If there’s anyone that can take the quirky high concept that is HUNG – down on his luck ex high school basketball star turned high school coach with impressively large package that in times of heightened financial stress decides to use that package and become a prostitute – it’s HBO.
It’s a unique but also gimmicky premise - handled correctly – it could be one of the greatest offerings of HBO’s considerable stable of hits over the years – handled incorrectly it has the potential to jump the rails and become an unwatchable nightmare faster than any show they’ve tried (well, except John From Cincinnati). So far I’m rooting for it and so far, they’re pulling it off. Hung has recently been renewed for a Second Season, and this Sunday, August 13th, will be the Season Finale, giving people who’ve missed the boat plenty of time to catch up on repeats or Netflix it in time for next season – which I hope they do. So far the show has been full of interesting surprises and unique choices.
One of the slam dunks here are the solid casting choices. Thomas Jane as high school basketball coach/prostitute Ray Drecker is the perfect blank canvas. Conventionally attractive, but not unrealistically so, he’s the ideal flawed everyman, and it’s enjoyable to watch him slowly conquer (and also repeatedly fail) at his own life. Jane started out a little rocky, but has really embraced the role and made it more honest I think than I expected.
Jane Adams is completely inspired as Tanya, Ray’s well meaning but ill-equipped pimp. Adams steals just about every scene she’s in – but in a good way – and watching her stumble through her own disastrous life and navigate through the bizarre uncharted waters of learning to be a good pimp is hilarious and somehow also heartbreaking. Adams is one of those insanely talented actresses that is not generally considered “traditionally attractive” enough to get the ingenue role – and so it’s wonderful to see her utilized here in the perfect co-star role she deserves.
Anne Heche as Ray’s ex-wife Jessica is the least inspired casting choice for me personally, but she’s holding her own in the role.
The most inspired of all the casting however, is in Ray and Jessica’s teenage twins that look – possibly for the first time ever on television – like real true awkward teenagers. Damon and Darby, played by Charlie Saxon and Sianoa Smit-McPhee are deliciously imperfect. Whereas Ray and Jessica were high school studs – star athlete and head cheerleader – Ray and Jessica’s twins are more like traditional modern day high school freaks – but in the best and most realistic of ways – a little awkward and ill-fitting, pudgy, and confident but also completely unsure. It is hands down the most unique casting I remember seeing in recent years for teens – the only show I can even think to compare it to is My So Called Life.
One of the most endearing qualities of the show is Ray’s rabid unconditional love for his kids despite the fact that they don’t conform to preconceived ideas he might have held in his youth. It makes him deliciously human, and likable. As does his tentative friendship with Tanya. I think it is Ray and Tanya’s relationship that really drives the heart of this show right now for me. It’s a pitch perfect example of a true male/female friendship and all the obstacles that can sometimes involve. It’s clearly new territory for both of the characters and it comes at a time in their lives when they are both a bit out on a limb with much at stake – and the way they cling together in both the good and bad ways is actually quite lovely.
Even more inspired than some of the unique casting however, is the genius of setting the show partially in a high school where Ray coaches basketball, allowing the show to easily draw parallels between high school and “real life”. It offers an easy understanding of the plain fact that high school sets the rules for us as adolescents that we inevitably end up following for most of our adult lives. That what you don’t conquer or learn in high school can easily mark you and haunt you for the rest of your life. And most depressingly, the fact that life, like high school, is mostly a popularity contest.
[MILD SPOILERS]
A recent scene had Tanya getting accosted, threatened, and borderline roughed up in a bathroom by a co-worker (and customer) – a moment that could easily have come from any high school today or twenty years ago.
Similarly a new plot line has Ray being wooed by another woman interested in stealing him away from Tanya and pimping him herself. Ray’s loyalty to Tanya is refreshing, but one can’t help but wonder how long he can hold out. Tanya’s anxiety and insecurity about the situation is patently obvious and so high school 101 I can barely believe it. But it works, and it works because it’s true. Because you can see your own high school-ish behaviors reflected back to you in these characters.
Overall these are powerful parallels that are working to the shows advantage – and if they can keep it up – the characters and the show should have a long life ahead of them.
The high-concept premise on the other hand – is like a trap waiting to be sprung – and I just hope the writers and creators are much more clever and creative than I am – because I can’t see how many stories there really are to tell – without taking the series somewhere that it doesn’t want to go. In Season One we have already had Ray: overcome his discomfort with sleeping with women that he doesn’t find attractive; have another woman try to steal him away and pimp him herself; he’s fallen for one of his customers; his ex-wife is on the verge of soliciting his service (without awareness that he’s the prostitute); he’s gotten stiffed by one customer and robbed by another; and most interestingly, one of his regulars put him through the full gamut of relationship emotions from falling in love to brutal break-up, all for cash…how many more stories are there? I just don’t know.
I do worry about the show jumping the shark, but it hasn’t let me down yet and so I’m just going to try to sit back and enjoy the ride. You should too.
Hung’s Season One Finale is on Sunday, September 13th at 10:00 pm.
Related posts:
Kelly is a freelance writer and artist living in New York who is relatively obsessed with comics and feminism, which generally make horrible bedfellows and explains a lot of her recurring headaches. You can read her rantings about such things at: http://1979semifinalist.wordpress.com
I am in love with this show…you nailed it on the head with your overview. I’m glad its renewed for a 2nd season, I’m looking forward to see where the story line is going too. Even though the point of the show is Ray being a prostitute I feel that is so much more than that. There is a lot of character development happening with everyone and to agree with you the characters are likable (even Anne Heche’s charachter) and there is such a balance between everyone’s quirks that it all works. I agree with you again that the characters are unconventional by TV standards and I think that’s what I love most about it…especially the twins. Well done HBO.
Good review/pitch. I already watch the show but this would have swayed me to catching a episode or two.
I think Anne Heche is really good. Jane Adams is the shining star in the show but Heche is doing some of her best work. Sure she is playing coiled-spring-crazy, but it works for the character.
Would watch this if I had HBO, but will def be checking it out on DVD.