TVSquad

I didn't expect to be charmed by a show about a dude who snorts blow off a loaded rifle.

HBO's Eastbound & Down turned out to be my favorite new comedy of the year. The show, produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, seemed like a one-note joke at first. It stars Danny McBride as Kenny Powers, a deluded and self-obsessed former baseball star forced to move back to his hometown and work as a middle school gym coach.

Surprisingly, this thing got funnier and more addictive with every episode. Danny McBride is great as the extremely vulgar Kenny Powers, and the show has a lot more going for it than most of Ferrell and McKay's juvenile big screen comedies.

Eastbound & Down had an abbreviated first season – only six episodes – but HBO just renewed it for a second season.

It looks like even the magic formula that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay created to become comedy movie mavericks doesn't work on the aptly named "idiot box."

HBO's new Eastbound & Down bombed in its premiere episode and lost nearly 40 percent of the lead-in audience from Flight of the Conchords. It also only scored a measly .3 in the ratings, which is dangerously close to "HelloLarrydom."

But fear not, Ferrell freaks. This is HBO, the network that dared to mess with convention, give fledgling shows time to grow and kept Arli$$ on the air for six whole seasons.

Last September, Brett told you about a new HBO pilot being created for HBO called P.E. Well, that pilot is still happening, but now it's called East Bound and Down. The plot remains the same, though: a washed-up professional baseball player winds up back in his Southern hometown and becomes a substitute gym teacher.

The new comedy comes from actor Will Ferrell and his writing partner Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions. The men previously worked on Saturday Night Live together and later on the films Anchorman and Talladega Nights. Newcomer Danny R. McBride (who also co-created the series and wrote the script along with Jody Hill and Ben Best) will star as Kenny, the pitiful pitcher, along with Katy Mixon, John Hawkes and Andrew Daly. Mixon plays Kenny's former high school girlfriend, who is now engaged to the principal (Andrew Daly). Kenny's brother will be played by Hawkes.