs massaging on a regular basis and as a result he takes whatever opportunity he can to feel like the star he believes himself to be. Pretty much the only person in his hometown who gives him the admiration he craves is the nerdy band teacher Stevie Janowski and the two form an unlikely partnership that takes them on a journey to reignite the flame of Powers’ glory and celebrity, Kenny’s self-centred ambition consistently upsetting the world around him and destroying much of what it touches.
The first season sees Powers getting to grips with his roots, lamenting lost love, and unintentionally and bull-headedly offending his family and almost everyone he interacts with. Will Ferrell guests as Ashley Schaeffer, owner of the local BMW dealership and surprisingly just as much of an asshole as Powers himself. It’s seriously funny watching the two wrangle for the power position and hilarious when Schaeffer finally gets his comeuppance. By the end of the first season Powers looks set to be on his way back into professional baseball but pride so often comes before a fall and it’s no big surprise that he ends up down and out in Mexico by the time we rejoin him for season 2, which has just come to an end in the US. The same behaviour that we now know to expect from Powers continues in abundance south of the border with cock-fighting, tail-chasing, mild racism and soul-searching while Powers tries once again to fight his way back to the big leagues.
Kenny Powers certainly rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and Eastbound And Down may well not be everybody’s cup of tea but there’s a definite subtlety to the humour and a real taste of humanity that elevates the show above the standard fare you’d expect from a Will Ferrell movie and there’s a lot more realism in the seedy depiction of lower middle-class life than you’d see from Ferrell, Stiller and co. There’s also some great music soundtracking both series from the blues-rock of the theme tune “Going Down” by Memphis legend Don Nix covered by Freddie King to artists like Brooklyn metal band Early Man, Chris Brokaw, Shawn Lee and even The Slits and Kurt Vile. Danny McBride really steals the show playing Powers with such comfortable realism that you start to wonder if he’s this much of a dickhead in real life such is the natural way he takes to the role. Like him or not, Kenny Powers is a force to be reckoned with and whether you’re a sports fan or not Eastbound And Down has a lot to offer.