‘Eastbound & Down’ Recap: The Return Of Kenny Powers – RTT News
(RTTNews) - After a premiere season that launched a new cultural touchstone – the loud-mouthed buffoon of an ex-athlete that is Kenny Powers – “Eastbound & Down” began its second season on HBO Sunday night. The last cycle ended with Kenny’s deal to join the Tampa Bay Rays falling through. He left his family and teaching job, and the second season kicks off with the former power pitcher reappearing in Mexico. Here, Kenny’s big sport isn’t baseball, but cockfighting. Sporting cornrows and employing a midget as his muscle, the man now known as “Steve” nets himself new donkey in a cockfighting bet early in the season-two opener. When not at ringside, he spends his time drinking, doing coke with his two-man entourage (the midget and a hulking man who speaks no English) and watching the local baseball team get beat. He’s also dictating a book, which he describes to a neighborhood kid as “a motivational novel for people dealing with grief and/or depression.” Kenny’s love interest in the second-season premiere is a singer fist introduced performing a Spanish-language version of Bob Seger’s “Night Moves.” The two have a history, but she’s not interested in him – “I just thought you were just, like, a one-night stand gringo,” she says. Meanwhile, he still pines for April, who he abandoned at a gas station at the end of season one. With his cockfighting career losing steam (his prized bird is killed late in the episode and his entourage turns on him), Kenny tries to make a connection with a local family and storms the local baseball diamond during practice. He pushes himself onto the team and prepares the world for the return of Kenny Powers. by RTT Staff Writer For comments and feedback: contact editorial[at]rttnews.com