Hill Holds Up

Now that Halloween is but a stomach-ache filled memory, I decided to turn my attention to more pleasant visual fare lately.  With the recent return of Beavis and Butthead to MTV, I thought, why not check out that other Mike Judge vehicle on Netflix; King of the Hill?

I'm really glad I did.  While this series originally aired from 1997 to 2010 on Fox, it was always kind of an also-ran to The Simpsons and Family Guy for me.  Often pre-empted by a long football game or late baseball series, I never really got into it while it was on TV.  Sometimes I would catch re-runs on local TV, but I didn't ever invest the time to immerse myself in the Arlen universe until the past couple of months.

Well, I finally learned what I was missing: consistent fun and periodic hilarity!  Unlike the latter years of The Simpsons and the early (well, frankly, all) episodes of Family Guy, the funny situations that Hank, Peggy, Bobby, et al. find themselves in episode after episode seem to have a firmly-rooted basis in a realistic life of a propane salesman in Texas.  Although the main characters' suburban naiveté leads to a host of hilarious circumstances (Peggy fooled into performing on a foot-fetish website; Peggy being tricked into smuggling cocaine into a prison; Hank accidentally becoming a pimp; or Bobby inadvertently burning down the church), these rubes are nevertheless portrayed as good-hearted and earnest in their trust and care for their fellow Arlinites (or is it Arlinians?).

For a lifelong Yankee like myself, the country-music tinged, high-school football-loving conservatism of the Hills is also a bit of counter-cultural fun.  Hank in particular is like a relic of a bygone era, where men had the skills and gumption to fix anything around their house themselves (except maybe their relationships with their father / son), and, above all, took pride in their work (and yard).  And, unlike the predicted paucity of laughs in a "Lisa" episode or a "Meg" episode of the afore-mentioned Fox shows, there's no un-funny character in Arlen.  Whether it's an episode focusing on Hank's love of propane, Cotton's hatred of the Japanese, Bobby's longing to be a prop-comedian, Luanne's love-life, Dale's paranoia, or Peggy's big feet, an episode focusing on any one of these characters is great.

Finally, King of the Hill holds up.  With the exception of maybe the one or two Y2K or presidential election-themed episodes, it never seems dated.  Probably just using the acronym "Y2K" no doubt dates me.  But overall, the Arlen of 1997 is just as funny, just as relevant, for anyone watching today.

So, to sum it up, I give King of the Hill 4 out of 5 propane tanks, and highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already.  I hope you enjoy this series as much as I do!