Eastbound & Down: Season 3

Eastbound & Down follows deluded, burned-out, former major-league pitcher named Kenny Powers, who after fleeing his hometown in North Carolina spent a soul-searching Season 2 in Mexico as “La Flama Blanca” – and ended up returning to the States a changed man. Or is he? Picking up a year after Season 2 ends, the still-audacious Kenny brings his “f*#ked up behavior” to Myrtle Beach, SC – a tourist destination filled with fireworks stores, mini-golf and underage boozing – and somehow resurrects his baseball career as the closer for the minor-league Myrtle Beach Mermen. Even as he postures himself as the King of Myrtle Beach, Kenny struggles to come to terms with growing older, both in his personal life, and professionally with the arrival of up-and-comers (including a Russian pitcher) who challenge him in the league. Along the way, he befriends a veteran catcher named Shane (Jason Sudeikis of Saturday Night Live), a kindred spirit who ends up teaching Kenny a cautionary lesson about overindulgence. In the third season of HBO's Eastbound & Down, Kenny Powers (writer-producer Danny McBride) returns to the States to play minor-league ball in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he hopes to reunite with April (Katy Mixon, Mike & Molly), but after a night of debauchery, she disappears, leaving him with their 1-year-old son, Toby. After failing to pawn the kid off on his brother, Dustin (John Hawkes), Kenny gives fatherhood a try, which includes throwing Toby in a backpack with lettuce and improvising a diaper out of a tablecloth and duct tape. Suffice to say: his comeback isn't going quite the way he intended.

Fortunately, Kenny convinces Stevie (Steve Little) and Maria (Elizabeth De Razzo) to help him out, while he gallivants with his boorish team buddy, Shane (SNL's Jason Sudeikis with demonic beard). Unfortunately for Kenny, fate soon takes his pal out of the picture, leaving him to deal with Shane's uptight twin brother (Sudeikis), an arrogant Russian pitcher (Ike Barinholtz), and his no-good dad, Eddie (Don Johnson). Out of desperation, he reaches out to his mother, Tammy (Lily Tomlin), but fate has more surprises in store involving returning guest star Matthew McConaughey and Seth Rogen (star of Jody Hill's Observe and Report). By the end, the marginally more mature ball player seems prepared to make another new start, but when it comes to Kenny: all bets are off. Most of the plot machinations work, though executive producer Will Ferrell's white-haired loony, Ashley Schaeffer, remains as unfunny as ever (due more to the writing than Ferrell's Colonel Sanders-on-meth performance). Extra features include deleted scenes (one with Val Kilmer) and audio commentaries on all eight episodes from the core cast and crew, including codirectors Hill and David Gordon Green. --Kathleen C. Fennessy