Captain's Log
It's time for the return of the King (and "Return of the King")
King of the Hill returns! Was it any good? Let’s find out.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The Gang Goes to the Dog Track” – not one of the stronger episodes of the season, but still with its funny moments. Frank of course finds a way to put Dennis and Dee through a humiliation conga, but I did rather enjoy Mac and Charlie getting back to their roots and finding some weird dog-track guy they adopt as their guru.
Digman!, “Jack and Rose” – Rip’s frustration that the sinking of the Lusitania doesn’t get nearly as much attention as the Titanic, thanks to the James Cameron movie, gets him sent on a mission to investigate the Lusitania wreckage… where he learns something that could blow the lid on the real story of the Titanic and Jack and Rose… and then runs afoul of a Titanic conspiracy to cover it up. Maybe not quite as zippy as the best episodes, but still quite funny and with some weird digressions (particularly with Agatha and Swooper as the Digman team goes to ground).
King of the Hill returned with its entire new season being released on August 4. Fortunately, this coincided with some time off we had, so we were able to watch the whole thing this week. And I’m pleased to say that, other than the passage of time (which is intentional), this feels very much like the old King of the Hill. Almost ten years have passed in show time, most notable with the kids, of course. Bobby is now the chef and minority owner of his own restaurant (“Robata Chane,” because Ted Wassanasong is the primary investor and he needs to find something for his spoiled douchebag son to do), Connie is in college, and Joseph is working construction. (BTW, Joseph might be the sneaky MVP of the season, or at least the efficiency champ for laughs per line.)
Hank and Peggy are returning to Arlen after Hank spent some years working for Saudi Aramco and living on the compound in Dhahran1, and while some things have changed in Arlen, some remain the same. (Dale may have been mayor, but that didn’t last and he’s still Dale; Kahn is still a jerk; Bill is still… well, became an even sadder sack without Hank around, etc.) And Hank is still mostly resistant to change, but in some ways is able to adapt better than others (the closing moments of the first episode give us a good example of this). The stories are updated a bit for the modern world– Hank dealing with a handyman-for-hire app, or trying to hide his Saudi-bred appreciation for soccer– while still having some classic plots that could’ve happened in the original run– Bill using Hank’s life story as his own to make new friends; Hank and Bobby attending Dallas Cowboys fantasy camp.
One certainly could have fairly worried that the new King of the Hill would have curdled into reactionary resentment at a changing world, but the original never really had that tone, and thankfully, neither does the revival. (Indeed, there’s an episode featuring an Andrew Tate type that Hank ends up exposing and dismantling rather thoroughly.) The new season is pretty great, fits the tone of the show well, and is funny. I won’t say it “hasn’t aged a day,” because obviously, it’s aged a decade or so even in the show’s universe, but Mike Judge and the writers haven’t lost any of their gifts for observation or their sense of humor.
Bob’s Burgers gave us two new episodes last Thursday, “The Dead Bo-ats Society” and “Dad-urday Kite Fever.” In the former, the kids go on one of their Saturday morning adventures (where Louise has raised the stakes by promising to be back in time for the lunch rush or they’ll stop their adventuring), which leads them to a marine scrapyard, where they get trapped on a rusty boat with a nasty guard dog threatening them and have to figure out how to get out and get back home. In the second episode, Big Bob shows up and he and Bob take the kids to fly a kite… where Bob promptly loses the kite… accidentally gets on a train while trying to track it down… and runs into Critter from the biker gang we first met all the way back in season 3… and goes to desperate lengths to try to get it back… before Critter and Big Bob help him to see that the kite isn’t the important part of being a dad, it’s being there for your kids. Which is a nice message, but honestly after writing so much about King of the Hill‘s return I don’t really feel like writing more.
I also watched a couple of standup specials Tuesday night, and while they don’t really fit under “TV,” I also suspected I wouldn’t be up in time to get them read in the comments. So we watched Marc Maron’s Panicked, which is pretty good; a few segments I found very funny, although the best one is probably the clip that’s been going around social media. A couple I didn’t agree with as much, although his bit about “progressives” being buzzkills made me think he’s been spending time on Bluesky.
I then watched Hannah Einbinder’s Everything Must Go, which was also pretty good. Obviously a bit of a different tenor, and I dunno if it’s as good as her work on Hacks, but I enjoyed it enough. My favorite joke– and probably the one most classically structured like a joke– was her observation on her therapist’s recommendation for dealing with her ADHD.
Both of the above specials are on HBO Max.
Well, we’re pretty much all caught up, Wednesday night shows I can’t get to in time for this aside. If you’re curious, the titles for this week’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Digman! are “Overage Drinking: A National Concern” and “A Sari Sight,” respectively.
After seeing The Naked Gun in theaters last Thursday, I got in the mood for the classics of the form, which meant putting in my Police Squad! DVD and watching the whole thing. (It’s about the length of one and a half Naked Gun movies, because those movies are really short.) What commentary can I even add to it now? It’s still great. Johnny advising Dick Clark on ska is a real time capsule. And I love that the title of “The Butler Did It” (well, that specific title for the episode) actually gives away the ending.
“I’m a locksmith. And, I’m a locksmith” is probably still the best one-liner joke, but my favorite moment is probably Frank’s bananas monologue while he and Hocken are interviewing the widow in the first episode. Anyway, since a lot of you have been watching it recently, I’ll leave it to you to add your own favorite jokes from your own watches.
We also finished up Those Who Can’t, which finishes strong even if, again, there’s very little actual teaching going on in the third season.
Nothing yet– unless you count an entire streaming season being released on one day as having “ended,” which, you can if you want, I suppose.
I don’t have anything new coming up in August on my calendar, but September will bring a lot of returns: Besides the usual network schedule, we’ll get Beavis and Butt-Head, The Paper, Only Murders in the Building, and Futurama all streaming. (I think. I’d better make sure The Paper is in fact on Peacock.)
Well, you know what to do in the comments by now.
About the writer
Captain Nath
Born on the bayou, thriving in the mountains. Writer, gambler, comedian, singer-songwriter, bon vivant, globetrotter, and all-around Renaissance Man with perfect opinions about TV and music. Pronounced with a long A and with the H.
It's a gaming ship.
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Department of
Conversation
Could easily see Hank threatening to kick Andrew Tate’s ass.
I was going to say, nothing more likely than that scenario.
What did we watch?
When I’m particularly busy, I’ll throw on Characters Welcome sketches, which are a pretty good survey of millennial humor, ranging from the extremely demented (the Disney Channel parody) and funny (Luigi’s defense lawyers asking who the hell cares) to the predictable, especially if the punchline doesn’t send the sketch off right (see the latter one). Lands somewhere between Kids in the Hall and SNL on that front.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOIhVOqORqg&pp=ygUhZGlzbmV5IGNoYW5uZWwgY2hhcmFjdGVycyB3ZWxjb21l
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyR8XgrwE4w&pp=ygUYbHVpZ2kgY2hhcmFjdGVycyB3ZWxjb21l
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIILG10kAPU&pp=ygUganVyYXNzaWMgcGFyayBjaGFyYWN0ZXJzIHdlbGNvbWU%3D
Also this whole piece makes me very much want to see Oh, Mary! Escola commits to her dead-eyed, haunted look in the monologue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KjZ7wKYUc
Friendship – this was a big hit with my regular cinema group when I was away on holiday and somehow it has stuck around for several weeks of screenings despite being quite an odd proposition, so I was able to catch up. I’ve not seen any of Tim Robinson’s TV stuff but I enjoyed his odd comedic stylings here – it’s a comedy of awkwardness and discomfort but not one I found too painful to watch (and I’m a bit of a coward about “cringe” comedy sometimes). Consistently funny and strange, and I was very happy to see Conner O’Malley pop up for a couple of standout scenes!
Live Music – before the film I managed to fit in an early in-store gig from The New Eves, promoting their new album. They seem to be getting some Wet Leg / Last Dinner Party style hype but they’re a far less commercial proposition, slightly feral post-punk with cello and other orchestral touches. Short set but very enjoyable!
Woo, live music with cello!
It’s funny that Robinson didn’t write any of this, yet Craig feels like such a Tim Robinson character.
You should see his TV stuff. Wanting to see more Conner O’Malley is a good motivator. (“YOUR FAMILY HATES YOU! ONLY I LOVE YOU!”)
Yeah I definitely should. I’ve been quite enjoying limiting my streaming options but I GUESS I can allow myself to dip back into Netflix’s muddy waters for I Think You Should Leave.
You definitely should. And you should be able to get Detroiters that way too, which is well worth your time (and also has an incredibly funny Conner O’Malley guest appearance).
That would be great but in fact to watch Detroiters it appears I’d have to purchase the first season and then watch the second with ads on Pluto TV. Streaming services are stupid!
Ah, the difference between international and American rights can be so goofy. I kinda figured we were far enough along in the streaming consolidation that that might not be the case anymore.
Wooooooo short live music!!
Woo live music! Woo Friendship! I can be pretty cool on Robinson in his own show but he was great here in the context of a movie and its structure finding shades to his frequent single notes. And DeYoung actually provides comedic direction instead of boring camera placement.
M*A*S*H, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “Carry On, Hawkeye”
“If he grabs at you, let him; he needs the exercise.”
“Hard to believe I’m sitting in Henry Blake’s chair. This is the chair from which a thousand indecisions have been launched.”
“I suppose you’re wondering why I asked you all here tonight.”
“My kingdom for an intelligent octopus!”
This is a great early example of Hawkeye being in charge and having strong distaste for it, despite a certain talent; he gets frustrated by both the rigid routine forced upon him and the specific responsibilities in case things go wrong – although, of course, the lion’s share of the episode is about his exhaustion at being the only surgeon. This also has the classic scene of Hawkeye insisting Margaret inject him in his tushie.
Biggest Laugh: “You know all those rotten things I’ve said to you? All those nasty little tricks I’ve played on you all over the years?”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to get well and do them all over again.”
Always Sunny, Season Seventeen, Episode Five, “The Gang Goes To A Dog Track”
Raw dogging travel really is about feeling tough. I can do without creature comforts on a trip because I have a rich inner life and creative problems to solve.
“You own part of a dog?”
“If I was going to receive something from heaven, the last thing I’d want is pennies! They’re worthless!”
“I’m pretty sure all these dogs are gonna have both eyes.”
Of course, the Gang will also obsess more about words than their meanings.
Charlie Day is clearly ageing the best out of the crew specifically because he’s not doing anything about it. You can see the grey in his hair.
“I’m following your raw dog idea, and the second I wanna do something, you’re shitting all over it.”
“Yes, yes, I believe they’re talking about masturbating a dog.”
I’ll level with you: aside from the fact that dog racing is evil, I couldn’t imagine an activity I’d find less interesting than betting on racing animals. It’s not like poker or blackjack where you have some measure of control over what happens.
Dennis and Dee going from zero to addicted in one scene is classic Always Sunny.
“What else can you spell backwards?”
“That’s the one he expressed the gland with.”
This season has been classic. I love that we’ll have at least three more years of this shit.
“He was feeling a little too raw.”
“Why are you dressed like this?”
“We – move past that.”
Dennis being deeply ashamed while Dee proudly shows the video is so great.
“Move/skip past it” has become a part of my daily vocabulary.
If I had a nickel for every time this year
I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t many, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.
One of my personal favorite M*A*S*H episodes, in the “it’s not technically a classic, but I love it” category. I have a soft spot for any of the earlier season episodes where Hawkeye and Margaret have to team up, making their mutual respect and (despite prickly antagonism) regard for each other clear, and the last act of this is great for that. Also plenty of classic comedy moments: you mentioned the “I want mine in my tushie” bit, and I’d add Hawkeye’s quip about an unconscious Frank “saving lives at last.”
The Practice, “The Civil Right” – Jimmy’s mom comes out to him. And asks his help to go to court to get the right to marry. Jimmy turns out to be a rabid homophobe, but does his best to fight for the rights of his mom (Lois Smith) and her intended. In terms of Jimmy, the script has it both ways, making him still not like having a gay mom but accepting her with surprising speed. In terms of the court case, we get an unalloyed recap of the politics of the time – the Defense of Marriage Act does not fare well – and a judge who invites us to call him a bigot because, well, he is one. I was going to say this is a time capsule of the years when gay marriage was still seen as a bridge too far even for some “allies,” but given that it’s a matter of time till Project 2025 tries to undo 25 years of progress, maybe this is also a primer for the sorts of arguments we could be hearing again soon about how gays really don’t respect marriage anyway.
There’s also a case where Eugene uses his usual tools to fight a rape conviction, only this time the victim has a chance encounter with Eugene and tears him a new one. Eugene tries to apologize – which of course can’t really do – and almost quits the next rape case, but hey, he’s got a job to do. The audience is left to decide about the ethics of defending the worst of the worst, as usual. Also made a couple of interesting discoveries about the writers. A man named Joseph Teluskin is one of the people credited for this one. He’s better known in Jewish circles as a rabbi and author of popular books about Judaism. And it turns out that the first season plot about a rabbi telling his congregant revenge murder is okay was taken from a Telushkin novel, and yet the man wasn’t credited at all. I guess he and David E. Kelley struck up a friendship and he tried his hand at TV before going back to the pulpit. But weird that there is no “based on” credit nonetheless.
MASH, “Hey Doc” – A mess of random minor cases – a schemer of a sergeant is being sent home and needs to get a doctor’s note so he and his two trunks full of money can go home by ship; a British officer needs to keep his ingrown toenail secret because apparently the British army is obsessed with foot care; and a tank commander needs to keep his VD quiet. That last bit is important because there’s a sniper around the hospital, and the sight of a tank should scare him off. So Hawkeye arranges a tank from the grateful cavalryman, only Frank can’t resist taking it for a joyride. Scattered but funny, with Bruce Kirby taking a break from all those Universal Studios shows to play the conniving sergeant.
Makes me think of the lawyers I’ve seen who are genuinely baffled by Law & Order SVU’s treatment of defense attorneys as utter scumbags. Some of them are, sure, but also you have the right to a lawyer to defend your case! Someone has to do that job!
Reposting my weekend TV here:
Mad Men
Season 6, Episode 9. “The Better Half”. First time.
Six seasons in, it makes a lot of sense that the personal histories all these characters have with each other are eating them inside out. This is the kind of thing Don is prone to, but it’s fascinating to see everyone else struggle badly with it too.
Don of course is the focus here, but it intersects (no pun intended) with Betty also being at a point in her relationship with Henry where desire lures her out of comfort and stability, as foreshadowed by how her teasing one guy at the party becomes foreplay with Henry. She later sleeps with Don, and of the two of them, she seems far more adjusted. She’s at a point in life where she’s able to divest herself from the act in ways he never could, tell Don some hard-won truths in the aftermath and laugh with her husband the next morning. Her reasoning that “this happened long ago” is classic cheating logic but ultimately fair to their circumstances, and far less harmful than the pretexts some of the show’s other characters would tell themselves. Pretty sad that Don is far more open with her than he is with Megan earlier in the episode, barely being able to exchange anything other than basic pleasantries.
Pete is also caught in a similar bind. It’s funny how he was the most stable, solid character at SCDP for a long while then spiraled out of control the last year, specially after the merger. His talk with Duck Phillips (talk about complicated histories) is clarifying, as is his reaching out to Joan (again, so surprised by how their relationship got to where they are now), but it seems that Bob Benson might have just gotten what he actually needs. Bob is a very different guy from the SCDP mold, though it might just be a matter of time before this place gets his neurosis out of him. Getting in the way of another flare-up in the Joan/Roger relationship certainly won’t be good for him.
And finally, there’s Peggy. Normally a voice of the reason, she’s still reeling from the merger, and she gets caught in Don and Ted’s gamesmanship. This would be bad enough of its own, but the collapse of her relationship with Abe compounds it. It drives home this season’s message of SCCGDCP being cursed, but after a while it gets really fucking funny, capped by a perfect punchline of a final shot. Sorry Peggy, you’ll probably find a better one. Ditch that apartment though.
One thing that clearly galled Betty in her marriage to Don is that “you’re a gifted storyteller,” supplying the narrative for her life, and she’s gained the confidence and stability at this point in the show to counter his bullshit and offer her own thoughts. (“Why do people think making love is more meaningful than climbing a mountain?” “I don’t know, they just do”) Great music cue there at the end too. I love how the music choices in S5 through 7 make the argument even more forcefully than anything else on the show that things have changed. We’re not listening to smooth crooners anymore – the mop tops and “amateurs” have taken over the airwaves.
Betty’s gotten pretty good at making up the narrative in her marriage to Henry, too. It helps that Henry clearly likes it (see their talk in the car earlier in this episode) and genuinely finds her interesting from the start, but it’s clear she’s developed her own motivations for it, as evidenced by her teasing other men and sleeping with Don for her own benefit. I’m very interested in seeing where she takes it next. And, amusingly, it doesn’t work with her children at all, and her relationship with Sally in particular only gets more bitter every time.
TV-wise, my wife had some scheduling conflicts, so I have a couple days off from The X-Files, but I certainly left off on a Big Development high point.
And on Monday, I finished Taken. I can’t add much to Tristan’s write-up, but this really worked for me: beautifully sweeping science fiction drama that comes across as having a real affection for and curiosity about people (warts and all, though it certainly believes in a plentiful amount of human goodness). This is an interesting hit for me, because usually I find family sagas to be a hard sell, but Taken calibrates its sense of generational continuity in a way that works for me (as does The Righteous Gemstones, actually, speaking of recent favorites): I think it’s partly that all the families here are participants in a larger story and have a larger purpose, so there’s no sense of suffocating or cloying intimacy, which is a failure mode with the genre, and there’s also not the feeling that the family members are being treated as interchangeable echoes of each other.
But a big part is probably that “outsiders” are part of the narrative, too. Matt Frewer’s Chet Wakeman–completely agree with Tristan on him being the best character–attaches himself to the story out of vocation, brilliance, and eventual love/loyalty, not genetics, and he gets one of the best arcs as he gradually changes how he thinks about his work and its purpose.
Exceptional kid-acting from a young Dakota Fanning here. The voiceover is deeply annoying throughout, but when she shows up in the last few episodes and gets to vacillate between being an uncannily knowing kid and just being a regular kid, her performance is lovely: sometimes haunting, always warm, with good vulnerability and good banked power. Everyone who watched this or I Am Sam back in the day and knew she’d have lasting chops was obviously right, but it’s nuts how terrific she was right from the start. (Love her in The Alienist and Night Moves, of some of her more recent work.)
It’s also really a shame that Heather Donahue (who has now changed her name) had such a difficult time in Hollywood, because she’s very vivid and attention-grabbing as Mary Crawford (who is also exactly the kind of female character I wish we saw more of). Hope she’s doing well now.
Loved this, and it feels like the best execution of its particular aims. I’m happy to think about eventually rewatching it, this time with my wife along for the ride.
I watched Maron’s Panicked, and I thnk that it’s one of the best of the year. He’s cut down on some of the set ups for the jokes, which speeds up the pacing, almost as if to capture the feeling of panic. And like a good baseball pitcher, he changes it up: he can pitch one-liners, or extended one-liners.
But what I’ve always appreciated about him is that he can tell stories that are sad, profound, and relatable — and, of course, really damn funny.
Year of the Month update!
This August, we’ll be covering 1959. Check out all these movies, albums, books, et al
TBD: Bridgett Taylor: Pillow Talk/Some Like It Hot
Aug. 8th: Gillian Nelson: Noah’s Ark
Aug. 15th: Gillian Nelson: I Captured the King of the Leprechauns
Aug. 18th: Sam Scott: Imitation of Life
Aug. 2oth: John Bruni: Shadows
Aug. 22nd: Gillian Nelson: Khrushchev Goes to Disneyland
Aug. 27th: Lauren James: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Aug. 28th: Cliffy73: Sleeping Beauty
Aug. 29th: Gillian Nelson: The Monorail
Aug. 31st: Tristan J. Nankervis: North by Northwest
And in September, we’re covering these movies, albums, books, from 1938!
TBD: Cori Domschot: Bringing Up Baby
TBD: Bridgett Taylor: Rebecca
Sept. 22nd: Sam Scott: Holiday
I’ll take The Hound of the Baskervilles for August 27.
Ted Lasso S3:E6-8 – If you wait around long enough, the universe will grant you another free AppleTV+ trial. We’re into the second half of the most recent season, the one with longish episodes for all of them. My first exposure was the criticism of this column’s captain, so I feel compelled to report… not that bad? More accurately, it’s settled into a particular thing and while I wouldn’t prefer the direction they’ve gone (the football is starting to fail to hold the center, and while there’s only so much you can do with a sports story, it is kind of supposed to be the glue for everything). I also don’t watch this as if it’s supposed to be an accurate representation of human interaction – I’m led to believe locker room talk is quite different, in fact – but I don’t mind an idealized model once in a while. So I don’t disagree with any of the criticisms per se, none of the hour-long episodes have felt tedious, and frankly there’s vanishingly few shows that’s true for. Also Roy Kent just makes me laugh with his posture, I’m a fan of comedic outsized aggression.
I dunno, I thought season 1 was a pretty “accurate representation of human behavior,” and tightly plotted too. By season 3, the episodes are much longer but feel like less actually happens in them, and most of what happens are “romantic relationships that are ethically questionable at best.”