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EASTBOUND & DOWN SEASON DOS IS ALMOST HERE

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Like the privy bastards we are, for the last month Vice has been drinking liberally from the font of awesomeness that is Eastbound & Down's new season, officially subtitled "Season Dos: Deep Inside Mexico." That sentence translates to us having seen the first few episodes. Each one, say 20 or so times. It's gotten to the point where if I can't sleep I put on a screener and simply allow the filthy, knife-waving poetry of Kenny Powers's Mexican sidekick Aaron---a scene-stealing menace embodied by legendary Hollywood midget Deep Roy---to lure me into the dreamstate. Only to be awakened in piss!

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Aaron has threatened to pull a Mama Fratelli on my tongue if I decide to "post any fucking spoilers you fucking grinnngo!" but it's worth it. We can safely say that the season is worthy of the original and is its own different, more somber beast. This is how Eastbound's co-creator/director Jody Hill described his aspirations during our set visit in Puerto Rico: "Tonally, I want the season to feel like a cross between Amores Perros and Bad News Bears*. The comedy will be similar enough hopefully that it doesn't throw people, but there are darker elements. And we are shooting on 35mm, so the production design, all the locations, it's going to have a bigger feel. I think we did a good job at making last season feel like a movie, and more so with this one."

The scenic photo above is the first look at Kenny Powers (totally chilled on his trusty new moped) exuding his typical respect and appreciation for the Charros, the Mexican ball club at the heart of the season. In full uniform on the far right is Roger, the team's patient-seeming coach, played by character actor Marco Rodriguez. I couldn't quite place Rodriguez's face in the first episode, before realizing that years ago he was---oh nothing, really---just the disease to Sylvester Stallone's cure in Cobra. As previously reported (and not pictured here), playing the team's impulsive owner Sebastian Cisneros, is Michael Pena, who shredded in Hill's Observe & Report as the thieving mall pig with the pimp lisp.

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On set, Hill, David Gordon Green (who is co-directing three episodes to Hill's four), and Danny McBride emphasized that Kenny's myriad misconceptions of Mexico are partially shaped from years of watching Spaghetti Westerns. The name Charros, meaning "horsemen" or "cowboys," is a hat tip to this self-serviced mythology: "I think this season is going to invoke massive reactions," says Green. "Obviously, nobody's going to receive it like Two and a Half Men, but some of the stuff involving the setting I think could lead to substantial controversy."

On a break from shooting scenes with Pena, I asked McBride if Kenny undergoes any wardrobe changes south of The South. "Kenny moved to Mexico with a suitcase, so he's rocking a lot of the same under-armor. Levi's and fucking white sneakers. I mean, these are the same tennis shoes I was wearing two years ago! We want that authenticity. He's still the Man in Black. But we have expanded. There's some Latin flavor for sure." I don't know whether to chalk up Kenny's cornrows--recently revealed online--to Latin flavor or the thuggish sartorial influence of Aaron. Four feet tall. Yeah, Aaron's bad news alright, bad news like a rotten panocha.

Hold onto your dicks. We'll be unleashing a warchest of coverage about EB&D: Dos closer to the season premiere on HBO, September 26.

HUNTER STEPHENSON

* Yes, the original. Who are you, Harry Knowles all of a sudden?