This is a posting about a new show called Hung on HBO. I recommend it highly. See I’m not anti-entertainment, though my recent columns rail about entertainment bias. I want to be entertained with shows like Hung, Dexter, and The Tudors – not during newscasts. I want you to get the news you need quickly and efficiently so you can be entertained by good shows like these.  I also defend my Irishness.

 

Hung is worth watching.

 

As we do with new shows that we might like, we record the first two episodes and make no judgment until the second episode is watched. My wife Teri announced, “I’m hooked” at the same time a similar sentence was about to leave my mouth.

 

The show centers on a high school teacher and basketball coach, Ray Drecker (played by Thomas Jane) who is down on his luck financially and emotionally. Because he thinks his only marketable skill or trait is his large penis, he goes into the high-end world of male prostitution.

 

Yes, it sounds x-rated. It’s not. If you can tolerate The Tudors (my absolute top show on air) which has some incredibly revealing sex scenes, then Hung will not offend you.

The sex in Hung is like the killing in Dexter (my second favorite show). It’s not ubiquitous; it’s only there in small doses, although its effect permeates the show and its plot.

Like Dexter and The Tudors, Hung is appealing because it tells a great story that resonates with viewers today.

 

Ray Drecker is a man approaching middle age in an economic downturn. His career seemed to peak in high school when he was the star basketball player. He never left that stage and decades later he’s still there but now as a pathetic figure. Who among us, reaching into their 30s and beyond, hasn’t feared what Ray has become?

 

And, of course, who among us – mainly men – hasn’t thought about a side job that might be pleasurable, nefarious, and lucrative? But, as we see in the first two episodes, such a side job is not as fun as we had thought. The writers are already setting up some great conflicts.  The most appealing will have Ray’s social jock ineptitude as its basis.  In short, he’s clueless about what women think or feel — a feeling most of us guys suffer from.

 

What really makes the show shine are two of the women characters. It’s the same result of Sex and the City: the non-featured male characters – think Big ironically — made the main female characters more real and interesting.

 

With Hung, the same is true. Tanya (played by Jane Adams) becomes Ray’s pimp, agent, and business partner. She is not a sex-starved woman, but a struggling entrepreneur trying to succeed in this new economy. She sees Ray and his talent as the commodity and her ticket to financial freedom.

 

The other woman is Jessica Haxon (played by Anne Heche) who is Ray’s ex-wife. She left him for a nerdy plastic surgeon. Yet she’s conflicted about her failed marriage and how it affects her two teenage kids.

 

Anne Heche plays the role with her usual ease. She’s brilliant and her brilliance is so transparent and hard to articulate. It has to be her abilities to morph into any character and touch a chord that the audience feels. But it could also be her ability to pick shows – Deadwood and Men in Trees – that offer compelling, off-beat, quirky, yet believable stories that quietly reveal themes that makes you feel these folks are living at the same time we are.

 

My only problem with Hung is that it is anti-Irish. Think about it.

 

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