Beginning with Tony Soprano, dramatic antiheroes have been as responsible for the contemporary television revolution as cable or the Internet. Now a modern comedic antihero, Kenny Powers from “Eastbound & Down,” could have the same pioneering effect on his own genre.

“Eastbound” wrapped up its fourth and final season on HBO on Sunday night. The show was a cult hit because Powers, like Soprano, was a brilliant antihero.

As a washed-up ex-major league reliever trying to recapture his fame and fortune, Powers thought he was better than everyone else because he had once been famous.

His delusions of self-importance prevented him from realizing that his actions were absurd and his importance in society was nonexistent at the start of the series. This made for great comedy.

But in the course of the series, Powers slowly overcame his delusions and bettered himself because he wanted to win back his high school girlfriend April and build a family with her. This made for great underlying drama.

The combination of comedy and underlying drama made Powers a new type of antihero for the serial comedy series or comedies with a running plot. One who combined the best qualities of a classic sitcom antihero like George Costanza and a new dramatic antihero like Soprano.

To understand the antihero nexus that Powers represents, it’s important to first understand how Soprano updated the character type.

Since antiheroes are the opposites of heroes, they typically possess the opposite sets of characteristics. Heroes are altruistic, courageous and idealistic. Antiheroes are selfish, cowardly and corrupt, or unaware. Heroes develop as a story plays out. Antiheroes remain the same.

Since sitcoms have always been outlets where viewers can laugh at human imperfections and depravities, static antiheroes like Costanza have always been great protagonists.

But Tony Soprano brought drama to the antihero by making it a dynamic role.

Soprano started “The Sopranos” as a ruthless mobster. As the series went on, he developed as a family man.

Soprano was still a morally corrupt mobster throughout the series. But his development as a family man made him a sympathetic character that viewers could root for.

In Powers, “Eastbound” creators Jody Hill and Danny McBride (who plays Powers) created a depraved comedic antihero like Costanza who developed like Soprano.

Powers was a fame-hungry narcissist until the end of the series. The final scene featured Powers finishing a screenplay about his largely insignificant life.

But he also came to realize that being with April was more important than recapturing his fame. In the series finale, he gave up his own TV show in North Carolina so April, now his wife, could take a job in Santa Fe. Like Soprano, Powers’ development made him worth rooting for.

With “Eastbound & Down,” by combining the sitcom antihero and the dramatic antihero into a single character, Hill and McBride have given us a serial comedy protagonist who looks a lot like the typical protagonist in a comedy movie. Powers starts out as an ignorant loser but overcomes these flaws because a girl inspired him to. It’s the plot of just about every Adam Sandler movie.

By bringing this type of character to television, Hill and McBride have proven that serial comedies could have a place in the historically sitcom-dominated television comedy arena.

If “Eastbound” inspires a generation of great serial comedies, Kenny Powers will be the Tony Soprano of his genre.

Jarrad Saffren is a senior political science and newspaper and online journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be emailed at jdsaffre@gmail.com.

Published on November 20, 2013 at 1:59 am