Yup, King of the Hill's Still Got It

I previously reviewed the King of the Hill revival and talked about how pleasantly surprised I was by it.

Reviving a beloved television series more than a decade after it ended is usually a terrible idea. Most revivals either feel like hollow imitations of the original or completely different shows wearing the skin of something people used to like. King of the Hill somehow managed to avoid both of those problems.

The revival didn’t feel like a new series attempting to recreate King of the Hill. It felt like a continuation of the original, which is obviously what they were going for since the revival is officially considered season 14. The characters were older and Arlen had changed, but the series itself still felt familiar.

I’m happy to report that season 15 is no different.

Season 15 is just as good as the King of the Hill I loved as a teenager. The humor is on point, the characters still act like themselves, and the stories feel like ideas that could have come from the original run. I still have a hard time believing they managed to bring this series back without screwing it up.

One of the smartest decisions the writers made was not relying too heavily on culture shock humor. It would have been extremely easy to base the entire revival around Hank walking around modern-day Arlen getting angry and confused about smartphones, social media, electric vehicles, delivery apps, and whatever other modern trend the writers wanted to make fun of that week.

There is some of that, of course. Hank and the guys encounter modern technology and react about how you would expect them to react. The phone scam episode immediately comes to mind, where Hank has trouble accepting that someone managed to trick him.

The modern stuff gives the writers new situations to put the characters into, but the show never uses it as a crutch. King of the Hill still understands that its humor works best when it comes from the characters and their personalities. Hank Hill isn’t funny simply because he doesn’t understand something. He’s funny because of the incredibly specific way he reacts when he doesn’t understand something.

Aside from the humor, I think the strongest part of this season was Bobby and Connie’s relationship.

The previous season ended with Connie dumping Bobby’s business partner Chane and getting together with Bobby. Season 15 builds upon their relationship instead of treating it like a cheap cliffhanger that gets resolved within the first five minutes. Bobby and Connie are now trying to figure out what their relationship looks like as adults, especially with Chane still being Bobby’s friend and business partner.

I especially appreciated the “Hard Launch” episode, where Bobby and Connie struggle with making their relationship public. As someone who dated my girlfriend for four months before we were able to publicly acknowledge it because we worked together, I could relate to their situation quite well.

Bobby and Connie always had a great dynamic, even when they were kids, and their adult relationship feels like a natural continuation of it. They’ve known each other for most of their lives, they already understand each other’s weirdness, and there’s enough history between them to make the relationship believable without the show having to force it.

It was also funny seeing Kahn and Minh react to Bobby dating their daughter. Despite being caught up in their own divorce, they still managed to take shots at Bobby and express their disapproval in ways that only the Souphanousinphones could. Of course they don’t want Connie dating Bobby Hill. They’ve been preparing to hate this moment since the kids were in middle school.

Speaking of Kahn, I still can’t get used to his new voice.

I understand why they recast him, but I stand by what I said in my previous review. Ronny Chieng sounds like an Asian guy doing a poor impression of a white guy doing a poor impression of an Asian guy.

Although, when you stop and think about it, Kahn was originally a white guy doing a poor impression of an Asian guy. I guess we’ve somehow come full circle here.

Dale’s new voice was considerably less jarring this season. That probably has something to do with Johnny Hardwick and Toby Huss not appearing side by side like they did during the previous season. Hearing the voices switch between episodes made the difference much more noticeable.

Toby Huss also seems to be settling into the role. His Dale speaks a little slower than Hardwick’s did, and the voice still isn’t a perfect match, but I’m not expecting it to be. Dale Gribble had one of the most distinctive voices in animation, and nobody was going to reproduce it perfectly. Huss sounds close enough that I stopped thinking about the change after a few episodes, which is probably the best result anyone could have reasonably expected.

I was also curious about how the show would handle John Redcorn after the death of his voice actor.

Thankfully, it appears they gave Redcorn a tasteful send-off by having Nancy finally break things off with him. He only has one brief line of dialogue, and I’m not sure how they handled that. Maybe it was an older voice clip that I didn’t recognize, or maybe the line had already been recorded.

Either way, I’m glad they were able to give the character one final moment rather than abruptly pretending he never existed.

Unfortunately, the series is still barely acknowledging Luanne and Lucky.

They receive a brief mention from 16-year-old Bobby during a flashback, but we still haven’t gotten any explanation for why they aren’t around anymore. I don’t want either character recast. Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty were Luanne and Lucky, and replacing them would feel wrong.

I just want the show to acknowledge where they went. Even something as simple as explaining that they moved away would be fine. They could show Peggy finishing a phone conversation with Luanne or mention that Gracie is staying with them for the weekend. There are plenty of ways to establish that the characters are still part of the family without having anyone else perform their voices.

I also wish we had gotten more of Good Hank and Brian. Neither of them appeared even once this season.

Good Hank is Hank’s much younger half-brother, and you would think the revival might have something interesting to do with that relationship. Good Hank’s episode in season 14 was one of my favorites from the revival. Hank tries to bond with his much younger half-brother by taking him to what he thinks is a character-building retreat, only to discover that it’s being run by an obnoxious Andrew Tate-style manosphere grifter. Watching Hank’s old-fashioned ideas about masculinity collide with the modern internet version of “alpha male” bullshit was great, especially since Hank is a genuinely decent and responsible man without needing to constantly tell everyone how masculine he is. The episode also established an interesting relationship between Hank and the younger brother he barely knows, so I’m disappointed that the show didn’t continue building upon it this season.

Brian is the guy who lived in Hank’s house and took care of it while Hank and Peggy were in Saudi Arabia. He seemed like he was being positioned as a recurring secondary character, but then he completely disappeared. I genuinely want to know more about Brian. Keith David is great in damn near everything, and the character could bring a different perspective to Hank’s alley crew without feeling forced. Maybe David was too expensive to bring back more often. Maybe he was busy working on that Rick and Morty spinoff about President Curtis (which we definitely don’t need). Whatever the reason, introducing Brian and then doing nothing else with him feels like wasted potential.

Those are minor complaints, though. Season 15 was still great, and the finale might have been the best episode of the revival so far.

The flashback episode finally explains why Hank left Strickland Propane and accepted the job with Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Hank believed he was finally going to be promoted to manager, only for Buck to hand the position to his incompetent son Ray Roy. After decades of loyalty, hard work, and cleaning up Buck’s endless messes, Hank finally had enough and quit.

I’m surprised Hank put up with Buck’s shit for as long as he did.

The flashbacks also show teenage Bobby discovering his passion for cooking. When Hank initially turns down the Aramco job because he doesn’t want to uproot his family, Bobby tells his father that cooking is his version of propane and propane accessories. Bobby stays behind while Hank and Peggy leave for Saudi Arabia, setting him on the path toward becoming the chef we see in the revival.

Back in the present, Strickland Propane is falling apart under Ray Roy’s management. Buck wants Hank to return and save the company, but Hank finally refuses to come crawling back as another employee.

Instead, Hank buys 51 percent of Strickland Propane.

After all those years of being the company’s most loyal and competent employee, Hank is effectively the owner. Buck still owns the remaining 49 percent, so he’ll presumably continue causing problems, but the balance of power has finally changed. Hank Hill is now Buck Strickland’s boss.

It’s difficult to think of a more satisfying development for the character. Hank spent the entire original series treating Strickland Propane with more care and respect than Buck ever did, and now it finally belongs to him. The next season could explore Hank running the business, dealing with employees, and attempting to stop Buck from destroying the remaining 49 percent.

I can’t wait to see what they do with it.

Despite my complaints about a few missing characters and some of the replacement voices, season 15 proves that the King of the Hill revival wasn’t a one-season fluke. The writers still understand these characters, the humor still works, and the series has found ways to move everyone forward without abandoning what made the original so good.

There’s no place Hank belongs more than Strickland Propane, selling propane and propane accessories.

If you haven’t watched this season or the previous one yet, you’re missing out. The King is back, and he’s just as good as he ever was.

Angry_Jerk

Adam “The Angry Jerk” Baker is the CEO of The AJnet Organization and Editor-in-Chief of AJnet Magazine. A grizzled internet veteran of over 20 years, he writes about politics, culture, and whatever else manages to annoy him that day.

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