From HBO and creators Jody Hill and Danny McBride comes the half hour comedy series Vice Principals. Starring McBride, Walton Goggins, Kimberley Hebert Gregory, Georgia King, Busy Phillips, Shea Whigham, Sheaun McKinney and Edi Patterson, the Blu-ray for season 1 is available now while season 2 is targeting a summer 2017 debut.
“Eastbound & Down” creators Danny McBride and Jody Hill team again for a dark comedy series — no surprise there! — that may place high school administrators in a wholly different light. McBride and Walton Goggins co-star as vice principals at North Jackson High School, which becomes ground zero for a major power struggle when the principal retires. The rival administrators set their sights on the vacated top spot — only to see English teacher Dr. Belinda Brown enter the picture. Putting their mutual hate aside, the bitter antagonists form an unholy alliance to bring down the outsider by any means necessary.
Review
Eastbound & Down was a comedic spectacle, never afraid to push the boundaries of good taste and in the process became a cult classic. So when Jody Hill and Danny McBride team up once again, we find ourselves paying attention. Vice Principals is a strange cauldron simmering with black comedy, bizarro humour and spectacular performances by a cast that all looked like they were having a great time being there. From Shea Whigham, who plays the cool step-dad and can absolutely do no wrong in any scene he’s a part of and yet still gets relentless hate thrown at him by McBride, to Edi Patterson’s awkward and undying attraction to our leading man even though he wants nothing to do with her. The world of Vice Principals is both familiar and insane all at once as Hill and McBride lead us down some unexpected and grim territory.
You will feel uncomfortable just as much as you will laugh your ass off and that is why Vice Principals succeeds. My god – that ending in the finale? Are you guys kidding me? Or how about when McBride and Goggins BURN DOWN THE NEW PRINCIPAL’S HOUSE to get back at her. The insane lengths that these characters go to is absolutely ridiculous but it’s also damn funny… So why the hell not go there? Most shows would be appalled to go the distance that Vice Principals reaches every single episode. Vulgar, gross (no — shitting in a fountain is not a genius prank dude) and did I mention hilarious? Yes it is and that’s what matters. Goggins and McBride have amazing chemistry as our two vice principals who both hate one another but team up to try and get the new principal canned so one of them can get promoted instead.
Kimberley Hebert Gregory is a force here… She comes into the picture as our new principal and has to deal with Goggins’ insincere pandering and McBride’s excessive force in which he commands over the students (aka he’s a giant dick). Near the end she really winds up stealing the entire show and what she does in the penultimate episode is off-the-rails.. I would never do that to a cop car… Ever… I mean. Wow. If you loved Eastbound & Down, then you will absolutely lose your shit for Vice Principals. Everything from the Bill Murray cameo in episode 1 to that psychotic cliffhanger finale is absolute gold.
Special Features
Audio Commentary on every episode: I recommend watching the commentary during the season finale. They won’t spoil what happened or what is going to happen after that stunning cliffhanger, but it’s fun listening to them talk about it. McBride and either Goggins or Hill are on every single audio commentary track for our nine episodes too, which is a huge plus.
Deleted Scenes: Even the scrapped scenes are funny. There were a few that they probably could have left in and I would’ve appreciated that.
Blooper Reel: The five-minute gag reel was a good time. It was a riot seeing the cast break up at some of the lines. Especially Edi Patterson, whose sexual advances on McBride were amazing.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]