Monday, June 29, 2009
Television Review: Hung, "Pilot"
Posted by Greg Akers on Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 1:40 AM
Hung, the newest show from HBO original programming, premiered Sunday night.
Filmed and set in Detroit, Hung opens with shots of for-sale signs, American flags, and Tiger Stadium coming down. It's an abandoned-building travelogue. The voiceover by the protagonist Ray Drecker (played by Thomas Jane) explains: "Everything's falling apart, and it all starts right here in Detroit, the headwaters of a river of failure."
Ray is a basketball coach and history teacher at West Lakefield High School. Struggling to make ends meet as he raises twin teens, battles an ex (Anne Heche), and watches as his childhood home burns, Ray is feeling the pinch. He used to be on the way to something great: The former sports star and Atlanta Braves signee was "magical, a king, popular," his ex-wife, Jessica, tells him. An injury derailed his athletic career, and, one suspects, the intervening years have not been rosy before the show starts, right at the nadir.
But, against this backdrop of the dispossessed and the repossessed, Hung is a comedy. The jumping off point is right there in the show's name: Jessica — a former homecoming cheerleader beauty queen — has to admit that even if Ray used to be magical, he still is hung. (i.e., he's well-endowed in the swimsuit area, if you catch my drift.)
Ray stresses his belief in the American work ethic. "You do the best with whatever gifts God gave you." What God gave Ray was a large schvantz. So the "highly respected educator" going through a mid-life penis, I mean crisis, becomes a prostitute. The Puritans would not have approved.
But, in many ways, Hung is a comedic counterpoint to Clint Eastwood's recent film, the minor masterpiece Gran Torino. It's a recession-era comedy ripped from the classified ads of next week's newspapers.
Dmitry Lipkin (The Riches) and Colette Burson (Girls on Top, Coming Soon) created Hung. Oscar-winner Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt, Election, Citizen Ruth) directs the pilot and is an executive producer on the show. Payne has proven to have an eye for the lurid side of middle America. That makes these prestige penis jokes.
Great character actress Jane Adams costars as Tanya Skagle, Ray's pimp, aka marketing consultant. And the great soul song "Am I a Good Man" by Them Two closes out the pilot episode, speaking to what may be moral complications in episodes to come. I'll tune in to check them out.
Hung, "Pilot"
Cast:
Ray Drecker played by Thomas Jane (The Mist, The Punisher, The Sweetest Thing)
Tanya Skagle played by Jane Adams (Wonder Boys, Songcatcher)
Jessica Haxon played by Anne Heche (John Q, Six Days Seven Nights, Wag the Dog)
Damon Drecker played by Charlie Saxton (the forthcoming The Lovely Bones and Bandslam)
Darby Drecker played by Sianoa Smit-McPhee (As the Bell Rings, Neighbours)
Ronnie Haxon played by Eddie Jemison (Ocean’s 11-13, Waitress, The Punisher)
Comments (6)
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transformers wasn't "big" enough so you decided to review this? I bet you made your mama proud!
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Can't you just imagine the pitch session?
"It's about a guy with a big johnson! And we're going to call it Hung."
"Dick jokes! Brilliant! Where do I sign?"
Reviewing Transformers wouldn't make anybody proud. Not my mama, not my papa, not my brother, not my doggie. But through the magic of 1. Having HBO, and 2. Having a blog, this review came to be.
And Jeff, that's exactly how I imagine the pitch session went. I bet it's a legend in Hollywood circles.
The Transformers pitch was: There's robots and explosions and Megan Fox is in it.
If only we could combine dick jokes, exploding robots and Megan Fox, we'd have a winner.
As Greg's wife, I will only be proud if he kept the Hung pilot in the DVR until I get back in town.
I may be starved for quality entertainment but I thought the pilot was handled well. It was not all about the co-tagonist in Jane's zipper. I can digest the story a bit because the setting looks like a moderate-paced, mid American tail, filled with "everyday people." I like everyday people. I am everyday people (shout out to Sly) and we live interesting and challenging lives too! I only wonder if this guy can get put out of business by some dude with a bottle of Enzyte.
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