I’m still not sure how I want to handle the reviews for King of the Hill in a retrospective. Do I want them to just be a few paragraphs, or do I want them to be #LONGFORM which seems to be SB Nation’s fetish lately? Maybe I just want to make a bunch of bullets, or just publish the bullet point notes I take on the episodes so I have something to look back on when I review them. I guess we will see how this shapes up as we make our way through all 13 seasons and 259 episodes… or until I (or you) get bored with it and stop reviewing them all together.
It’s probably worth noting before we get into the review of the pilot why I’m doing King of the Hill for a retrospective and not some other things like the Simpsons. I could easily go through the Golden Years of the show, but the AV Club is already doing a fantastic job of it as it is. I guess I could have done South Park, but please don’t hate me, I’ve never really been into it. King of the Hill is great though, I don’t know many people who disliked it. You really either liked it, or were indifferent, I never knew anyone who said they hated it. It’s not as quotable as some of the other shows, save for a few catchphrases, but I love it still.
Anyway, I’ve stalled long enough, let’s go back to 1997.
The show opens with Hank, Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer working on Hank’s truck. As with all pilots, the presentation isn't fully set. The show doesn’t exactly know what it wants to be yet. Early on we see that Hank is the main character, and it sets his friends and family around him. We get he’s an honest, hard working man who loves his family. His love of his son is actually the focal point of the pilot as Bobby is hit in the face with a baseball and word gets around that Hank beats him.
The fact that Hank is quick to anger and shouting doesn’t exactly help his case. He’s seen yelling at a Mega Lo Mart worker, who will later be a minor character in Buckley, and people begin to spread rumours that he’s abusive. A twiggy, out of touch with the locals DSS worker who we learn is from LA is dispatched to evaluate the case. Naturally this doesn’t look good for Hank as Peggy has a baseball related head injury when he arrives to the Hill residence.
After a monologue touching on values, family, and being a hardworking man Hank rests his case. The DSS worker isn’t convinced but his boss is, and so the inquiry is dropped. Bobby answers the phone when DSS calls and decides to not tell his parents the case is closed in order to do whatever he wants and use the threat of being taken away as leverage. Soon Peggy finds out what Bobby is doing and tells Hank. This leads to hank having to overcome one of his greatest fears: talking about his feelings. Hank speaks to Bobby in the backyard at the end of the show eventually working his feelings out to tell his son that he loves him, he's proud of him, and even though everything else has disappointed him in this world, his son never has. It was a happy close to the first episode.
Thoughts and Observations:
- Luanne is invited to move in with the Hills, which pretty much sets up she never leaves
- Dale’s first conspiracy is Global Warming… GLOBAL Warming
- Nancy leaves to see John Redcorn for a “migraine treatment” and we see Joseph shortly after, heavily implying Dale’s son isn’t quite Dale’s
- Peggy drops the fact Hank has a narrow Urethra completely unprovoked in conversation with the DSS worker, Hank is visibly displeased by this
- Ladybird bites the DSS worker’s car but is yet to be named
- Cotton, my all time favourite KotH character, is introduced via flashback. I cannot wait to write about his first real appearance.
- And lastly, as far as I could tell, Hank doesn’t mention working at Strickland in the pilot
No comments:
Post a Comment