In the longest season yet (eight episodes) of HBO’s raunchiest comedy, the washed-up, pot-bellied, coke-snorting blowhard Kenny Powers (Danny McBride, 30 Minutes or Less) now lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The change of locales, however, hasn’t changed him: The minor-league baseball pitcher remains a major-league asshole.
In the season opener, an intoxicating reunion with April (Katy Mixon, Drive Angry), his child’s mother he left at the altar, leads to a wild night ... and a life-changing morning. He awakes to discovers she’s left ... and left him with their baby.
That’s right: Kenny Powers left in charge of an infant. A live one, at that.
Needless to say, Kenny’s remarkable lack of parenting skills — an understatement one could underline, bold and italicize — drives much of the season’s four hours. Subplots, however, include Kenny partying (too) hard with his best bud (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses), creating a new rivalry with a Russian pitcher/DJ (Ike Barinholtz, Vampires Suck), revisiting an old rivalry with insane car salesman (Will Ferrell, The Campaign), romancing a college student (Alex ter Avest), and running into both Mom (Lily Tomlin, The Pink Panther 2) and Dad (Don Johnson, Django Unchained).
The comedic genius of Kenny Powers is his absolute arrogance, with no evidence to back it up. He’s a runaway id, a man born without a filter. This, of course, gives birth to many crude but quotable lines — seriously, don’t blame me if you get offended:
• “This gorgeous sunset is rockin' my nuts off.”
• “Why are you dressed like The Joy Luck Club?”
• “I don't want my dojo to look like a place where Cabbage Patch Kids come to fuck.”
• “One time, Shane lost his pinky ring fucking around with a girl's C-section scar in the bathroom here.”
• “Silence, ho!”
• “Texas has a weather climate very similar to Mexico, except it doesn't stink like fucking buttholes and donkeys.”
McBride plays nearly every comedic role in some shade of Kenny Powers, but for some reason, it only clicks with me in doses that are not feature-length. (For an example, see Your Highness, but not literally.) And here, it clicks so well, I laugh aloud, and a lot — not easy to do with such a cold-hearted bastard like myself. —Rod Lott
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