Vice Principals with Danny McBride and Walton Goggins

i mean, i understand that the characters are bad people. but i'm not convinced a statistically significant portion of the viewers won't see them as the underdog heroes.

it's just a bad look to me. but like i said, i'm not the hugest mcbride guy.

two entitled white dudes vs. a clearly very intelligent black woman?

this is part of the joke

idk how anyone could view these two jackasses as sympathetic protagonists they're both clearly horrible people

trump voters.

now, i'm not saying it's bad.
i'm just saying i don't like it.
and i think the premise is ultimately just sad.

some people will never understand satire, this doesn't mean that satire is wrong/inappropriate

bro i just said i didn't think it was bad. i certainly never used the word inappropriate.
i just don't like it, and it makes me sad.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oZC8QjCJSy0/UbfIbBuoFhI/AAAAAAAAJxc/HGY3dG9gnnM/s1600/Hop+on+Pop.jpg

idk, you guys can think i'm wack or lame or whatever but i'm glad i'm not the only one who finds this show unpleasant.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/hbo-vice-principals-tv-review.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/tv/2016/07/hbos_vice_principals_is_an_agg.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2016/07/hbo_s_vice_principals_reviewed.html
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/15/vice-principals-hbo-danny-mcbride-walton-goggins-review

hey, ian, shakey waved the satire wand and therefore any perceived ugliness or meanness to the spirit of the show must be disregarded otherwise you hate freedom and are a stick in the mud.

god you two are as bad as kenny rogers and walter goggles

i mean anything that is satirical is valuable and good so i guess you are right.

i'm off to my SJW meeting now so i'll have to check in later.

I'm just a little mystified that you think a show portraying two dunderheaded amoral white guys trying to take down a competent black woman is somehow mean or ugly idgi if anything it's a simple portrait of the reality of America

But in Eastbound, you could root for former professional baseball player and unrepentant redneck Kenny Powers to get his mojo back

what is this moronic position - for 99% of Eastbound Kenny was a fucking horrible sociopath

it's ugly because there are people out there exactly like the two protagonists, who fear for their white male society, who are the people voting for trump, who are the people who think blues matter. people who use homophobic and misogynistic insults to make themselves feel powerful. it's ugly. frankly i'm a little mystified that you're mustified. but i didn't realize u were shakey so i guess it all makes sense now.

that should say "blue lives matter"

maybe it's funny to you. to see a black woman's home burned down because she got a job she was qualified for. maybe that makes you laugh. it is not funny to me. it's sad.

there is a lot of having your cake and eating it too with contemporary tv 'satire.' mike judge does it with silicon valley. it's analogous to the trump phenomenon of any attention being a good thing and any credence given to a subject no matter how ironic or 'savage' or w/e immediately becoming a reinforcer of that reality.

i'd rather watch a movie about how a black woman succeeds as an educator despite the narrow-minded ignorance of her co-workers. i'd even be okay if it had a few dick jokes.

maybe it's funny to you. to see a black woman's home burned down because she got a job she was qualified for. maybe that makes you laugh. it is not funny to me. it's sad.

i don't think it makes much difference. the humor is in the eye of the beholder. i don't think it's a funny scene, period. if viewers think "haha these guys are morons" that's a valid viewpoint but so is "haha that bitch got what was coming to her."

I'm confused in general when race matters and when it doesn't. I was brought up not to see it, and see and treat everyone as the same. I've seen this show and honestly did not even consider a reading like Ian and the other media critics are offering...

i'd rather watch a movie about how a black woman succeeds as an educator despite the narrow-minded ignorance of her co-workers. i'd even be okay if it had a few dick jokes.

― ian, Tuesday, July 26, 2016 6:11 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this line keeps running through my head over and over in the mr monopoly voice and i'm losing it

wish you would lose your login tbh

race always matters to someone. if you were brought up to treat everyone the same that's great, but it's also a convenient excuse for ignoring the huge problem w racism in america -- i was always taught that skin color doesn't matter too, but i'm still acutely aware that people of color often endure struggles of which i am completely ignorant.

the monopoly guy has a voice???

True

I agree that this show isn't terribly successful at what it's trying to do, but this line from the second of ian's links is strange to me:

"After the previous principal (Bill Murray, in a cameo) leaves his post because his wife is dying (and there's a joke about that -– how hilarious!)"

Whether you thought the joke in Vice Principals was successful or not (this one landed for me), it seems like one should at least be open to the idea that this could be hilarious before watching a comedy.

But in Eastbound, you could root for former professional baseball player and unrepentant redneck Kenny Powers to get his mojo back

what is this moronic position - for 99% of Eastbound Kenny was a fucking horrible sociopath

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, July 26, 2016 4:58 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true! but i still think we are rooting for him! that's kind of how allegiance in fiction works...

i mean, you're kind of rooting for him b/c he's just entertaining. and b/c you're privy to his inner life in a way that's not as true of other characters.

i fully accept that eastbound & down is "anti-social" in the midcentury sense

xp kinda like Michael in the US Office, which I'd guess may be a good reference for understanding why someone would find this show unenjoyable

i like the first few seasons of the office, but eastbound and down seemed determined not to get stuck in the same kind of rut as that show, by switching it up each season

also by, you know, getting cancelled

Eastbound and down was cancelled?

well, it's over in any case

not only not cancelled, they came back for an extra season a couple of years after stopping it on purpose

2nd ep was way better than 1st

the trashing the principals house scene was great bc of how long and deranged it was

its def supposed to be uncomfortable to watch, im not abt to read recaps abt it but prob if one has a large problem w it, dont watch a danny mcbride/jody hill show prob

Hill's stuff is the definitive document of macho white American insecurity, even moreso than the peak Ferrell vehicles, precisely because it flirts with outright ugliness. it only falters when it likes its characters too much (which is why, though it would be better with McBride as star, Observe and Report is imo his best thing)

meant to say *current* macho white insecurity, and shit's hardly limited to the States really

*watches taxi driver*

ugh, the way this guy hates women and gay people is not good to me, its sad. i don't think its a good movie period. if viewers think "omg this guy is a moron" that's a valid viewpoint but so is "haha those people he shot got what was coming to them."

i'd rather watch a movie about a politician inspiring a town to come together and fighting for better outpatient treatment for people with mental illness.

i think taxi driver is similar to e&D in that the proximity we have to the protagonist, our access to them, makes us somewhat sympathetic to them even though we can also apprehend them as awful. added to that is the visceral thrill of misbehavior.

but i also think that E&B (and mcbride) does work a little harder to make the protagonist perversely likable, even if it continually undercuts that (in fact that's kind of the basic pattern of the show)

imo Taxi Driver revels in its violence and transgression more than O&R does, the latter literally features its protag failing a psych evaluation

yeah the comparison only goes so far. one is a comedy, the other is deadly serious.

I feel guilty now for just thinking the house-smashing scene was ridic and hilarious.

can this thread be a safe space for us to Lol at problematic show we like in peace? is that so much to ask?

so far 2 ways this differs from eastbound

-way darker. Kenny powers was an egomaniac but ultimately a good guy. Goggins is just pure vengeful evil from the get-go.. and he's dragging mcbride down with him
-less Actual Jokes, particularly the imagist innovations-in-vulgarity which were sprinkled across eastbound every minute (was recently fondly remembering 'he looks like a bag of mashed up assholes' from the first ep)

best moment in e2 was when they were making faces at each other while the principal was leading a prayer

def lacks fred flintstone exuberance

well, yabba dabba fuckin’ doo

i thought the make up on goodman was pretty impressive in the flashback episode. his neck looked 20 years younger.

I liked the detail that his office staff called him “doctor”

got his yabba dabba fuckin' doctorate

ehh it’s a living

I'm gonna wait in the car. You stay here and make yourself cum.

the surfing line jesus christ

also Tiffany's piano repertoire

i fucking love this show

a deeply Protestant feel, that all sins are forgiven if you repent

surely this is more a Catholic point of view?

Luther believed that redemption was already baked into humanity. Jesus died on the cross FOR you. Calvin believed in predestination. doesn't matter how much you repent.

I do like the idea of ott caricatures doing regular things. Usually in shows and movies it's regular people doing silly stuff. In this it's silly people doing serious stuff. Like, McBride is innately funny and funny-looking and his arrogant line readings are funny, so when you see him waving a gun you expect it to be funny, too, but it's not, not really. Same with Goggins, a kind of goofy looking dude on a good day magnified to 100 in this, but then his behavior, while still ridiculous, is nowhere near as ridiculous as the way he looks. Or Kelvin, that character is such a cartoon, but he's (so far) almost the most sincere of all of them, and Keefe (!), for being a big weirdo, is at least something of a real success story in this preacher world.

And yet even beyond that the show has no problem with good old dumb humor, too, like making fun of Mrs. Baby Billy's teeth, which is a real Farrelly Brothers thing to do.

Re: religion, this world is straight up prosperity gospel, right? Which is Protestant.

(Back to Goodman, btw. Yeah, acting. I hope! Because when he was overweight and breathing heavy in every scene, that sure wasn't acting.)

xp I think it's more that the "repenting" involves public self-flagellation and has absolutely nothing to do with personal moral clarity. Catholic repentance is between you and God, with a priest as a mediator in confession. The more evangelical position is that you have to do it in front of everyone.

"Why do you want to shave your pussy?!"
"So I can surf faster, JESSE!"

shit, Misbehavin is a *serious* earworm

Loved her in VP but Edi Patterson is simply amazing in this.

I liked the detail that his office staff called him “doctor”

Loved her in VP but Edi Patterson is simply amazing in this.

yeah she's a highlight, interesting to see the female version of the standard McBride sputtering and delusional/blustering failure sorta character

while simultaneously implying all manner of disrespect when they’d refer to a black church’s “””Bishop”””

fuck can we just tax all these motherfuckers like yesterday

xpst

really want an anigif of Goggins clogging tbh

yeah she's a highlight, interesting to see the female version of the standard McBride sputtering and delusional/blustering failure sorta character

lol yes Misbehavin slaps

Nice to see Patterson is also a writer and producer

starting to think this might be the best thing McBride & co. have done yet tbrr

Direction is definitely a bit showier, and the plot construction seems more deliberate and complex with all the flashbacks and shifting focus around the various characters. A bunch of Scorsese-esque tracking shots and flashy camerawork (lol'd at the vomiting-on-the-viewer/inside-the-toilet shot)

should this be split off? I could c&p the thread

it's too damn good to not have it's own thread.

agreed

"but Mr. Baby Billy..."