Vice Principals

Hill and McBride are able to strike a balance between biting comedy and introspection.

It’s not a knowing satire like “Veep” or a subcultural ensemble riff like “Silicon Valley.” It’s a more obvious comedy about ignorance, insensitivity, ambition, and delusion, like “Eastbound & Down,” and it’s enjoyable if you don’t expect too much from it.

The first episode doesn’t begin to suggest how far Vice Principals will go and how funny it will become. However, you can readily appreciate the chemistry between McBride and Goggins.

There are moments where Russell and Gamby’s reluctant alliance, and later, their personal lives, give the series the depth it desperately needs, but it’s fleeting. Instead, the first four episodes are clogged with a crude sense of humor that for the most part isn’t clever (like say, Veep) nor is it funny.

The result is a show with occasional laughs but lacking the freshness of the first season of “Eastbound & Down,” and the consistently funny plotting of the best episodes of that show. Even just over the first few episodes, Vice Principals already feels like it’s spinning its wheels.

It feels often as if the show cannot contain the anger and resentment it is trying to tap into, and instead of doing the work of converting it into comedy, it has just unleashed unpleasantness into the ether.

Vice Principals isn't just a show to skip. It's a show to actively avoid.