Oh yeah, he seems downright quaint at this point. I do wonder the show’s politics. I watched an episode last night where Hank said he voted for Dole. Like… would he be a Gary Johnson dude? Would Dale have participated in Jan. 6th? Do we actually want to know?
The show didn't involve itself in politics hardly ever, outside of Hank not wanting to vote for Bush after a limp handshake. Its point was the importance of family/community regardless of leanings
The "who would the King of the Hill characters vote for" argument comes up a lot, and while it can be fun to speculate, the depressing reality is that they would all be MAGA. Bobby and the Kahn family would be outliers. Hank is a unicorn; he is very traditional and closed-minded but he also shows a lot of empathy for other people and is willing to learn. That is such a rare thing to find.
I honestly wonder if they’ll even set the follow up in Arlen or if maybe Peggy and Hank have moved somewhere to be closer to Bobby in college
Hank lives in the town he grew up in and all four childhood friends bought houses next to each other. Also, Buck Strickland probably died or retired by now so Hank would be in charge. He isn't going anywhere. Bobby isn't staying in Arlen, though.
Also luanne somehow accidentally did a crime and is in jail " I didn't know the dollies had drugs in them aunt Peggy "
The current Paramount+ revival of Beavis and Butt-Head is good so I have faith this will be solid as well
What I liked about king of the hill was it was like a live action sitcom in that it had arcs, character growth and wasn't just bottle episode after bottle episode, which is still pretty unique as far as animation goes. Sure, it didn't span a huge period of time (it's not like Bobby actually grew up), but still you felt like you spent a good amount of time with the Hills and the adjacent characters and families and watched them grow. It'll be interesting to see what we get for this. Really haven't read up much on it to know about the setting, plot, time jump etc.
I also think that the show had a lot of heart. Kinda sounds corny but there isn't really another word for it that I would use. I agree fully about how it functioned like a sitcom with traditional story arcs, development, callbacks, etc. It's evident that Daniels and Judge really cared about the characters and how they interacted and grew together over the course of the 13 seasons. It was always billed to me that it was an animated show strongly grounded in reality and "real life" scenarios and everyday life. There is a push and pull there depending on the season, but the most part I agree. Also, Pamela Adlon's Bobby voice is an all-timer.
TONS of heart. They lost it a bit in the back half when Hank became the moral compass of the show for some reason, but every once in a while it would pop in with a great episode.
What was so charming about the show was how small the stakes really were versus how serious the characters made them out to be. Something like Hank finally being able to defecate after being backed up for the entire episode has the entire family cheering at the end. I often think about Cotton telling Hank that Hank is a better father because Hank raised Bobby. It is the best "compliment" that someone like Cotton can give, and it tells you everything about the relationship of those three generations of men.
It's still crazy to me that two of my favorite episodes are in the 13th season, Uncool Customer and Born Again on the Fourth of July. Not many shows are still hitting like that in the final season after 12 years.
I quite like the episode where Gracie is born and the one where they travel to Arizona to visit Hank’s mom.
the episode that always tugs on my heart strings is the one where Luanne is bouncing on the trampoline with buckley's angel
If you didn't watch it at the time, the network kept hyping up who would die in the Mega-Lo Mart explosion out of Hank, Luanne, Buckley, and Chuck Mangione. That, who shot Mr. Burns, and who the White Ranger was were the great mysteries of the time.
Holy shit, this was peak television. Networks would have the season finales with absolutely insane cliffhangers like that and you'd sit all summer wondering. I remember the Simpsons in particular having wild promotional stuff like a 1-800-COLLECT tie in where you could call and guess the shooter and win something. Man, I miss those days.
When I watched through this series for the first time I was honestly shocked when Peggy’s parachute didn’t deploy. Very glad I didn’t have to wait the whole summer to find out if she lived.