When creator Jody Hill last worked with HBO, it produced the instant success that was Eastbound & Down. With a disgraced baseball figure at the center, its dark comic tale of redemption was met with the hilarious reality of being an oaf. It could be that Danny McBride found a character that embodied his cocky braggadocio perfectly. At least, that's what one could think after seeing his next series with Hill called Vice Principals, where two opposing vice principals (the other played by Walton Goggins) try to sabotage the head principal to steal her job. There's romance and shady behavior galore, but the show never quite managed to find a balance between being a cleverly written story, and the crass humor that works on the baseball field but not in public schools. Vice Principals has all of the Hill passion, but some of charm seems to be missing this time around.
What may be the biggest issue with the series is what the show needs to work best: two unlikable men. Goggins and McBride definitely have a chemistry that makes the backstabbing moments pop with delightful fervor. However, there's so much heightened behavior and nastiness that they occasionally dive into straight up cartoon characters. In one episode, the two burn down the principal's house after believing that it will break her sanity. In another episode, the emotionally damaged principal is given access to gin, of which sends her on a reckless binge that is filmed for blackmail. The show has a very dark soul, and it does make a tough question for how tolerable anti-heroes need to be, let alone how convincing Vice Principals needs to be to be funny and disturbing.
It's especially odd when considering how inessential the principal job seems to those outside of the central players. Very little is proven in the time between the first episode and the season finale that suggests that these characters are competent. It isn't even their sabotage plot. It's that they handle irresponsible students with cursing and insults. The only thing that seems to be down pat is the authoritarian nature that they wish to have. Along with other relationships, the first season builds around the duo's rise to power as well as the horrifying reality that they are principals with a sadistic side. They're like the politicians who cheated their way to the top, and it's sometimes hard to find sympathy or humor in anything that they do.
Whatever Hill's vision is may very well be intentionally caustic. He is a filmmaker who has enjoyed finding the depths of human depravity in The Foot Fist Way and Observe & Report. His dark humor is an acquired taste that may leave people with normal sensibilities a little disconcerted. As it stands, Vice Principals feels like his biggest endurance fans to mainstream audiences, largely because there's comedy and discomfort alongside each other as one could argue that the protagonists here are at times satanic and insensitive. To some extent, one could argue that very little was learned over the nine episodes, though Hill's conscience actually saves the back half.
It is obvious that Hill wants McBride to be the bigger hero of this story. For starters, he has a far more interesting home life: a BMX-riding daughter, and an ex-wife who hates his guts. He also has relationships with teachers and seems to make moves to actually improve his scenario. By the end, it's more clear that Goggins is the worse of the two largely because his disingenuous nature was a front only matched by his ill-colored slacks. He refuses to take responsibility for any of the chaos, and it may in part be because McBride was at times more selfish about it. Together, they are anti-heroes on a middle class scale; following a dream of making it to the next level of income and reputation.
The back half also finds the story shifting from the petty theft and crimes to a more exciting story about how the staff feels. The principal for one has the most tragic story as she discovers that her family doesn't love her, and that a subsequent drinking binge will get her fired. The discomfort returns in the place of sympathy that is superbly dark. The unlikable protagonists have essentially ruined her life, and it's not fun to watch at all. The finale ends with McBride being shot by a masked gunman. While the moment is itself shocking, it still manages to feel cathartic in its ambiguity. Considering that Hill wants to keep the series short with only two seasons, one could only imagine that redemption is the theme of next season and will give season one a better understanding of its hostility.
Vice Principals falls on the more acquired taste of HBO comedy's spectrum. The concept itself is hard to put up with at times, and the characters do have some bad judgment calls. It works as comedy if you can get around their animosity. However, there is an endurance test factor to everything that makes finding what works take awhile. We understand why these men desperately want a better reputation. The only issue is that it's so hard to believe what they did to get it. There's highs and lows, but it'll be tough to see this rebounding and even being halfway on par with Eastbound & Down by the end of its run. It'll be fine, but there's so much more it needs to do next time to up the legacy that it's likely to have.
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
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