Welcome to our list of the best TV show pilots of all time. Pilots are the episodes that hook us. Some shows have gone on to be wildly successful with lousy pilots. Some shows have failed despite terrific pilots. And then some shows launch with a killer pilot and go on to be a successful …
Cold in July Written by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle Directed by Jim Mickle USA, 2013 In his last film, the horror remake We Are What We Are, co-writer and director Jim Mickle succeeded primarily because he took as long as possible to make explicit what was really going on with the central family unit. …
Eastbound and Down Season 4, Episode 8 “Chapter 29” Written by John Carcieri, Jody Hill & Danny McBride Directed by Jody Hill Aired 11/17/2013 on HBO There’s nothing easy about endings – Kenny knows it, the writers of every comedy or drama in the history of television knows it, and as an audience, we know it. …
From the beginning, Eastbound and Down’s always been a show that operates on two narrative levels. The first of these is obvious: it’s the story of a man discovering the value of family, the baseball player finally rounding third and returning home. The second isn’t as easy to parse out in later seasons, but was quite prevalent in season one: Kenny Powers is the epitome of American’s obsession with the vapid, a satire of our culture’s addiction to celebrity and how one man gets lost in it – a materialization of all things material, so to speak. “Chapter 28” is a perfect marriage of these two ideas, taking on Famous Kenny and American Christmas in one fell swoop – not only delivering another outstanding episode in the series, but an important penultimate episode that narrows the focus heading into the final chapter.
Few shows have mastered the contradiction of feeling empathy for terrible individuals: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad – these shows reveled in their ability to make us relate to monsters in human skin. It takes a careful balance of the admirable and the grotesque, a balance Eastbound and Down made its bread and butter over the first three seasons. In what’s turning out to be a final season that stands head and shoulders above the rest, “Chapter 27” gives us the absolute worst of Kenny Powers – and still manages to make us feel for him as he continues losing the two “wars” he’s spent most of the season fighting.
As season four carries on, the parallels between Eastbound and Down and Breaking Bad could not be more obvious: two white men doing what they do best for the sake of cash and glory, resisting the middle-class suburban life they feel is holding them back. Both men seek infamy that can’t be measured by cash or possessions (even though they quite enjoy having those) – and ultimately, that id is what undoes them, their ignorance towards the importance of family playing a huge role in their downfall (what’s the old cliche? “you can’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone”?).
As it often does, “Chapter 25” hides its message in between the dick jokes and the obnoxious voice overs, bouncing between workplace and suburban unrest to quietly explore the existential angst that’s defined the first half of Eastbound and Down’s final season. Although it sees Kenny “win” in just about every realm of his life, “Chapter 25” is more interested in the moments in between, when he’s running over other families and adversaries in pursuit of immortality – deep down, there’s a part of Kenny just waiting for it to all fall apart: and in few scenes, a Kenny that almost wants it to all go to shit one last time.
Eastbound and Down Season 4, Episode 3 “Chapter 24” Written by John Carcieri, Jody Hill & Danny McBride Directed by David Gordon Green Airs Sunday nights at 10pm ET on HBO We’ve seen many different versions of Kenny Powers on Eastbound and Down: resigned, hopeful, arrogant, happy, poor… we’ve spent a lot of time with the …
Eastbound and Down Season 4, Episode 2 “Chapter 23” Written by Jody Hill, Danny McBride & Carson Mell Directed by Jody Hill Airs Sunday nights at 10pm ET on HBO At its core, Eastbound and Down is nothing but an aggressively vulgar version of The Natural. A talented baseball player, undone by his ego and lack of relationship …
Eastbound and Down Season 4, Episode 1 “Chapter 22” Written by Haynes Davenport, Jody Hill & Danny McBride Directed by Jody Hill Airs Sunday nights at 10pm ET on HBO At the end of season three, it appeared Kenny Powers had finally let go. He walked away from baseball, dyed his hair blonde, and embraced …
Wrong Directed by Quentin Dupieux Written by Quentin Dupieux USA, 2012 The new film Wrong, from writer-director Quentin Dupieux, is less a movie and more a feature-length experiment in provocative trolling. If you find the film deliberately, obnoxiously unpleasant, well, you’re just a fuddy-duddy. You can’t accept the intentionally odd tone as being a charming …