Eastbound & Down Season Three Impressions

There is perhaps more gravity in what I've seen of Season Three (I was able to preview the first three episodes) than in previous seasons, largely due to the entrance of baby Toby, and Kenny starting out in a place of relative success that you know can only go downhill. Don't get me wrong: there are still plenty of laughs, and all of the offensive humor we have come to expect from E&D has remained in tact. Yet Season Three highlights Powers' ineptitude, and his awareness of that inadequacy, in a more unflinching way than previous seasons. I won't spoil it for you, but the final scene of next week's "Chapter 16" is surprisingly dark.

Unfortunately, the first three episodes of this new season also forecast a startling inconsistency in tone. Eastbound & Down has never been a show to shrink from doing the unexpected... or the offensive. And there have often been scenes or even whole episodes that have felt too fantastic to believe, but, they were always grounded by the consistency of Kenny Powers' character (strange parody that it is), and even if we were muttering WTF the entire episode, we were at least giggling while saying it.

However, anyone who saw last night's episode, the second half of which was so outrageously cartoonish and felt like Will Ferrell showboating more than anything else, was indeed probably asking what the hell was going on, and not laughing much. Furthermore, as Nathan Rabin of AV Club aptly points out, it felt more like The Will Ferrell Show with a Special Appearance by Danny McBride than an episode of E&D, so we didn't even have Kenny to root the last half of the episode. Personally, I was almost relieved it was over, so outrageous was the whole thing, and so decidedly not funny.

The second episode of this season definitely seems out of place, and I am hoping that it's just a fluke. However, it does raise some concern heading into the rest of the season, especially since this is to be E&D's final one. Perhaps the absurdity of "Chapter 15" is an attempt to balance some of the gravitas to come in the next episode (and maybe the rest of the season). If the show's focus can remain where it belongs -- squarely on Kenny Powers -- I trust that E&D's last hurrah will be worth watching. Plus, with so many potential crises arising -- April's disappearance, Stevie and Kenny's cohabitation, Ivan's threatening usurpation -- I can't wait to see what happens next.