The much-belated 14th season of Mike Choose and Greg Daniels’s King of the Hill is that uncommon TV revival that doesn’t coast on nostalgia or mere reverence. The collection picks up roughly the place it left off 15 years in the past, pushing ahead by digging into the quietly ridiculous, deeply acquainted rhythms of on a regular basis life in Texas in 2025. It’s nonetheless comically dry, character-driven, and succesful of shifting, with out warning, into moments of low-key profundity.
The collection sidesteps the streaming-era lure of many reboots that focus, with pressured sentimentality and clunky topicality, on characters who’re out of step with trendy sensibilities. As an alternative, this revival feels informal however thought-about. Life in the fictional Texas city of Arlen stays as unhurried as ever, as does King of the Hill’s gently loping, observational beats, that are attuned to its characters as they’re—quirks, contradictions, and all.
What’s most spectacular about the new season is how skillfully it incorporates and handles up to date points. In the ninth episode, “No Hank Left Behind,” Hank (Choose) joins a males’s rights boot camp along with his youthful half-brother, Good Hank (Finn Wolfhard), whereas in the seventh, “Any Given Hill-Day,” Peggy (Kathy Najimy) will get caught up in a Fb-influenced neighborhood meltdown over her flea-infested free library.
This would possibly look like straightforward zeitgeist-baiting, however the humor right here comes from who these characters are—and, crucially, who they’ve at all times been—and how they navigate every state of affairs accordingly. Not like, say, Final Man Standing, King of the Hill’s strategy to topicality isn’t loud or moralizing. Hank isn’t at all times proper, and the collection finds humor and coronary heart in how he learns, nonetheless begrudgingly. That willingness to let him sit along with his discomfort is an element of what makes this revival really feel so true to the present’s legacy.
Every time Hank flat-out tells Peggy and their grown son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), that they’re higher than him at one thing, it isn’t some soggy show of self-flagellation, as his is the unforced conviction of a person who’s been humbled by life. The season’s second episode, “The Beer Story,” sees Hank going through off with Bobby in a homebrewing contest and ends on a surprisingly honest be aware when Hank pokes enjoyable at his personal old-head headassery: “See, he is aware of extra about sure issues than I gave him credit score for, however I used to be too proud to hear.”
The season’s fifth episode, “New Ref in City,” revolves round Hank’s newfound devotion to soccer—a sport his buddies deal with like a overseas pathogen. The backlash escalates to the level the place Dale (Toby Huss) kidnaps him, satisfied that Hank’s love of the offside rule marks him as a Saudi plant. Even in such ludicrously over-the-top moments, King of the Hill by no means loses its emotional heart. Hank’s affection for the sport isn’t ironic or coloured by an agenda; he simply likes its clear guidelines. That sort of unfussy sincerity—particularly when met with ridicule—says extra about him than a thousand overwritten monologues ever might.
The emotional register all through the new season is per what made the authentic collection sing, however it feels somewhat wiser this time round. The episodes are pushed by a quiet ethos: Take care of folks, search for widespread floor, and don’t be a unnecessary jerk. As Hank places it at the finish of the first episode, “Return of the King”: “It’s good to be good.”
King of the Hill is startlingly beneficiant, particularly in a local weather that rewards snark over sincerity. And as an extension of this, Bobby, of all folks, will get the most unassumingly transferring improve: As soon as the present’s nasally punching bag, he’s now an earnest, hard-working younger grownup with a raspy, sugar-dipped twang. He’s nonetheless bizarre, however he’s not simply comedian reduction.
Fourteen seasons in, King of the Hill hasn’t reinvented itself a lot because it’s settled deeper into its personal pores and skin. It’s nonetheless a present about propane, propane equipment, and the minor humiliations of suburban life. Nevertheless it’s additionally about how folks be taught with out the want of grand gestures, and perhaps even develop somewhat, one awkward interplay at a time. That these characters can change with out dropping their essence is likely to be the present’s subtlest magic trick.
Rating: (*14*)
Solid:(*14*) Mike Choose, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Finn Wolfhard, Toby Huss, Stephen Root Community:(*14*) Hulu
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