TVSquad

(S03E16) "This is what someone told me reading a book is like." - Randy Hickey

I really can't decide if the writers for Earl are geniuses or drunks. Right when people start to complain that the show is getting stale they take it in a new direction that no one could see coming and yet is perfectly believable.

A big part of why I love this show is seeing the flashbacks where Earl was a complete reprobate. Even better is seeing Randy as the same kind of reprobate and yet just as simple. Joy, of course, remains exactly the same, no matter where or when she is, even if she's only in Earl's imagination.

I hate to admit it, but if I weren't writing weekly reflections on King of the Hill I don't think I would be watching it. Don't get me wrong, I love King of the Hill, but the show has always been in the most forgettable timeslot imaginable. Despite being essentially tossed aside while shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy are hyped out the wazoo, King of the Hill has remained consistently clever and funny, and May 14 will mark both the end of the season and the show's 200th episode. Thankfully, though, it won't be the end of the series. When this season opened their were rumors it might be the last, but apparently FOX had a change of heart and King of the Hill will be sticking around after all. Executive producer John Altschuler had this to say: "To be blunt, there's not too much that's good on TV. So if you're working on something good, you want to do more." I would say it's that approach that has kept what USA Today calls King of the Hill's "dedicated if small audience" coming back every week. You know, when the show isn't constantly being bumped for NASCAR events.

(S10E12) Being a heterosexual male with the ability to use my eyes, I can certainly understand the desire to kick back at the occasional strip club now and again, but I've never understood men who go to these places all the time. They're fun once in a while, but I would think frequenting them every day would cause the novelty to wear off pretty quickly. That doesn't seem to be the case for Mr. Strickland, who has spent every morning of his life kicking back at his favorite strip joint and enjoying the free buffet. In the beginning of last night's episode, after fuming over the lack of free food, he's banned from the strip club indefinitely.

The episode could have easily been turned into one about a dirty old man upset about not being able to ogle chicks before work every morning, but it was really more about Strickland's endless struggle to remain young and vibrant, at least in his own mind. He has no desire to be the real "boss" of Strickland Propane, he delegates that responsibility to Hank. What he does want is to be the crazy guy who swipes money from the cash register to use at the strip club each morning. Since he can't even do that anymore, he decides to make Strickland Propane more "fun," turning it into "Strickland Propanerie" and having his workers dress in Hawaiian shirts and bunny ears. Unfortunately, this means no work ever gets done and they end up having to work overtime. Hank eventually smooths things over with the owner of the strip club, and Mr. Strickland is allowed back, as long as both parties understand the other one isn't apologizing.

When this season kicked off, there was some speculation that it might be the show's last, so it's nice to hear that it will return for at least one more season. For a show buried in a forgettable timeslot that's preempted half the time by football and auto racing, it's amazing it's lasted this long.

Last night's episode was decent, though it was the same "Hank and Bobby" episode we've seen many times already: Bobby becomes interested in something Hank doesn't feel right about, and Hank spends the episode trying to steer Bobby in the right direction. The writers come back to this story quite often, which makes perfect sense, since Hank's old fashioned outlook and Bobby's desire to be hip and cutting edge creates one of the show's best dynamics.

In this instance, it's Bobby's desire not to shadow his father at Strickland Propane, but to instead clean up dog waste with a handsome entrepreneur that gets Hank riled up. When Bobby decides he can make a load of cash going into business himself cleaning up vomit for drunk college students, Hank finally decides to put the kibosh on it. It's a plot that King of the Hill knows well, but I don't call it being lazy. The Simpsons and Family Guy are comparable to one another in several significant ways, but King of the Hill, as weird and irreverent as it can be at times, has a human element to it neither of those other shows can touch. That isn't to say there can't be moments of humanity in The Simpsons, but King of the Hill has always been about "real people," and even "real people" have to re-learn the same lessons again and again.