A Picaresque of Pettiness
Vice Principals is the new ½ hour comedy from Danny McBride and Jodi Hill, formerly the creators of Eastbound and Down. Much like the latter, the former is funny, uncomfortable, and incorrectly labeled a comedy.
We laugh as vice principal Neil Gamby (McBride) alternately curses out sulky teenagers and attempts to save face in front of colleagues, even when said face is covered in cafeteria food slung at him (in slow motion) from said teenagers.
We shift uncomfortably as Lee Russell (Walter Goggins – having fun as an agent of chaos) surreptitiously spits in his mother-in-law’s tea, a small glint of sociopathy dancing across his eyes.
We laugh again as both get doused in a Gatorade laced with LSD at a high school football game (“it gets absorbed through the skin!”). And we cringe again as both burn down the new principal's house.
Just as he did with Kenny Powers, McBride amplifies Gamby's internal struggles, shortcomings, and desires, treating them with the gravity of a showdown in a Sergio Leone western. A scene as simple as Gamby trying to sit next to English teacher Amanda Snodgrass (Georgia King) in the high school cafeteria is filmed in slow motion set to an epic synthesizer background track.
Adding to the pathos is Gamby’s daughter, Jannelle, a chubby ginger with frizzy hair and braces. Much to Gamby’s horror, she is growing fond of moto-cross, a “white trash” sport he feels lacks the class of horseback riding. If only he could become principal of North Jackson High School (presumably somewhere in Georgia or the Carolinas), he could afford the stable fees. Alas, he has been passed over in favor of Dr. Brown, an outsider and proud black woman played by Kimberly Hebert Gregory. However, Gamby is not the only one burning with envy and resentment. He is joined in his wounded pride by co-vice principal Lee Russell, and together the two become co-conspirators in Dr. Brown’s downfall.
A fun premise. And one that might have been handled very differently had it been produced, say, by the team behind Horrible Bosses. But Hill and McBride, already experts at pushing anti-heroes to the brink of unforgivable boorishness, are compelled to see how far their audience will follow as Gamby and Russell turn to increasingly unsavory methods.
The show then plays out as a tight-rope act balancing our empathy and hope of redemption for Gamby and Russell (whom McBride and Hill humanize through displays of their vulnerabilities), with acts of increasing pettiness and cruelty. The balance is not altogether graceful, as it was in Eastbound and Down. The end of the first season leaves us wondering if we can stomach any more of it. Still, bringing back characters from the edge is Hill and McBride’s forte. And we rubberneckers can’t resist seeing where it all goes next.