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HBO's new comedy series Hung chronicles a high-school history teacher who decides to sell sex when he can't afford to give his kid $50 for a concert, among other things. Formidably endowed, he soon finds business. The ratings have been promising, and based on what we've seen so far, here are five reasons you should help keep it that way:
5. Jane Adams and Thomas Jane have freakish chemistry.
Longtime character actress Adams plays pimp to Jane’s suburban gigolo, and though they couldn’t have less in common as actors, they work brilliantly together.
4. It’s better than Nurse Jackie on Showtime.
OK, so Nurse Jackie has Edie Falco, some decent writing and the time slot after Weeds. But does it have to be so dependent on formula? Unlike Jackie, Hung lets its actors breathe, and it isn’t obsessed with its premise—the sex work is incidental to the characters’ lives, just as it should be.
3. The pilot is the biggest thing Alexander Payne has directed since Sideways.
Payne made his last four films in eight years (the others are Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt), but he’s been mostly out of commission since he hit with Sideways in 2004. Dude deserves a break, we suppose, but it’s nice to see his deadpan visual grace return to the fold. Which reminds us, to be fair, of the superb six-minute section of Paris je t’aime that Payne directed in 2006, which we could watch all day (embedded below):
2. It’s a Detroit show that looks like Detroit.
Hung is one of the many series and movies taking advantage of the new tax breaks offered to productions in Michigan, but it’s made the depressed local iconography an asset, which can’t be said of the majority that use it as a good-enough stand-in for some place else.
1. The opening credits.
Awesome, seriously. Watch them here.
New episodes of Hung air Sundays at 10 p.m., after True Blood.
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5 reasons you shouldn't bother:
1-5 that pilot was miserably bad.
I really liked the pilot of Hung! I'm excited to see more.
at least the opening credits take advantage of The Black Keys' "I'll Be Your Man."
Otherwise, I dunno about this show yet.
Sorry, but you missed the opportunity to comment about the writing. It's uneven, inconsistent and often banal. The acting is fine, especially from Thomas Jane. Pace is good, directing's fine (though am I the only one who totally hated Sideways???). But from one moment to the next, the characters are going back and forth in the dialogue between whiny, clueless, confident, caring, etc etc. It's so glaring it's annoying, and if it doesn't improve.....click!