Vice Principals

Like its predecessor, “Vice Principals” goes all in for profanity and the trading of childish insults (“Keep walkin’, sassypants” is one I can quote), and there is a certain melodic delight in hearing Goggins pronounce the multisyllabic bad words the basic-cable rules kept from him saying on “Justified.” But the comic returns do diminish.

There are moments where Russell and Gamby’s reluctant alliance, and later, their personal lives, give the series the depth it desperately needs, but it’s fleeting. Instead, the first four episodes are clogged with a crude sense of humor that for the most part isn’t clever (like say, Veep) nor is it funny.

This is a Danny McBride comedy--not exactly funny, but weirdly engaging in its own uncomfortable way. His fans should be pleased. Everyone else will be puzzled--or worse, repulsed.

Russell is an interesting enough character, but Vice Principals works better when the light shines on McBride's Gamby alone.

This material is hit-or-miss--it’s a difficult thing to pull off consistently--but for fans of their style, it’s its own reward.

Vice Principals marinades so much in its own outrageousness, it’s depressingly easy to imagine that some people will laugh at the show's antics for all the wrong reasons.

The result is a show with occasional laughs but lacking the freshness of the first season of “Eastbound & Down,” and the consistently funny plotting of the best episodes of that show. Even just over the first few episodes, Vice Principals already feels like it’s spinning its wheels.

Vice Principals is aware that it is a show about two petulant, middle-age white men trying to destroy the life of an admirable black woman, but this is still such a weighted setup that it topples the show’s comedy. I was fascinated, but I barely laughed.

If you can get through the first two puerile episodes--and that’s a big if--of Danny McBride and Jody Hill’s mean-spirited school comedy Vice Principals, you’ll probably notice a much better and possibly smarter work of satire lurking just out of reach.