When Eastbound & Down, starring Danny McBride, arrived on HBO in 2009, the politically incorrect series filled the edgy comedy void left by Larry David’s oft-hibernating Curb Your Enthusiasm. The series ended in 2013, but Eastbound & Down’s creative team — actor/cocreator McBride, cocreator Jody Hill, and director David Gordon Green — have reunited for a new show, Vice Principals, which jumps off July 17 on HBO.
While Vice Principals revolves around a fictitious high school and the incompetents who run it, Eastbound saw major league baseball player Kenny Powers (McBride) downgraded in life (thanks to his big mouth) to mere middle school PE coach, rendering Powers broke and famous. Powers is his own worst enemy, his outsized ego the source of his misery. His insatiable ambition to get back on top strains his relationships with patient love interest April (Katy Mixon), put-upon brother Dustin (John Hawkes), and even servile lackey/closeted crush Stevie Janowski (Steve Little).
Across four years, the over-the-top Eastbound managed to improve each year, pitting Powers against bizarro car dealer Ashley Schaeffer (Eastbound executive producer Will Ferrell). Season 2 saw ugly American Powers (cornrows!) endure his lost year south of the border, simultaneously sending up American arrogance and Mexican culture with mucho gusto).