HBO has been known to give us some "out there" shows. Some, such as Six Feel Under have proved to be great, award-winning shows. Others, such as The Comeback, have proved to ... you know ... not be. Anyway, like its lead character Ray Drecker, HBO's newest half-hour comedy Hung started off slow but definitely shows great potential to be the next big thing on HBO. The plot is quite simple: History teacher / basketball coach Ray Drecker needs money so that he can have custody of his two distant teenagers. To leave the kids with their beauty queen mother (played by Anne Heche) and her rich, successful husband would be terrible! So with the help of his "motivational class"-mate Tonya, Ray finds away to use his "best tool" to his advantage; Ray becomes a gigolo. Tonya, a past one (two)-night stand, acts as his pimp.
HBO's 45-minute pilot received some poor reviews. As usual for HBO series, the show focused merely on exposition with very little action. As always, viewers were a little doubtful of whether or not this was the show for them. For those of us that stuck around for episode two, we were disappointed to see there was simply more exposition. What viewers forget is that if you go back and watch all the favorite HBO series' pilots, exposition has always been the focus. Go watch the pilot of The Sopranos or Sex and the City and tell me what actually happens. But after three episodes, like it's predecessors, this series has shown true promise to be entertaining, even if it simply takes The Full Monty a small step further.
As individuals, the cast is strong. Some work might need to be done on getting them to work on the same plane. Anne Heche, while a talented actress, seems unsure as to what role the ex-wife is really going to play. Is she a friend or foe? The writers seem to be more interested in her relationship with the troubled teenagers (who are more troubled in the parents' eyes than in reality) that she does with her ex-husband. The best part about Heche on screen are her loud-mouth mother and new husband Ronnie, played brilliantly by Eddie Jemison of Ocean's Eleven. Hopefully, the writer's will give her character more motivation and direction.
While the character of Lenore is a great start, the shows needs to bring more women for Ray to share his "gift" with. Starting off with such an attractive woman like Rebecca Creskoff was too easy for Ray. Was it really that difficult to be with such a woman? If the show wants an audience to believe there are actually trials and tribulations to being a male prostitute, it better give us some women that we believe are hard to fornicate with. Lenore has promised more clients to come, but it's doubtful that Lenore is friends with many upper-class, ugly chicks.
With all that said, this show is written really well and it's two leads Thomas Jane and Jane Adams are a lot of fun together. While the sexual tension between them is acknowledged from the start, the subtext of the romantic tension is subtle and terrific. Hopefully the writers will fine tune a few of the relationships and get us more involved in the comedic side of the situation. With that said, don't give up on this show! The next few episodes may prove that this show is not meant to be hung out to dry.
