Hung – Season 1

Years ago, as a student at Detroit’s West Lakefield High School, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) was athletic, popular and destined for success. Today, as a West Lakefield teacher and coach of the varsity basketball team, which is on an unprecedented losing streak, he’s underpaid, uninsured and embittered that his wife of 20 years Jessica (Anne Heche) left him for her dermatologist, Ronnie Haxon (Eddie Jemison). After fire damages the rundown lakeside home he inherited from his parents, Ray’s fortunes reach an all-time low when his twin children Darby (Sianoa Smit-McPhee) and Damon (Charlie Saxton), who have been living with him, move in with their mom and her smug husband. Lonely, run down and at wit’s end, Ray attends a self-help class, where the mantra is to identify a personal “winning tool” to market for financial success. After a not-so-fulfilling encounter with fellow attendee Tanya Skagle (Jane Adams), a would-be poet, Ray has a “eureka” moment. With the help of Tanya, the well-endowed Ray sets out to exploit his greatest asset in hopes of changing his fortunes. Even if it means using the one thing life hasn’t taken from Ray – his large penis. Becoming a male escort however is easier said than done. First and foremost, finding potential clients is no small task. He can’t post a picture of anything above his waist and being charming isn’t exactly his forte.

Episode 01: Pilot
Boring. I was about to fall into sleep during the 43 minutes. A story is missing, characters are missing (Ray is too much of a problem character and Tanya was just boring) and I didn’t like it really much. Sure, Thomas Jane seems to be a good actor and Anne Heche didn’t even have much screentime to wow me, but this was kind of nothing.
First: What is the genre? Comedy or drama? It is not even dramedy, but it is a mixture between comedy and drama. An I think the writers should choose very soon, before the show really gets boring. One whole episode got wasted for the introduction of Ray trying to sell himself as a manwhore – wasn’t it possible to tell the story a bit faster? And a bit more interesting?
An example: The scene where Ray told Floyd (Steve Hytner) and the class about his big dick being his tool – the scene lost all his meaning, when it was revealed he didn’t even say it – three minutes a waste of time. And the flashbacks were partly a waste of time, too, because I didn’t see any meanings in the scene, where Ray asked his ex-wife for money (except introducing his ex-wife and giving Anne Heche screentime).
Hopefully it gets better. Quality is there, the possibilities for being a good series are there, but I don’t see the meaning in this show… 4/10

Episode 02: ‘Great Sausage’ or ‘Can I Call You Dick?’
This episode was better than the first one. Barely boring, good story, but I still can’t start to like the characters – they are not interesting enough, like the series itself. The story isn’t really interesting and the characters are still boring. Especially Ray; I don’t know what to make of him. Either Thomas Jane is miscast or his character is badly written. At least the pimp story got a bit forward, even though the story really can be a bit faster, because the rest just feels like a filler (especially Ray’s problems as a teacher and basketball trainer). As well as the story with Ray’s kids and ex-wife. Nice that there is an ongoing story with them and their wish to live with their father, but I totally don’t care about that. And this is kind of the reason, why I still don’t get that show. 6/10

Episode 03: ‘Strange Friends’ or ‘The Truth Is, You’re Sexy’
Well, it was a good episode, even though nothing happened. Ray pisses in his lake and gets a visit by the police; Tanya tries to get Ray’s wallet back, after it was stolen by Lenore (Rebecca Creskoff) after the “I fucked the bitch for free” (the scene in front of Tanya’s house was very good and shows a great chemistry between the two stars) – but the rest was pretty uninteresting. Jessica just stole time of the story – what does a half dead dog have any interest for any of the characters?
I need definitely more story in this series. 7/10

Episode 04: The Pickle Jar
A good episode, slowly I start to like the series and the characters. The story wasn’t really interesting, because almost nothing happened. Ray is still about to question his new job and finally gets himself some answers at the end, which was very nice (character development wise), but full of cliches.
Nice to see Ray’s kids in a story. Darby with boyfriend troubles and Damon is standing in for her – very interesting scene. I just need more from Anne Heche or her role is seriously underworked – She needs her own story, or she gets boring very fast, which I definitely won’t like.
But it gets better… 7,5/10

Episode 05: Do It, Monkey
Well, the series could have made it with this episode, because I liked it. Ray’s first regular-then-non-regular was pretty interesting and I needed six minutes to understand all of this. I just couldn’t really understand the female dream thing and why would a woman pay three times for the same story with a happiness consultant…
The side plot with Jessica and the kids was barely interesting though. Okay, Ron has money problems, her sick dog is dying (I already forgot that story, and it is coming back like my past… Argh, at least the dog is dead now) and the kids don’t have a stand-alone story. Maybe the series would work better in a 60-minute format. 7,5/10

Episode 06: ‘Doris Is Dead’ or ‘Are We Rich or Are We Poor?’
Best episode so far. And it looks like the series got to a point I wanted it to be: not too funny, a serious story, simple characters and everybody is involved in the story and finally Anne Heche with more screentime and even an own story (when the writers concentrate on the money deal with Ron’s money problems.
Ray’s story with Jemma (Natalie Zea) is awesome. Not only is she an interesting character, but the deal with her is something between super hilarious and funny and the possibility of an ongoing love story for Ray, especially after Jemma learned (almost) everything about him and was the good luck charm for his basketball team. And it is good to see Tanya bonding with Jessica now, at least in this way the story involves. Maybe there is not much time,
until Jessica meets “Randall”, now she knows Leonore and Tanya. 8,5/10

Episode 07: ‘The Rita Flower’ or ‘The Indelible Stench’
More drama would be good. The ending of the episode showed that the serious part of the show is working way better than the comical part. Apart from that it was a good episode with likable storylines. I sure don’t know what to make of Pierce (Joshua Leonard) as the new relationship for Tanya – is it a one-episode thing? Is it an ongoing story? I sure hope it is the first one, because Pierce is a shitty character and not really likable at this point. And I don’t know why the writers bring Floyd back all the time. I am forgetting him all the time, I thought we moved on, but they want to give Tanya more problems with this guy… Please, can he be gone for good now?
Funny was Ray’s day with his neighbor MILF Yael (Alanna Ubach). Not only was she out to fuck him from the start, but she was really funny, together with her screaming – yeah, I was smiling during this scene.
By the way: His story with Jemma has to end sometimes, because when he is out for a love story with one of his clients, than the main story of the series stands still and we don’t want that, right? 7/10

Episode 08: ‘Thith Ith a Prothetic’ or ‘You Cum Just Right’
An average episode with interesting development in Ray’s case, but again with the question of what has Anne Heche to do in this series? She has barely screentime, and when she got a story, it is more than uninteresting. The same with Ray’s kids, they definitely need a storyline of their own to keep them interesting. At least Ray is now an interesting character (which I couldn’t say at the beginning) and his chemistry with Tanya is now really awesome, especially at the end of the episode.
The writers brought Lenore back, very good. I have the feeling she will be necessary in the last episodes. And the writers ended the story with Jemma, and they even have a proper conclusion why she played with Ray that way, very interesting, too. Now the story can try to develop again, and hopefully it will, because it kind of still stands still.
I don’t know what to make of the little rivalry plot with Ray and his old mate – it brought nothing, except a little bit of past. And I don’t think there is more coming to that. Well… 6,5/10

Episode 09: ‘This Is America’ or ‘Fifty Bucks’
Yeah, a good episode, even though it didn’t feel like the episode before the season finale, but that’s the case for all the HBO shows, they never have real highlights. The story still feels like stuck in between all the characters and not moving forward an inch. So, this episode Ray and Lenore discussed about raising the price for Ray, while Tanya is out to lower the price – nice that both of them are talking so much during that time, I thought Tanya was Ray’s best friend right now.
And finally Ray’s kids and Jessica getting a bit of an own story now. Damon is gay (well, when that’s not a stereotype story, what is?) and Jessica befriends with Lenore, for what reason so ever. That episode had the most screentime for Jessica ever, it felt like she had more screentime than all the other episodes combined.
It is nice to see that the writers don’t lose any story; Patty (Lauren Weedman) is still a topic in this episode (but I missed the rivalry story from last episode, I knew there wasn’t more coming to that). And the sex scene between Ray and Lenore was really hot, whuhu. 7,5/10

Episode 10: ‘A Dick and a Dream’ or ‘Fight the Honey’
Pretty boring season finale, but this is the case of all HBO shows (lol). But I liked it for what it was: a chance of a new story in the second season. Ray loses his job and partners up with Lenore (she probably will be one of the main characters next season), Ray’s kids have relationship trouble, Jessica wants to break up with Ron, or Ron makes it easier for her and fucks with his patients, and Tanya has a midlife crisis. Could be interesting in the second season, could not be, I will surprise myself.
I don’t know what to make of the phone conversation of Ray and Jessica. Not only was it a predictable story that Jessica (probably) will meet Ray while doing his “job”, but I think the first season finale was too early for that. Sure, they didn’t meet, but I still think the writers didn’t have to bring that story now.
And I surely don’t know what to make of the very last scene. Great, Tanya kills a fly… I don’t think she wins self-confidence with that, because her midlife crisis story seems more interesting than her winning control over her business again. 7/10

Season average is 6,85. The series definitely has something, but the season start was lame, which pulls the overview down a lot. At least I started to like the characters, and when the writers manage to pull off some interesting stories in the second season, then Hung could be one of my favorite series. But for now it is just something for the side and no must-see TV.