For Danny McBride and HBO, mixing comedy and drama has become a pattern. One of his previous series for the network also straddled the line between the two genres. 

On “Eastbound and Down,” McBride played Kenny Powers, a former major league baseball star with anger management and substance abuse issues who goes to Mexico to try and resurrect his career. He explained that after pitching the series to HBO, he felt somewhat pigeonholed by a specific suggestion from network executives, but held fast to his genre-busting ways.

“HBO wanted us to look for a cinematographer; part of the notes were like, ‘We need to find a cinematographer that can shoot comedy,'” McBride told Vulture. “To us, what that meant was to not make it look as good; they don’t want it to be moody, they want it to be bright.” 

He went on to explain that he and series co-creator Jody Hill felt that just because the series was meant to be funny did not mean they should give it short shrift when it came to production value. “Why not invest in the show, or the soundtrack, or the production design if it all ultimately makes the world more interesting?” McBride asked.