Development

In March 2016, HBO announced that the eighth episode of the series would be titled "E.A.B.", and that it would be written by Riccardo DiLoreto and Michael Mitnick, and directed by Jon S. Baird. This was DiLoreto's first writing credit, Mitnick's first writing credit, and Baird's first directing credit.^[1]

Viewers

In its original American broadcast, "E.A.B." was seen by an estimated 0.567 million household viewers with a 0.20 in the 18–49 demographics. This means that 0.20 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.^[2] This was a 15% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.666 million household viewers with a 0.22 in the 18-49 demographics.^[3]

Critical reviews

"E.A.B." received positive reviews from critics. Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "'E.A.B.' used just about everyone on the show's roster, and used them well. After a couple of episodes that really dug into certain specific characters, the show is now able to more fully realize its ensemble nature. The best part here, this week, being Lester's musical tutelage of Kip, and then the blending of both their sounds."^[4]

Dan Caffrey of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "At the risk of simplifying the series' strengths, I'm going to call it: Tonight's episode of Vinyl works because it focuses on making music — the writing of it, the distribution of it, the marketing of it, all of it. Almost every conflict and character motivation stems from the business of creating art, and when Vinyl sticks to being about business, Vinyl is good."^[5]

Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Clark is getting his mind blown by the underground, and possibly discovering some new talent that could save American Century, but otherwise this feels like a strangely anticlimactic ending for a season with only two episodes to go."^[6] Noel Murray of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "This week's 'E.A.B.' is more than halfway decent. It's the best Vinyl since this season's promising third and fourth episodes — both of which succeeded by being stylish, funny, eventful, and relatively unpretentious. Here again, Vinyl backs down from trying to be the Very Important Saga of Richie Finestra, Troubled Genius, and instead weaves together several low-stakes stories with top-shelf material."^[7]

Gavin Edwards of The New York Times wrote, "Vinyl has featured lots of rock history lessons, but none as good as the moment when Lester decides to strap on a guitar and give the Nasty Bits a succinct history of the E-A-B chord progression."^[8] Dan Martin of The Guardian wrote, "Despite everything, you might feel sorry for Richie after Joe Corso fitted him up for Buck's murder. But his antics in Vegas last week, gambling the rest of the company's money away and letting Zak think it was his fault, have rendered the guy pretty much irredeemable by this point. By contrast, another solid and enjoyable episode finds things coming together for everyone else."^[9]

Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode a 3.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "'E.A.B.' was an active movement in the series. While the American Century Records staff are finding their way forward, Richie is folding up in the middle."^[10] Robert Ham of Paste wrote, "What better way to pad out your shows with talent, than to contractually obligate your actors to do it. That is certainly helping a show like Vinyl, as these folks provide a little bit of grounding for the scenery chewing that is going on around them from week to week. Those fine character actors mentioned above may be wasting their time with this overwrought drama, but at least they're getting paid while they do it."^[11]