Katy Mixon

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.