The Foreplay Finally Begins

Hung-HBOEpisode Commentary: “Strange Friends” or “The Truth is, You’re Sexy”

It finally happened.

“Hung” managed to deliver this week.

After two mediocre episodes, “Hung” is finally starting to show the promise many thought it had before the pilot aired a month ago.

Perhaps the biggest reason why is smaller parts for Ann Heche, Charlie Saxton and Sianoa Smit-McPhee, who appear for a few minutes in a scene that may serve as a foreshadowing to future events. While Ray, played of course by Thomas Jane, is beginning to stand up for himself at home and with his struggling pimp [played by Jane Adams], inducing his fair share of smiles and laughs along the way. Heche’s character is breaking down emotionally, caring for ailing and sickly-looking dogs in a search for a happiness that has eluded her in spite of her new and exciting life after leaving her husband.

Her children on the other hand, ironically miss their father after walking out on him in the pilot and are perturbed at the behavior of their mother, finding themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable situation.

Quite a contrast to say the very least.

However, it is this contrast that is beginning to make the show come together a bit more. The cockiness of Jane works well with the obsessive-compulsive and clingy Adams, it just took a few more episodes to develop. After a few weeks of hits an misses, it seems this team is starting to hit its stride.

The same thing goes for the relationship between Adams and the the fiery Lenore, played by Rebecca Creskoff, who shows in this episode that she may in fact be better suited to be Ray’s pimp than anyone else. Her role in the episode alone makes it much more fun, as she’s equally as maniacal as she is devious and sexy.

Also explored in this episode is the relationship between Ray and his annoying neighbor, who isn’t too happy about some of his antics in his backyard, which include urinating in his lake. This leads to some more intriguing developments during the show, setting up what could be the best episode of the series next week.

The episode is far from perfect though, as it lacks the sex appeal of the last episode, which climaxed with a lustful exchange of wills between Lenore and Ray. The question remains as to when Ray will become the whore America wants him to be.

For the sake of the series, it has to be soon.

Nevertheless, it’s a small step in the right direction for the middling series and a half hour that unlike the first couple of episodes, is worth your time.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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