Eastbound & Down

Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker

What lifts Eastbound & Down away from mere crudball humor is McBride's ongoing love affair with the lower middle class.

Washington PostTom Shales

Working something of a miracle, Danny McBride, who plays Kenny and is one of the creative talents behind the show premiering tomorrow on HBO--the most recklessly funny comedy of the year--makes us kind of like Kenny Powers.

New York PostLinda Stasi

If you thought "Tropic Thunder" was the funniest movie of the year and that everything Will Ferrell touches makes you laugh until you squirt Diet Pepsi out of your nose, then you will love Eastbound & Down.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

What further elevates the half-hour is the deadpan, deer-in-the-headlights fashion in which his co-stars orbit around McBride, who seems instinctively to understand that being a delirious bastard means never having to say you're sorry.

The New YorkerNancy Franklin

McBride is comfortable improvising, and in Eastbound there’s a lot of pleasurable tension in watching Kenny create difficult situations with his poor judgment and get out of them with his escape artist’s quick brain.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

Powers, the central character in the strangely compelling new HBO series Eastbound & Down is a down-on-his-luck pitcher whose glory days in the Major League are well behind him.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

I generally don't place myself in that crowd [viewers who think there's nothing funnier than an overweight guy with a jock-strap tan line], being more "Elf" than "Old School," but McBride's Powers exudes a Mitch Williams-meets-John Kruk vibe that's hard to resist, and, hey, I laughed more than once.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

The humor in Eastbound is a far cry from the cerebral comedy currently en vogue on shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock," but that doesn't mean Eastbound can't do sly humor that falls left of center.

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

I can't say the pilot struck me as especially funny, but there are good things and talented people in it, and it looks good.

TimeJames Poniewozik

Eastbound & Down, is a funny show if you don't expect too much.

The New York TimesGinia Bellafante

Eastbound & Down feels static.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

Maybe McBride has more pitches in his arsenal than he's shown so far, but the repertoire on display in Eastbound & Down feels too limited for a long stint on HBO's mound.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

Drugs. Pratfalls. Bodily excretions. Sexual crudity. Shock-jock ethnic humor. Four-letter words flying like lead in a matineee Western. Character development and story? Not so much.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

HBO's new series Eastbound & Down falls into the grating category of totally obnoxious dude comedies.

VarietyBrian Lowry

Even with the promise of a Ferrell cameo in future episodes, it's a tired premise--a more profane version of the kind of low-swinging sitcom that could easily have wound up on TBS.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

It seems like a middling Fox series with a monotonous glut of obscenities and some nudity tossed in to make it pay-cable worthy.