Basketball coach Ray Drecker (Jane) is a former jock whose adult life has nosedived after leaving school himself. He split from his wife Jessica (Anne Heche) after she fell in love with a rich dermatologist, lost custody of his two kids after a house fire (the damage from which remains unfixed, so he lives in a tent in the garden), is struggling to make ends meet on a teacher's salary, and has a neighbour who's always griping about his untidy property. After attending an entrepreneurship seminar hosted by business brain Floyd Gerber (Steve Hytner), who asks attendees to discover their "winning tool" and use it to become successful, Ray is reminded by old flame Tanya Skagle (Jane Adams) that his USP is... well, the size of his manhood.
So begins Ray's journey into the world of a self-employed male escort, as he places an ad in the local newspaper under the pseudonym "Big Donnie" and misses an important basketball match to meet his first client...Hung felt like a frothier version of AMC's Breaking Bad; another series about a sad-sack high school teacher who takes extraordinary steps into a fringe lifestyle. But, whereas Breaking Bad deals with lung cancer and drugs, Hung tackles a far less thorny issue: the emasculation of men. There's certainly potential to stray into dark territory here, but I got the impression Hung will be fairly lighthearted. Female prostitution either results in gritty drama, or fantasies of empowerment (Secret Diary Of A Call Girl), but male prostitution has always been a comical notion. That's probably because a man offering sexual services isn't usually under any threat himself. I'm hoping we're in for a small-screen version of Midnight Cowboy, but would a more serious version of Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo be more accurate?
Is it worth sticking around for more? Certainly, the pilot was deftly handled and did a fantastic job setting up the situation and characters, but nothing screamed at me to keep watching. However, if there is a reason to see where Hung is headed, it's Thomas Jane, who shouldered the whole episode very well and made for an identifiable and likeable protagonist. Jane Adams was also very good as eccentric poet Tanya, who puts aside her aspiration to pioneer "Lyric Bread" (a version of Chinese fortune cookies with laminated poetry inside loafs) in favour of becoming Ray's feminist pimp. She'll at least write a catchier advert. Anne Heche was also good as Ray's ex-wife, but I found it rather odd that their screen kids didn't seem to resemble Heche or Jane in any clear way, in appearances and attitudes, but I suppose it's too early to really know for sure.Overall, there's enough here to keep me watching for now, but I'm more admiring of Hung than loving it after one episode. I like the idea that Ray's never managed to evolve beyond high school (the scene of his adolescent heyday), how a nerd like Ronnie (Eddie Jamison) has managed to steal away a jock's childhood sweetheart in adulthood (the balance of male power tends to flip after school), and how the setting of rundown Detroit underpins Hung's idea that masculine things (a once-thriving car industry, athletic teenagers) come to feel the pinch in later life as the world changes around them.
28 June 2009
HBO, 9pm
written by: Dmitry Lipkin & Colette Burson directed by: Alexander Payne starring: Thomas Jane (Ray Drecker), Jane Adams (Tanya Skagle), Eddie Jamison (Ronnie Haxon), Charlie Saxton (Damon Drecker), Sianoa Smit-McPhee (Darby Drecker), Anne Heche (Jessica Haxon), Mike Ancrile (Bartender), Gregg Henry (Mike), Steve Hytner (Floyd Gerber), Loren Lester (Howard Koontz), Norma Jean Riddick (Party Guest) & Eric Tuchelske (Hotel Guest)
