Eastbound & Down
HBO | Release Date: February 15, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
5
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
People WeeklyTom GliattoMar 12, 2012
Season 3 Review: The jokes take of on all sorts of unexpected trajectories--foul balls that score. [12 Mar 2012, p.45]
100
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 2 Review: It's not for everyone. Let's say that upfront. Eastbound & Down will either make you choke laughing, or wish that you could bleach the profanity from your brain. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerFeb 21, 2012
Season 3 Review: Danny McBride's Kenny Powers is back for a wild third season. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 2 Review: This portrait of a profane, low-down egomaniac--excuse me, he prefers "Christ figure"--continues to amaze. McBride's willingness to play depression, amorality, and selfishness for laughs is awesome. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: What lifts Eastbound & Down away from mere crudball humor is McBride's ongoing love affair with the lower middle class. Read full review
90
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
90
Under The RadarJim Scott
Season 2 Review: It's not going too far to say Eastbound and Down holds a magnifying glass up to sports and hero workship, it's just that the magnifying glass is outrageously outsized, Charlie Chaplin, silent-movie prop huge. Sadly, as far as McBride takes Powers, the satire may never go far enough, as LeBron James and Roger Clemens and Tiger Woods and a host of others have shown. Read full review
88
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
80
The New YorkerEmily NussbaumMar 13, 2012
Season 3 Review: Eastbound & Down holds together so well that it's worth looking past the ugly for the solid performances and the charcoal-black humor beneath, particularly in the final episodes, which delve into Powers's family history. Read full review
80
SalonRoger CatlinFeb 21, 2012
Season 3 Review: McBride celebrates the Southern-fried dirtball culture of flyover America like some "Red State Diaries"; it's a veritable HBO "Hee-Haw." Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
80
The New YorkerNancy Franklin
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubPhil Dyess-NugentSep 25, 2013
Season 4 Review: Season four of Eastbound & Down looks more promising than season three. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
75
New York PostMichael Starr
Season 2 Review: I tend to judge a show's worth on whether I'll come back for more; I've already watched next week's episode of "Eastbound and Down," and I'll definitely be watching to see where Kenny's Mexican journey takes him. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierSep 26, 2013
Season 4 Review: Strangely, the fourth season of Eastbound & Down exudes a somber tone that flies in the face of the show's typically rambunctious tendencies. Kenny is crankier than in the past, and his staunchly vexed attitude throws the proceedings a bit off balance. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierFeb 21, 2012
Season 3 Review: If last season was The Empire Strikes Back, though, season three is slightly more Revenge of the Sith than Return of the Jedi. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
58
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: Eastbound & Down, is a funny show if you don't expect too much. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGinia Bellafante
Season 1 Review: Eastbound & Down feels static. Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
40
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
30
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: HBO's new series Eastbound & Down falls into the grating category of totally obnoxious dude comedies. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: It seems like a middling Fox series with a monotonous glut of obscenities and some nudity tossed in to make it pay-cable worthy. Read full review
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