Eastbound & Down on HBO

Just caught the replay of the first episode on HBO. A little farcical at times, but still pretty damn funny stuff.

I put it here because it's only tangentially about sports — the main character is a former pitcher who has washed out of the big leagues and returns to his North Carolina hometown to become a high school P.E. coach. But otherwise, it plays as a straightforward sitcom, at least in the first episode.

Kenny Powers is the stereotypical big-fish-in-a-small-pond jock who peaked at age 17, and who is still worshipped by a lot of people in his hometown. A lot of the characters, including Kenny Powers, remind me of people I grew up with.

Anybody else watch it? Thoughts?

 

Did they name the hometown in North Carolina? Much as I don't care to admit it, you have me quite curious ...

When I first read this, I didn't know if this was a "Smokey and the Bandit" reference or perhaps a "tribute" to Brien Taylor.

 

Haven't watched it yet, but it's in my DVR. The Foot Fist Way cracked me up and this is in the same vein.

 

The town's name didn't ring out to me; pretty sure it was fictitious. He does teach at Jefferson Davis Middle School.

And Powers also looks quite a bit like Todd Jones, only with Darren Daulton's mullet, circa 1993.

 

Wonderful ... nothing like another Southern stereotype. Not everyone in North Carolina is hanging on to the Civil War. I mean, Jefferson Davis?

 

I will be looking this up on On Demand when I get home tonight. It was just ending as I turned on Big Love at 11 last night.

BTW, Big Love remains some of the best television out there right now.

 

Well, it is co-exec-produced by Will Ferrell. Yeah, I hate those kind of lazy cliches, too, but the show's still pretty funny.

 

Whoops, reason enough to run from this show ... nothing like cheap Will Ferrell-produced stereotypes. Not funny, either, at least IMO.

 

The guy who created it is from Concord, NC, and graduated high school with my brother-in-law. I am told he draws on some of his experiences in the show. I haven't seen it.

 

I'm not in North Carolina, but a neighboring state, and there are two high schools named after Stonewall Jackson and one named after Robert E. Lee within an hour of my office, so I don't know that it's all that much of a stretch.

 

Yeah, get back to me when you see Dick Trickle Middle School popping up out there.

 

"You named your kid after Titanic? What's his name? Shrek?"

Does this character remind anybody of John Rocker?