In Celebration of Kenny Powers, Eastbound and Down

In my other life I watch way too much television—it’s a defense mechanism I use in order to stay indoors and avoid the horrors of the outside world as much as possible. I’m really good at it. You should see how good I am at watching television. I sit there all professional, staring intently with rapt attention, working the remote like a champion. People whisper in hushed tones about the work I do with a properly tuned DVR. In my other life I was a regular viewer of the HBO program Eastbound and Down. The major current benefit of Eastbound and Down is that it revolved around the life and misadventures of one Kenny Powers, a fictional character who plays baseball. The playing baseball part is key because that is what allows me to write and post about it here—here being a baseball blog.

Eastbound and Down has come to an end after three seasons. This is a celebration of it. I’m not all that interested in alienating like 95% of the readership by saying you must have watched all three seasons in order to take part in this celebration. There will be little to no spoilers in this post. If you’re super worried about spoilers to a very unhealthy degree, then maybe you need to pop in the DVDs and catch up with me later, but if you’re a normal person who just hasn’t managed to see any or all of the episodes yet, I won’t ruin anything for you. Let’s just talk about why Eastbound and Down was so good, and about the parts that involved baseball. Baseball blog!

We celebrate Eastbound and Down because it was shamelessly unafraid to mine hilarious comedy from some of the most vile and unsavory aspects of human existence, and because it presented that comedy in a way so unlike anything we’d seen before it. Sure, there was a movie the creators used to bring their voice into recognition, and there’s a sampling of Will Ferrel inspired influence, but the particular combination of adult subject matter, comedic delivery, and the anti-hero main character belongs uniquely to Eastbound and Down. The same can be said for Kenny Powers and the multitudes he contains. Crude, thoughtful, honest, delusional, well-spoken, ignorant, charming and revolting all at the same time—there was really no situation or subject that Kenny Powers couldn’t get a laugh from. His neurosis were deep and troubling, his drug abuse prevalent, but the show’s complete lack of any morality or redemption made it sickly acceptable to root for this monster. Eastbound and Down also deserves praise for being completely unafraid to find laughs in some of the darkest and most sorrowful situations. If there’s one defining characteristic of the show, it is that it was relentlessly fearless. I realize I might be getting a little too pretentious for a post about a funny baseball show. I mean, I definitely am. Eastbound and Down was also hilarious. All the time and without fail, in every sort of classic and modern comedic tradition you can imagine. Every secondary character was completely out of control. Every adventure taken to the absolute limits. There was also baseball. Let’s talk about that before I wear out my thesaurus.

The baseball parts were pretty terrible, actually. Eastbound and Down is a comedy about a deeply insecure narcissist who just happens to play baseball, it is not a baseball documentary. If things like terrible pitching motions, improbable situations, and a complete disregard for the general rules and traditions of the game take you out of the action, then you’re going to be super distracted, a lot. The saving grace of it all is that there are still plenty of humorous storylines and jokes that revolve around the sport, and enough applicable humor that doesn’t actually feature baseball being actively played. There are also jet skis.

I fear that in my attempt to avoid spoilers and let you all in on the greatness of this show, I’ve probably done it a disservice. I tend to do that with most of the things I write about. But perhaps it will all work out anyway. Those of you who have seen the show will (hopefully) know what I’m talking about, and those of you who have not will (hopefully) be compelled to start watching (make sure the kids are asleep before you do!). Eastbound and Down is over, Kenny Powers will not be returning to our screens. We are thankful for the time we were able to spend with both, and that there was baseball, and for all those bad words that made us laugh.

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Kyle writes baseball nonsense at The Trance of Waiting. You can follow him on Twitter @AgainstKyle.