Hung: Season 1 (Blu-ray)
Middle-aged. Divorced. Broke. Gigolo. It's hard to make an indecent living.
Produced by Alexander Payne (Sideways), who directed the pilot, Hung reinvents the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold archetype for the postfeminist era. High school basketball coach Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) lives in a Detroit devastated by the decline of the auto industry. After an electrical fire destroys his home, he loses custody of his kids to ex-wife Jessica (Anne Heche); joins forces with poet-turned-pimp Tanya (Jane Adams), with whom he once had a fling; and becomes a male escort. Though Drecker's life looks nothing like the one depicted in Boogie Nights, the anatomical anomaly he shares with porn star Dirk Diggler makes him well suited for his new line of work. To ensure that things look legit, Tanya markets Ray as a "happiness consultant." While she attempts to locate clients, he sleeps in a tent until he can inhabit his house again, tries to maintain a relationship with mopey twins Damon (Charlie Saxton) and Darby (Sianoa Smit-McPhee), and wages a stealth war against his image-obsessed neighbor, Howard (Loren Lester). Once Tanya reconnects with Lenore (Rebecca Kreskoff), a forceful fashion consultant, Ray hooks up with a controlling executive (Dirty Sexy Money's Natalie Zea) and a married woman who could use some TLC (Margo Martindale).
Member Reviews
Doesn't quite live up to its premise - nobbymcdobby
I enjoyed Season 1, but I'm not in a big rush to see Season 2. It isn't quite at the same quality level as some of the other HBO/Showtime/AMC independent cable network shows I love. The premise is great, but it doesn't quite live up to it. Sometimes these shows take a little while to gel. Like the first episodes of Sopranos were not quite there. Anyways, not too bad.I wish all TV was this entertaining. - Kamper
We watched disc 1 tonight and we were so entertained that we watched all five episodes. We felt like it was a novel idea, where most TV is kind of a re-hash of often seem themes. We laughed a few times, and really liked the protagonist (sp?). It was pretty well done in that it left us rooting for the fellow, instead of feeling like he was a dirty male prostitute.
A week or two later we watched disc 2. Those five episodes didn't seem as good for some reason, but maybe we were just in a different mood. It may have just been b/c one of the characters was so annoying - but that just might be to us.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Doesn't quite live up to its premise - nobbymcdobby
I enjoyed Season 1, but I'm not in a big rush to see Season 2. It isn't quite at the same quality level as some of the other HBO/Showtime/AMC independent cable network shows I love. The premise is great, but it doesn't quite live up to it. Sometimes these ...I wish all TV was this entertaining. - Kamper
We watched disc 1 tonight and we were so entertained that we watched all five episodes. We felt like it was a novel idea, where most TV is kind of a re-hash of often seem themes. We laughed a few times, and really liked the protagonist (sp?). It was pretty ...