Catching up on East Bound & Down and it has me thinking. It is the childish behavior of Kenny Powers that makes the show fun to watch. Yet the behavior leads to hard learned lessons, to redemption. Is every narrative arc about becoming humbled? A story allows us to live the crime, vicariously, but also doles out the punishment. It is cathartic, a way to have your cake and eat it too. In order to pull you into the story, the story has to sin, and to get you out of the story the story has to deliver you from your sins. In this way the story is a hypocrite, knowing before the fun begins where it will end. You are hooked anyway. We will go back to the story over and over. On the flip side the story allows you a glimpse into the heart of hypocrisy in all of us, leads to sympathy for the devil, and in doing so leads toward compassion. Stories are strange machines.