It appears Jody Hill and Danny McBride have done it again. It also appears Walton Goggins aka Shane Vandrell is a natural with the comedic chops on this show. Interesting he chose a place of higher learning as the backdrop for this show.

Curious if this will have dramatic beats similar to Eastbound and Down or if this will be just a straight up sitcom. I believe I head in an interview this show will only last for two seasons. What other insights do folks have for this fine show? Also, anyone have further info regarding the future of Eastbound and Down.

this show is hilarious! I'm just dyin' at Walter Goggins. He's killin' this role.

Jesus this show is awesome. Not as good as EASTBOUND, but it's close.

EDIT: It needs Stevie. McBride needs a character that's stupider than his character to play off of for maximum impact.

it was perfect

introducing him on the show would mean less screen time and lines for Shane, something I'm not willing to compromise for given how pitch perfect he's been playing the role so far. I wonder if he'll get selected for more comedic roles in the future.

I'd make Stevie the Cafe worker.

I also like how we both do Walton Goggins the disservice by not calling him by the current character's name since his dramatic work was so good in the past. You continue to refer to him and Boyd Crowder in this thread and I'll continue refer to him as Shane.

Has those cringe worthy moments but between McBride and Boyd its amazing

was pretty heavy. The leading actress playing the principal really did her thing with the physical comedy. Remarkable to see how everything will play out next week.

I was dead. And when they get her back to the room and put her to bed?

This shit is beautiful.

----------------------------
Same as it ever was!

the highlight was Gamby going into the history professor's room and knocking over that storage cabinet while dude was teaching.

I can't imagine what the class was thinking, much less that teacher. That was the one pristine moment of comedy to me; everything else was pretty much was like watching a slowly devolving car accident. I appreciated that the Gamby character was conflicted as everything was unfolding towards the end of the episode.

.

The look of complete disappointment and horror his face when his side piece was making him jealous by going over his main interest's past was hilarious when you contrast to how happy he was when he was initially talking to the lunch counter guy.

The look of shock on the lunch counter guy's face when the side piece was finished talking was nice as equally top notch.

Of course having Gamby throw the toothpick that was in his mouth into the side piece's lunch tray was a perfect way to top off the scene.

I want Belinda to win.

I don't know how anyone enjoys this wackness. Nothing new, intelligent, funny about it.

Belinda has some demons (alcoholism, broken family, etc.), but she's still one of the funniest, smartest, and most complete female characters on TV right now.

Her kids are bad, but they're bad in the same ways that a lot of kids are bad. Her husband cheated, but at least he's fighting to be in his sons's lives.

The white folks on this show come off looking way dumber and more despicable than any of the blacks do.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/vice-principals-kimberly-hebert-gregory

Kimberly Hebert Gregory Defends Vice Principals Against Criticism: “It’s About White-Male Entitlement”
For a woman of color, “competing against white men for something is not novel,” says the actress.
by SULAGNA MISRAAUGUST 8, 2016 10:00 AM

From left to right: Danny McBride, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, and Walton Goggins in Vice Principals.
Courtesy of HBO.
Vice Principals stars Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Dr. Belinda Brown, a newly appointed principal whom the titular veeps, Neal Gamby (Danny McBride) and Lee Russell (Walton Goggins), consider their major rival—despite the fact that she’s already got the job they wanted and is oodles better at it than they ever could be. Gregory describes Brown as “a bootstraps, Sheryl Sandberg, leaning-in, multi-tasking American woman,” and a “turnaround lady”—the kind who reads self-help books and goes to lady business conferences (think She Leads Media or Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit).

In the show’s fourth episode, “Run for the Money”—which aired Sunday—Gregory’s character takes center stage. She’s dealing with the literal ashes of her house (which Gamby and Russell burned down, though she doesn’t know that . . . yet), as well as her frustrations with her new job. “I think Episode 4 is that moment when she’s like, ‘Either you’re going to burn in the ashes or you’re going to phoenix,’” Gregory told Vanity Fair over the phone. “And this is her phoenix moment.”

The half-hour format certainly changes the tide of the show, which has drawn ire for its basic premise: two white guys, resenting and fighting with a black woman over her job. When you’re a woman of color, though, situations like this are unfortunately familiar. Gregory knows this all too well: “I’ve been so fascinated by that response,” she says. “I feel like particularly as a woman of color, being the only in a space is not novel, right? Competing against white men for something is not novel. I’ve never looked at as racist. I’ve just looked at it as, ‘O.K., that’s how it is.’“

Gregory knows what she’s talking about—while she specialized in theater in high school, she also has a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in social work. “I always had this interest in identity development. I did my thesis on racial identity development. At a predominately white institution, I was really digging deep into race and gender and general identity,” she says. “I wanted to go into the tough neighborhoods and talk to people who may not see the benefit of mental health. I was like, ‘I’m going to like, save the world.’” While living in Chicago for her master’s, though, she was drawn back into the theater community—and the rest is history.

Her unique background comes in handy when Gregory is trying to build a character—and to understand other characters’ motivations. Vice Principals, she says, is all about one thing: male entitlement. “If we want to get specific, it’s white-male entitlement,” she explains. “What that looks like is every TV show, every movie, everything we ever watch.” As Gregory notes, putting a “black female body” in a space where people aren’t necessarily used to seeing a woman of color can prompt a “knee-jerk response.”

“I don’t think we would respond in the exact same way if Melissa McCarthy was the principal, and they did the exact same thing ,” Gregory explains. “As a nation, as viewers, as industry, we have to be ready to accept black women specifically competing and maybe getting what appears to be attacked by white men. That, to me, is casting equality.”

Even so, Vice Principals elicits plenty of discomfort. This is pretty well exemplified in a scene from the beginning of its third episode, in which the vice principals make vile remarks about Dr. Brown’s body, including references to her hair, weight, clothing, and her supposed “smell.”


Show creators Danny McBride and Jody Hill.
Courtesy of HBO.
Scenes like this don’t trouble Gregory because, she says, Vice Principals co-creators McBride and Jody Hill “knew what they were doing,” she says. “They know what they’ve decided to do, and it’s not based on ‘we want to bring up a racial issue.’” Instead, she says, the show is about finding a person who can take down the two idiots played by McBride and Goggins: “Who’s strong enough to fight? They felt like this person in this body could do that.” It helps, she notes, that she knows what’s going to happen as Season 1 moves forward, as every episode of Vice Principals has already been filmed—including its second season.


Gregory likens rejecting what the show is trying to accomplish to retreating to our collective comfort zone. Do you think her character shouldn’t be placed in the situations Vice Principals places her in? If so, says Gregory, that’s “to make you feel better—not to make someone else feel better.”

It’s easier to leave race out of the equation, to “keep putting white people in those spaces, so we all feel good about the behavior.” But Gregory is prepared for something a bit messier: she wants meaty roles, rich in this kind of twisted irony. “I want to be able to do that. I want to do that in a Marvel movie. I want us to be battling. I want us to be taking up that space.” In fact, she says, she’s been personally fielding responses from women who feel the same way. “I’m getting a response from other women in general like, ‘Oh, I’m glad to see that they chose to put a woman who appears to be strong against these guys, who don’t appear to have it all together.’”

A woman who isn’t Melissa McCarthy—though Gregory does look to the Ghostbusters star as inspiration (along with British actress Olivia Colman and Suicide Squad star Viola Davis). “In so many ways, is a visual game changer for everyone. For me. In Bridesmaids, she made the movie for me. She stood out because she was so unapologetic, she was sexy, she was clear. I was like, ‘That’s the kind of female comedy that I’d laser focus on.’

“Literally there are days on set where I’ll be like, ‘Oh my goodness, can I do this?’” Gregory says. Moving from dramatic theater to comedy made for a difficult transition: “I would be in the trailer going, ‘O.K., wait. O.K.’” And then, one memorable day, “I just slapped myself in the head. I said, ‘I’m ashamed of you.’ I was like, ‘What would Melissa McCarthy do?’”

She definitely held her own this season and the dramatic aspects to her story-line were well done as well, which isn't easy when doing comedic work. This is my first time seeing her on screen; I hope she does more comedic work in general. Her acting in the penultimate episode was a comedic gem, especially since she's not from a comedic background.

Lee and not Belinda. First ep of season 2 will end with gamby realizing it

Out of all the ways Lee could've taken him out the picture, killing him seems way too over the top. If he was ready to do that, why not just kill Belinda earlier?

So let's look at the other suspects:

the crazy teacher he was sleeping with (my first thought)
Belinda (couldn'tve been her based on the body shape of the shooter, but she could've hired somebody...maybe the guy from ep 2)
Ray
Bill Hayden
Lee's neighbor (didn't look big enough to me though)
Bill Motherfucking Murray
the horse man (shit shoveler)

My guess is Belinda's guy or Ray, but part of the fun will be Gamby trying to figure it all out, and I'm sure he'll trust no one. Also wonder when Will Ferrell will make his appearance, I thought he might show up in the finale as the new principal.

Pretty good season, but this show should be judged as a whole after season 2. Hope it returns early 2017, considering it's all been shot already.

>the crazy teacher he was sleeping with (my first thought)

since she actually has a motive

main reason I think Lee is because it would make the entire show Lee vs Gamby, but maybe they wont take it in that direction

I feel like the whole show is about them. Gamby is a hard ass but he's trying to make his way and Lee is just pure evil looking to capitalize on anyone. If Lee was willing to burn Belinda's house down I'm positive he's able to take Gamby out so he can be the only principal.

>Out of all the ways Lee could've taken him out the picture,
>killing him seems way too over the top. If he was ready to do
>that, why not just kill Belinda earlier?

Whoever was behind it wasn't trying to kill Gamby. At close range, the gunman shot him in the shoulder and in the hip. That was meant to maim/scare him.

...Lee was pushing most of the responsibility onto Gamby. initially i thought he was recording him via the pen-cam to incriminate him in some way. that entire bit seemed suss as fuck tho. Gamby picked up on it too. Lee's an unstable and crazy mofo. the show's taken plenty of time establishing Gamby as a much more humane, empathetic character despite his shortcomings. Lee's just a power-hungry asshole and there's no way he's gonna be cool sharing the position for too long.

altho end of the day i would prefer it if Lee WASN'T the shooter. gunning down Gamby is extreme, even for him.

V.

.

I would have never guessed who it was, but it made perfect sense for the character.

WTF just happened? That show took quite a turn.

eh.

If it was about making ol' boy jealous, fine.
I can't see her actually liking Gamby. At all.

and loved the depth of the character development as the season went on. gotta give it up for Danny for playing that character so well.
all 3 leads killed it the entire season, actually.

all in for s2.

V.

I never saw eastbound and down so I've always been pretty lukewarm about Mcbride, but damn if he ain't murdering here

>I never saw eastbound and down

You are quite the lucky man to get to watch this show with completely fresh eyes in 2016. I don't want to say anything to ruin your experience, but watch this show ASAP if you found Vice Principals funny. You will not be disappointed.

I'm a bit ehhh with VPs after 4 episodes, but I watched the entirety of the first season of E&D in two days and then did it again a week later.

IF you like this, then you'll absolutely love EB&D

I guess Ill have to if everyone says it is funnier than this.

At the end of the day, I don't think Vice Principals was actually that funny of a show, and I'm not entirely sure it was supposed to be. When it was on it was on, but it honestly felt like more of a drama to both myself and my SO.

Eastbound and Down does have dramatic moments, but it also has "plums".

I'm really excited that my SO is fiending for more McBride because it gives me an excuse to rewatch season 1 and finally watch the rest of it, which I've always heard just gets better and better.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Pretty wild how dainty Boyd's character is; dude even dyed some of his hair blonde for some reason. Sad that this is the end of the show, but glad to have it back on the air. I hope Belinda will continue to return this season, but since she's ruled out as the shooter, I dunno why she'd be back in terms of the serving Gamby's storyline.

half way through then I will start on season 2

McBride is killing it. I don't like Russell's character (obviously I'm not supposed to) or the way he is being played but Gamby alone makes it worthwhile. Oh, and Ray too. What an inspired casting choice with that one. And he is hella nice to Gamby.

interrupting the conversation Gamby was having with Snodgrass was the highlight to me. Her taking delight in her new hairstyle in complete awkward fashion made me laugh so hard I missed a few lines of dialog in that scene. I hope that teacher gets more shine this season.

epic

That fight scene and that entire last episode was BONKERS! So cray!

I've been so impressed with him that it almost makes me like the character

Walter Goggins has been a revelation. I had no idea he had THIS in him. Dude killed it every week. Every inflection of his voice and the little looks he gave had me dyin'!