TVSquad

(S11E08)

Peggy: There's a brown spot on the lawn, and there is a brown spot on your son.

Wow, a whole hour of King of the Hill. I must say I thought this one had more yucks than the other episode.

(S11E04)

Lucky: I'm not sayin' stumpin' isn't risky. When you're out there with nothing but chains, beer and a winch you could rip your arm off and there ain't no one out there to sue.

Hank wasn't featured much in this episode, and that's rare. It seems that even when the plot doesn't revolve around Hank, he still serves as the lone voice of reason that helps maintain some semblance of sanity and common sense among his friends and family. Ultimately, he's the one that helps guide the story to its conclusion. This episode, however, focused on Luanne and Lucky, two people who pretty much live by their own code, which doesn't leave much room for Hank or anyone else. It also left us viewers with a nice little story about the compromises and sacrifices one has to make when they decide to spend their lives with someone.

(S11E02)

Dale [in the sewer]: It's kinda spooky down here. Do you think poop has ghosts?

This episode actually reminded me a little bit of Tom Goes to the Mayor with its focus on a city council being taken for suckers by two guys who really don't have the city's best interest in mind. Mostly, I just found it interesting how different shows can tackle the same issues in wildly different ways.

(S10E15) Since this season ended with Luanne getting pregnant, I assume we'll be seeing a new addition to the cast of King of the Hill come next season.

Other than Luanne's announcement that she's pregnant with Lucky's (played by Tom Petty) child, the rest of the episode was rather low key. Peggy, always a tad naive, believes Luann could realize her true potential and really make something of her life if she just applied herself and didn't keep falling for dumb rednecks like Lucky. Hank isn't especially fond of Lucky at first, either, but eventually he realizes that despite his exterior, Lucky does actually have a sense of right and wrong, even if his morals are wrapped up in an odd "code of honor" which makes him return shaving cream he borrowed from Hank in a baggy. Also, Lucky feels he can't marry Luanne without his GED. Unfortunately, Peggy sabotages his chance by teaching him the wrong stuff.

You know, they toss up new episodes of King of the Hill so randomly, it's like I have to constantly remind myself such a show exists. I guess that's why God invented DVRs.

Last night's episode may have been my favorite of this season so far. Typically, a show will focus on one character, building a story around both them and Hank, who's usually brought in unwittingly to set things right. In last night's episode it's Hank's neighbor Kahn who screws up, mortgaging his home and purchasing the local car wash "Scrubby's" in order to make a quick buck. Kahn's master plan involves rigging the spray system so a person only receives about a minute of spray for one quarter. Also, they only get three quarters for a dollar. This scheme doesn't last long, and eventually people split.  This angers Hank's boss, Mr. Strickland, who depends on the car wash as his main source of picking up young girls. While Kahn was pretty much the main focus of the episode, I also liked the three-way dynamic between Hank, Mr. Strickland and Kahn as they all try to figure out the best way to deal with the car wash. In the end, Hank is the only one who's actually thinking about the customers.

Al in all, a solid episode, and the kind that could only be done this far down the road when all the characters have been well-established. This leads me, however, to one minor problem I had with this episode. Kahn falls for a "get rich quick" scheme and ultimately loses everything by being greedy. The "being greedy" part I understand, but Kahn is typically portrayed as a wise and financially shrewed person, it seemed really out of character for him to fall into such an obvious scheme.

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.