Sunday was the debut of HBO’s summer lineup at full strength, with new episodes of “True Blood” at 9 p.m., “Hung” at 10 p.m. and “Entourage” at 10:30 p.m. Looking over that HBO dinner of an entree and two sides, it’s easy to see that the premium channel offers something for everyone.
But the most riveting of the three, oddly enough, is “Hung,” which stands out like a sore thumb between the vampires and werewolves of “True Blood” and the ritzy movie stars of “Entourage.” Between these fantastical elements, the plight of everyman Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) is strangely compelling. Besides, who doesn’t want to see The Punisher as a family man?
Now obviously Ray stopped being the true everyman once he became a male prostitute, but the central conflicts of his life — his complicated yearning for reunion with his wife and children and the physical and psychological barriers keeping him away from that — are universal to all. Frankly, for a channel that’s known for highbrow, artistic television shows, it’s refreshing to hear plain-speaking Ray talk about how fixing the roof to his house is probably the answer to all his problems (even if it obviously isn’t).
What makes the show even more fun is how the entire cast of “Hung” surrounds plain Ray with a bunch of oddballs and screw-ups.
In particular, despite Ray being a relative novice in the field of male prostitution, the second season premiere, which aired Sunday, pits Ray in the middle of a power struggle between his former pimp Tanya (Jane Adams) and his current one Lenore (Rebecca Creskoff).
Adams has probably been in something you’ve seen — say, “Little Children” or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” — and every time, she comes off as this self-defeating individual with a completely broken spirit. If that’s Adams’ go-to character type, then she amps it up to 11 here. Her flailing efforts in season one — at being a high-school poetry coach, coming up with a pastry that has classic writing in it or generally trying to infusing poetry into anything — were pitiful and hilarious at the same time. A type of character like Adams is easy to root for.
Then there’s Lenore, who is Tanya’s foil. She’s a buxom redhead with confidence, money and a flare for fashion and reminds of Joan (Christina Hendricks) from “Mad Men.”
It’s interesting to see the scenes with Lenore and Tanya going at it because it not only allows Lenore establishing her dominance but also Tanya to squeak up for herself as well. The results can be pretty darn entertaining, especially with mild-mannered Ray sitting in the middle.
“Hung” is not the most revolutionary show. The idea of a middle-America-family-gone-zany has been done, multiple times in fact. Showtime’s got “Weeds” where the matriarch is/was a marijuana dealer. At the heart of Showtime’s “United States of Tara” is an average American family affected by the mental illness of one of their own and how they handle it. Even “Dexter” has become that “type” of show the more it has went along.
Yet, out of all of those shows, “Hung” is the one that exceeds most admirably at depicting middle America and the realities therein. Because “Hung” has the realistic backdrop of Ray as a high-school teacher. He’s that type of high-school educator that teaches history but really cares about athletics. In season one, it was basketball, and now it’s baseball.
It’s here that we learn that Ray’s economic hardships are not just related to his family. As a coach, Ray struggles to battle through budgetary constraints to keep alive what he has the most fun doing in life — being involved in sports. Because sports make sense to a guy like Ray when everything in his life does not. And if he loses sports — on top of his family, his money and his roof — what does he have left?
