• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

Talking bout dang ol' King of the Hill, man

Alex

Alex

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
King of the Hill is one of my favorite TV shows, hands down. The humor is more understated and definitely more grounded compared to some of its contemporaries in adult animation such as Simpsons, South Park or Family Guy, but it's no less hilarious and heartfelt.

I think part of the broad appeal is that the show does lampoon political issues of the times, but at its best does lampoon both liberalism and conservatism without punching down in either direction. I think one of the better examples of this is the episode where after being repelled by the quality of the steaks at Mega-Lo Mart, Hank ends up volunteering at a non-profit co-op, where he learns to appreciate the free-range vegetarian-fed beef, and organic produce, only for his hippie colleagues to immediately sell out to corporate greed when Mega-Lo Mart buys the co-op. ("If I believed in karma, I'd be really worried about you guys.")

I'm only one episode into the new season, which definitely took some time to set up the new premise, which is that Hank and Peggy have returned to Arlen after living abroad in Saudi Arabia for several years, with Bobby now owning and running a restaurant. But it's a promising start and I look forward to watching the rest whenever I can.
 
Episode 2 is the first proper episode after the repiloting to establish the new setting, and is about Hank and Bobby butting heads and getting competitive when the former gets into homebrewing beer. This is a fun episode because it reestablishes the Hank/Bobby dynamic that is one of the primary drivers of conflict in the original run, but what's interesting here is that because Bobby's 21 and more or less independent now, Hank doesn't necessarily have the same amount of power over Bobby, and Bobby's allowed to get a bit sassy with him.

I really enjoy the Hank and Bobby episodes, because I think while Hank is often bewildered by the things Bobby likes and enjoys, he never stops loving and supporting his son. That's true here, too, although now we can see it reciprocate between Bobby and his dad now, too.
 
The weirdest part is that only 8 years passed between the end of the original run and this.

That is not nearly enough time by a *weird* margin.

Dale being elected mayor, then immediately intentionally getting himself impeached because obviously he should be was a good bit
 
I can't just sit and watch all the episodes at once, so I'll be filling the in-between time with some of my favorite bits.

"What would weirdos be doing at the gas station?"
 
Octopus Prime said:
The weirdest part is that only 8 years passed between the end of the original run and this.

That is not nearly enough time by a *weird* margin.

Dale being elected mayor, then immediately intentionally getting himself impeached because obviously he should be was a good bit
Click to expand...
Dale Gribble: "Any democratic system that would put me in office doesn't deserve the title 'fair'."

We are so back.
 
Okay, after episode three I feel like it's safe to say they haven't lost it. And it's always great to hear Jack McBrayer in things.
 
Dale sounds weird more often than not, even in the first couple of episodes (maybe they had to go back and fill in some lines?) but otherwise this is some good stuff. Mike Judge knows how to reboot a property.
 
jpfriction said:
Dale sounds weird more often than not, even in the first couple of episodes (maybe they had to go back and fill in some lines?) but otherwise this is some good stuff. Mike Judge knows how to reboot a property.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's pretty much what happened. Dale's lines are a mix of the original actor and his replacement.
 
I'll get to the revival season eventually, I just started a re-watch (Or, I guess, a first-watch since I dropped off the series around Season 7 or so?) and only just started the second season so it might be a bit.

The first season is still mostly good, with a few rough spots to get through in Current Year 2025. A bit of a Yike moment in the episode with Kahn's introduction (even the 90s felt a bit too late to have 'Asians eat dogs' stereotype, even if the main point of it was that Hank and Dale were being stupid and racist for thinking so). As much as the show postured not being political and throwing punches at both sides equally it definitely seemed to save most of its harshest caricatures for those gosh darned LA Liberals, but it was the 90s.

But Cotton, man. Cotton is the worst. The show is, at least, aware of that and calls out his bullshit from his first episode, but still. I guess I don't have much patience for this sort of character anymore.
 
"You want to die alone? Fine. You want to keep coming back and never die? That's fine too. In fact, I hope you do go on living forever as the unhappy person you are in the hell you have created here on earth. I hope you live forever. I really do."
"Oh DO you now?"
<Cotton dies out of spite>
 
In Episode 9, we actually do get some flashback scenes of
Cotton as a reflection of a teenaged GH and his attitudes as influenced by the Andrew Tate inspired Manliness Bootcamp. It really does re-enforce how awful he was, even if he was a pretty funny character. I really liked that episode as a counter argument for toxic misogynistic masculinity
 
529297073_1076310044714183_8139386375989157118_n.jpg
 
My SO & I decided to pause our Simpsons rewatch (we're on season 21 ATM, which is about where I dropped off as it was airing) and instead start a KotH watch, a series that neither of us has watched nearly as much of. I've probably seen like 1/3 of it in aggregate just by it being on tv in proximity to the Simpsons for so long (much like Malcolm in the Middle), but at the time I thought it was ugly and boring and refused to give it the time of day (again much like Malcolm in the Middle). Similarly, she's seen countless TikTok clips of it, but nothing else. Anyway, after two episodes, I am pleased to report that its start is much less rough than I would have expected. We're genuinely enjoying it right out of the gate.
 
I must have been living under a rock because I had no idea the show was getting a revival. That's awesome!

I used to watch king of the hill with the family now and then but its a show I've come to appreciate a lot more as I got older.
 
Watched the first few episodes of the new revival. I like it, but I'm not gonna get too invested.

I loved King of the Hill during the original run. At first it felt like a breath of fresh air. A much more grounded, serious, family sitcom vs the Simpsons. It felt very refreshing to have characters like Joseph allowed to hit puberty and have a growth spurt.

Then it trapped the characters in time. As the show went on, it felt harder and harder to enjoy Hank -- our lovable but pigheaded conservative dad -- as he kept having to have to learn similar lessons over and over.

So far, I'm very happy with the new show. It's nice to let the characters grow up and change and have to adjust to our evolving world. There's a lot of rich, fertile ground you can cover with characters like Hank -- who is now even older and more prone to conservatism -- having to live with what's become of things.

I just... don't have a lot of faith in the show actually being able to do that. So far, they seem like they're dancing around MAGA/what Republicans have become and very lightly teasing around urban vs suburban divide at best, still trying to serve as a bridge for audiences, both conservative and liberal. But I buy less and less that Hank can stay a decent man while taking in a 24/7 Fox News diet in [current year]
 
SpoonyBard said:
But Cotton, man. Cotton is the worst. The show is, at least, aware of that and calls out his bullshit from his first episode, but still. I guess I don't have much patience for this sort of character anymore.
Click to expand...
THe way they handle this is my favorite episode in the new series.
 
"Too bad, old man."
is the perfect capper to that episode and to Cotton's character.

I was thinking about the episode where Paul F. Tompkins plays the clowning professor today. Just about every line he has is really funny.

"What?! What could possibly be funny about fart noises? Bobby! You don't want these kinds of laughs! This laughter is ill-informed!"
 
I keep forgetting to watch the new season. Maybe tonight.

King of the Hill isn't really a thing in Austria, and never was. Without TT, I wouldn't know about it. Watched it, uh, ten years ago, start to finish. And I have to agree with WH, in how the characters became stagnant at some point, around the middle probably. A shame, because there had been small developments before. Like the airheaded niece(?), who lived with the family, and realized she was a good mechanic. The arc kinda stopped at some poimt.

Anyway, still enjoyed the show (aside from Cotton, the miserable asshole), even when it wasn't at its strongest.
 
That aspect of Luanne falls by the wayside early on, alongside the more serialized aspects of the show writ large. The latter is definitely due to executives wanting everything to be completely standalone for ease of syndication, I think.

But that points to a larger problem with long-running sitcoms in general that the characters can't change too much, because a lot of what makes them funny is their character flaws that they might otherwise work on.
 
I'm gonna expand on my prior comment.

They really just identified a great chance for turning normal ideas on their head.

GH lost his father. In most circumstances with this story, he'd be lost and in need of mooring and it writes itself.

BUT COTTON WAS AN ASSHOLE. In which case the story would be maybe he's better off without THAT dad. But we all have a need of A dad so what is going to happen.

BUT WE LIVE IN THE AGE OF THE MANOSPHERE. So the void of GH's dad is being filled with.......the same toxic bile that his old man WOULD have fed him.

So Hank having to defeat the Manosphere (classic KotH storyline), after acknowledging the valid reasons for its existence not justifying its toxicity and harm (classic KotH chef's kiss)... also gives him the chance to finally get resolution over his father. It fully justifies the new series to me. It was GREAT.

The cherry on top of course is now Hank has GH as a young man who he can build cars with and (presumably) do all the stuff he wasn't afforded with Bobby, is fantastic. Like a karmic reward for remaining a good person, loving Bobby, and now having a relationship of mutual respect w/ Bobby (which in another way, is overcoming Cotton's shadow over Hank).

Great on a multiverse of levels.
 
Finished season 2 in my re-watch and I was shocked to see the Propane Boom cliffhanger so early. I remember that coming later, like at the end of season 3 at least, not season 2! Buckley really did not exist for long at all, huh?
 
SpoonyBard said:
Finished season 2 in my re-watch and I was shocked to see the Propane Boom cliffhanger so early. I remember that coming later, like at the end of season 3 at least, not season 2! Buckley really did not exist for long at all, huh?
Click to expand...
You'll see him again...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top