The past two weekends, I watched the entire first season (six episodes) of the new HBO series, Eastbound & Down...and all I have to say is, “F*** yeah!”

Eastbound & Down tells the tale of curly-mulleted ex-MLB pitcher, Kenny Powers (Danny McBride). When Powers was a Major League superstar, he could throw a baseball “harder than fuck.” As a rookie, he led Atlanta to win a World Series Championship, and everyone wanted a piece of him. Then, Powers got a little too big for his jockstrap. He became a free agent, pissed off several teams with his colorful commentary, lost his almighty pitch, and his career went down the crapper. The series begins several years later, with Kenny Powers returning to his hometown of Shelby, North Carolina. There, he lives with his brother Dustin (John Hawkes) and teaches P.E. to kids who barely have pubes.

While Powers is stuck in Shelby, he strives to get back on top…well, when he’s not snorting coke in the middle school parking lot or taking ecstasy before the big dance. (At the function, he clears the floor, vomits profusely, then declares unapologetically to the faculty, “It’s the eggrolls, not the ecstasy.”) Despite his pathetic situation, Kenny Powers hasn’t lost his swagger — only his 101 mph pitch and the girl with his favorite ample “mounds” — his high school sweetheart April (Katy Mixon) who is engaged to Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly).

As part of his baseball comeback plan, he faithfully listens to his own motivational set of tapes, aptly titled I’m Fuckin’ In, You’re Fuckin’ Out. He also shoots steroids (just to kick-start his training regimen, of course) and recruits Stevie Janowski (Steve Little) as his personal assistant. Stevie, a music teacher at the middle school and former high school classmate who desperately wants to be as bad-ass as Kenny, will do anything for him, including take the rap for his alcohol-related crash.

Danny McBride is highly believable as the crass-talking, snakeskin boot-wearing, cocky redneck has-been Kenny Powers. But the best part is, you never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. Some of his gems include:

• [To April, at the school dance] “There’s one image in my life that consistently makes me happy, no matter when I think about it. And that image, that one image, is your big tits.”
• [At the cookout] “I don’t believe you’ve met my fuck-buddy, Tracy.”
• [To Tracy] “Honey, I love you. I think you’re a terrific girl. But you have clothes like a fucking dickhead.”
• [While ordering a hooker over the phone] “Can I wear the Scream mask when I do you from behind?”
• [On his self-help tape] “I’ve got a rocket for an arm, a cock like a Burmese python, and the mind of a scientist.”

At one point, Kenny reluctantly decides that he should retire and become “like normal folk. Just livin’ day to day without a dream.” He forlornly records his sign-off: “From this moment forward, the Peoples Champion, The Shelby Sensation, The Reverse Apache Master, The Man With the Golden Dick, Doctor Cock and Balls, that Kenny Powers, is now dead, and he will never pick up a baseball ever fucking again.”

It’s a sad day for Powers fans, but just when it looks like he’s hanging up his glove for good, he unleashes brute force at a pitch-off hosted by luxury car dealer Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell). His fast-pitch is so powerful that it knocks the eyeball right out of his nemesis’s socket. Soon thereafter, the Majors come a-knockin’…or so Kenny thinks.

So many elements make this show brilliant -– from the title frame that freezes on a classic “Kenny Powers” moment while Freddie King’s bluesy classic “Going Down” wails in the background, to the motley cast of memorable characters, to the dead-on music for various scenes, like when Powers, clad in all-black, struts down the school hall to The Black Keys’ “Your Touch.”

While last Sunday marked the final episode of this raunchy, quotable show, it has been rumored that up to eight more episodes could be ordered by HBO. Unfortunately, nothing definite has been announced yet. In the meantime, I suggest you watch all six of the Eastbound & Down episodes On Demand…and prepare to laugh your f***ing ass off.