HBO's "Vice Principals"

[Homerboy]

Anybody watch the premier episode?
I loved it.

http://www.hbo.com/vice-principals

 

[zinfamous]

ah, didn't realize that happened. was wondering when it started.

I'd like to see some Kenny Powers vs comedy Boyd Crowder.

 

[Homerboy]

ah, didn't realize that happened. was wondering when it started.

I'd like to see some Kenny Powers vs comedy Boyd Crowder.

It's basically what it is!

(well, he's as foul mouthed and delusional as Kenny was, but he's not quite as vulgar)

 

[Childs]

It almost seems like this series could have taken place during the period when Kenny Powers was a substitute teacher, or maybe these were bits that they didnt use. We need Ashley Schaeffer to be involved somehow.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I'm not a fan of Danny McBride, but have loved Goggins in everything he's done. So I'll give this a go to see whether McBride ruins it or Goggins elevates it.

 

[MongGrel]

I'll have to give it a go, as the HBO is there anyways.



Still had not watched the second "The Night Of" yet.

 

[Charmonium]

Sweet Jesus did that suck ass. The acting was awful, which is a little bit of a surprise since Goggins was amazing in Justified not to mention Sons of Anarchy. And in the latter, it was sort of the same character type so I was really surprised he was so bad.

The other guy is complete bullshit. His acting wasn't as bad but god, the dialog. It sounded like it was written by a high school drama student.

I normally try to give comedies as much latitude as I can tolerate. But for this show, I couldn't make more than halfway through the half hour.

The opening scene alone was sufficiently abysmal that it was enough to bail right there. But I pressed on and got exactly what it portended.

 

[Homerboy]

Sweet Jesus did that suck ass. The acting was awful, which is a little bit of a surprise since Goggins was amazing in Justified not to mention Sons of Anarchy. And in the latter, it was sort of the same character type so I was really surprised he was so bad.

The other guy is complete bullshit. His acting wasn't as bad but god, the dialog. It sounded like it was written by a high school drama student.

I normally try to give comedies as much latitude as I can tolerate. But for this show, I couldn't make more than halfway through the half hour.

The opening scene alone was sufficiently abysmal that it was enough to bail right there. But I pressed on and got exactly what it portended.

I see you're new to Danny McBride/Jody Hill comedies?

 

[Homerboy]

It almost seems like this series could have taken place during the period when Kenny Powers was a substitute teacher, or maybe these were bits that they didnt use. We need Ashley Schaeffer to be involved somehow.

That's what I was thinking too -- this idea had to have been "born" while KP was a teacher.

 

[TwiceOver]

When Walton is fed good lines, he's excellent. Unfortunate that he was cast with Danny McBride. Hopefully Danny proves me wrong for once.

I'm in. About time to get that HBO Go trial anyway.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I thought it was pretty solid. You're either in on the McBride/Hill combo or you're not. I don't always love their stuff but I acknowledge the talent and always find it worth watching.

 

[smackababy]

It was as I expected. Not terrible, but not great yet. It has potential and I like McBrides one character.

 

[Xonim]

I had high hopes for this, mostly because of Goggins. I shut if off after less than 15 minutes. It was awful. HBO is 0/2 this year as far as I'm concerned, I couldn't bring myself to watch ep 2 of Vinyl either, though I did at least make it through ep1. Cancelled my HBO Now account last night since at this point, there's nothing current I have any interest in watching.

 

[allisolm]

The only review I have read of it is this one which was in our local newspaper. It is scathing, to say the least.

 

[Homerboy]

The only review I have read of it is this one which was in our local newspaper. It is scathing, to say the least.

First off, there's spoilers in that article and the author himself doesn't seem to care about telling you about them

Yes, that’s a spoiler — let that go

So screw him.

Secondly, it is hardly shocking that a critic would find the show unappealing. He's awfully hipocrtical as he "gets" the humor in Eastbound but finds "Anything even marginally appealing about Vice Principals is overwhelmed by the witless ugliness, rampant stupidity and utter cluelessness about the times in which we live."

I dunno... to me that sounds like good comedy.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

First episode sucked. Just Danny McBride doing the only character he ever plays. I had hoped it would be more Goggins screentime and more importantly, I had hoped the style of "comedy" would be a step above that lame, lazy cringe comedy which is the only thing McBride can do. Giving it another episode to see if they give Goggins more to do than he did in the pilot, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

It was meh, just like Eastbound And Down, but I will give it some time.

 

[Linux23]

I recently discovered Goggins and I love him.

However this show looks dry and unless Goggins has a more important role in this I won't be subscribing to HBO to watch this.

 

[zinfamous]

It was OK, about what I expected after Eb&D. I'd like for it to mature a little and improve as I felt Eb&D did (though I was able to watch that entire series in one go fairly recently).

Was not a fan of Goggins this episode. His character feels a bit cliche and overdone right now, but I'm hopeful things will improve there. Probably not much room for complex character development (really not the kind of show for that), but I'm hoping he doesn't stay with the proper southern gentleman backstabbing flatterer trope.

 

[TwiceOver]

First episode sucked. Just Danny McBride doing the only character he ever plays. I had hoped it would be more Goggins screentime and more importantly, I had hoped the style of "comedy" would be a step above that lame, lazy cringe comedy which is the only thing McBride can do. Giving it another episode to see if they give Goggins more to do than he did in the pilot, but I'm not optimistic.

It was OK, about what I expected after Eb&D. I'd like for it to mature a little and improve as I felt Eb&D did (though I was able to watch that entire series in one go fairly recently).

Was not a fan of Goggins this episode. His character feels a bit cliche and overdone right now, but I'm hopeful things will improve there. Probably not much room for complex character development (really not the kind of show for that), but I'm hoping he doesn't stay with the proper southern gentleman backstabbing flatterer trope.

Poor Walton. He'll always be the southern hick. It worked well in The Shield, and was 100% spot on for Justified (best written dialog to date for me). Just don't think he can get away from it.

I found Eb&D to be tiring. The first season was really really fun, but everything after that was just too far out there and forced. I got through it, but only by sheer willpower.

 

[zinfamous]

Poor Walton. He'll always be the southern hick. It worked well in The Shield, and was 100% spot on for Justified (best written dialog to date for me). Just don't think he can get away from it.

I found Eb&D to be tiring. The first season was really really fun, but everything after that was just too far out there and forced. I got through it, but only by sheer willpower.

I saw an interview with him about how moving from Georgia to Hollywood, his first goal was to get rid of his accent and he was always reluctant to take those roles because he just didn't want to be typecast much less promote the general Hollywood preference for southerners only ever being portrayed as dumb-yet-respectable hicks.

Boyd Crowder was supposed to be dead after Season 1 of Justified, but he was so awesome at making that character so much more awesome than the original treatment (I think the entire series was only based on a single Elmore Leonard short story, which was all within that pilot episode, no?) that they just had to keep running with him. Plus, it helps that Leonard was actually writing for that show for (most?) of the seasons.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Boyd Crowder was supposed to be dead after Season 1 of Justified

He was supposed to be dead after one episode. He only did the pilot as a favor to Timothy Olyphant because they're friends in real life. The character was a hit with test audiences and he stuck around.

I can't imagine Justified without him in it or Breaking Bad without Jesse Pinkman. Gotta be the two best decisions ever made to not kill off a character early.

 

[Scarpozzi]

OK....I'm a few years late. My cousin told me to binge-watch this one and I did because I finished EB&D last Fall.

I definitely liked the characters and how quickly things escalated. Overall, it was a decent 2 seasons...the casting/characters and some of the writing didn't disappoint. I think my biggest gripes are that Goggins character kept acting tough, but then acted weak. Sure he was deceptive, but I think the editing and changing directors between episodes sent too many mixed signals in his character...maybe it was by design to keep the ending a surprise. I think there was just too many inconsistencies in his relationship with his wife, his past backstory, and career.

I give it a solid 6.5 out of 10....which is a lot for a comedy.