After a very explosive finale to season three, Kenny Powers slowly rolled back onto our screens suited and booted driving a very non-descript Camry. A few years have passed since we last saw our hero and in that time, he’s ditched the drugs, the baseball and the bleach blonde locks and traded it all in for a family. The episode begins with a quick recap, where Kenny crashes his own funeral, gets punched in the face by Dustin (John Hawkes), goes to jail for a bit, comes out, marries April (Katy Mixon) and they have their second child, a girl.
The ‘new’ Kenny works for a car rental company and April is pursuing her real estate career she kicked off at the end of season two. He is now a mild mannered family man, who works for a chump boss with two ear piercings (yeah, i know right?) renting cars out to people more successful than him. The cracks start to form and dribblings of the old Kenny start seeping out, as he is faced with having to accept the new life he has chosen for himself.
Of course it doesn’t last long. Kenny is a foul mouthed, drug taking, fame obsessed maniac and no amount of mustard coloured shirts and civilised dinner parties are going to hide that. Enter Ken Marino, as fellow former baseball player Guy Young who now hosts his own show ‘Sports Sesh’. Kenny delivers him a car and the two get to talking about Kenny’s glory days. He tempts Kenny into attending a VIP party with him to which he respectfully declines as he has to attend a ceremony where April is receiving an award. What a lovely husband he is.
After a lot of eye rolling at April’s ceremony, Kenny whisks himself away to the VIP party where he is surrounded by sexy women and copious amounts of alcohol. A little worse for wear the next day, he drag races with some tough guy in a Mustang, rolls into work in a smashed up car, quits his job in a rage and retreats to his garage where he unveils a small tool box, packed to the brim with every kind of drug imaginable, which he takes one by one, like he is devouring a huge feast.
I think it was safe to say from the start that this new Kenny wasn’t going to last long, he became everything he hates. He’s the doting husband, the love father and the hard working employee, as I said at one point “he’s Stevie”. Very excited to see Ken Marino added to the cast, he plays a jumped up ego-maniac pretty well and I’m looking forwards to watching his friendship with Kenny develop. Now all we need is a little Janowski, a pinch of Shaeffer and maybe, just maybe a sprinkling of Cutler. In true Kenny Powers style, the episode ends as he declares his triumphant return to baseball.
“From this moment forward, Kenny Powers only works for Kenny Fucking Powers…”
Welcome back, Kenny.
Here’s a preview for Episode 2:
