Comprising Positions Get Sticky

Hung-HBOEpisode Commentary: “A Dick and a Dream or Fight the Honey”

A steamy summer of “Hung” came to an end last night with an episode that cleared up a few lose ends but left a handful of unanswered questions for the forthcoming season.

Great news, especially after HBO has decided to renew it for a second year.

Here we see Ray Drecker is still the subject of a war between two madams (Tanya and Lenore), forcing him to choose between money and loyalty. That question is made even harder by the news that he may be getting laid off from his teaching job and forced into the gigolo business full-time.

The john has more than just those issues to face, however, as he tries patiently to come to terms with the fact his son may be gay and even his son doesn’t have answer for that. He brings his kids with their dates to a monster film and we slowly watch the turmoil unfold in their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lenore is searching high and low for wealthy clients for her business endeavor and convinces Jessica (Drecker’s ex-wife) that she may need the services of a professional to get in touch with her womanhood.

What is great is that Thomas Jane flexes more dramatic acting abilities as he tries to face each issue head on and exposes us to the most human element of his character. Comedy is great, but when a character is given a human side, it reaches the audience a little more because empathy is created. That’s exactly what we see here as the humor is on the back burner as his personal life heats up.

At this point, it does seem like he can’t take any more stress.

But there is much more stress for him in this episode, as re-modeling his house becomes harder due to the fact that honeybees have made his interior walls a nesting ground and his current madam Tanya is having a meltdown. In season two, we may see a nastier side to Tanya, which can make for intriguing television.

Of course, it just wouldn’t be “Hung” unless there was a steamy season-ender of a sex scene that teaches one some incredibly creative ways to use honey.

The main question is: where will season two take us with the foundation that season one has built? This show started without a semi-audible bang, but slowly and steadily proved itself in a season filled with bad reality shows. You may have to wait one whole year before finding out the answers to so many questions, but at least the show left you wanting more from America’s favorite male gigolo.

About Anthony Benedetto 153 Articles
I have always had a tremendous passion for the cinema. For me, movies provide a great escape. When done right, the characters and stories are something that I am instantly drawn into. Over the years, I’ve unintentionally become a movie encyclopedia that I often find myself the recipient of late night phone calls from my friends while at Blockbuster [One such conversation between the Editor of this site and the film “Redbelt” immediately comes to mind.] As far as my preferences go however, I love both the cult cinema and the classics. My love of film ranges from features such as “Amadeus” to “Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-A- Rama.” I have a long range of film heroes as well that include, Michael J. Fox, Lloyd Kaufman, Robby Benson, Michael Caine and Jeff Bridges. On this site, I hope to teach people about cult cinema and have them rent films that they normally would not, turning you into the monster that I have become. Someday, I hope to be the star and director of my cult film, employing the old stop motion techniques used in films like “Flesh Gordon.”

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*