There may be, actually, no present like King of the Hill. Because of its by some means impossibly sensible depiction of life within the Texas suburbs, Mike Choose’s animated collection, which follows the Hill household all through their life within the fictional city of Arlen, has advanced right into a cult basic within the decade-plus after its shockingly abrupt 2009 cancellation. However now King of the Hill is again, and so is its obsession with meals.
It’s been 15 years since we final noticed the Hill household, who moved away from their house in Arlen after Bobby graduated highschool. Peggy (Kathy Najimy) and Hank (Choose) went off to Saudi Arabia, the place Hank labored in — what else? — propane, and Bobby (Pamela Adlon) headed off to the massive metropolis of Dallas, the place he grew to become a chef and opened Robata Chane, a Japanese restaurant that additionally boasts German influences impressed by the historical past of the Texas Hill Nation. Now, Hank and Peggy have returned to Arlen, and reunited with their kooky forged of neighbors, together with conspiracy nut Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick and Toby Huss) and his spouse Nancy (Ashley Gardner), and Kahn (Ronny Chieng) and Minh Soupanousinphone (Lauren Tom), a few Lao immigrants who moved to Arlen with their daughter Connie (Tom), who’s Bobby’s childhood good friend and on-again, off-again girlfriend.
Within the present’s authentic run, it explored a broad vary of themes, from goofy Texana storylines with Willie Nelson cameos to extra critical topics, like bullying and LGBTQ acceptance. Even because it explored these greater themes, although, King of the Hill was, at its coronary heart, all the time a meals present. If there’s one factor you realize about Hank Hill, it’s that he’s a salesman of propane and propane equipment, and his perception within the supremacy of that gas for grilling steaks is virtually spiritual.
However it’s Bobby who’s the true gourmand — a famous fruit pie fanatic and culinary risk-taker who additionally enjoys lutefisk. Within the Season 7 episode “Goodbye Regular Denims,” we see the primary glimpse of Bobby’s kitchen abilities when he begins studying the right way to prepare dinner and clear in his new homemaking class. He’s so good, in reality, that Hank begins to desire his cooking to Peggy’s, a growth that irks her a lot that she tries to sabotage the roasted turkey that Bobby needs to arrange for the household’s Thanksgiving dinner. Within the closing episode of Season 13, aired in 2009, Hank and Bobby lastly get their second of bonding over grilled meats.
Within the Season 14 premiere, King of the Hill simply settles again into a well-known rhythm. Whilst Hank and Peggy navigate a brand new world through which everybody shares their pronouns and all-gender bogs exist inside Texas barbecue eating places, it doesn’t really feel like 15 years have handed for the reason that final time we noticed them. Hank makes an attempt to regulate to the boredom of retirement, main him to take up homebrewing his personal beer, which devolves into a contest with Bobby, pitting the son’s chef experience towards Hank’s 40 years of ingesting beer. The 2 find yourself in a Dallas homebrewing competitors, the place each be taught that successful isn’t as necessary as spending time with your loved ones.
As Hank and Peggy readjust to life in Arlen, Bobby’s busy making an attempt to make his restaurant successful. He’s passionately making an attempt to make German Japanese fusion occur — grilling yuzu sausages over binchotan charcoals, frying up herring tempura — and hoping to impress his stodgy mother and father along with his abilities. It’s the charcoal, in fact, that turns into a supply of battle between Bobby and his father, who finally comes round to understanding that Bobby has to make use of binchotan in an effort to most precisely approximate true robata-style cooking.
And as with all eating places, there are various issues for Bobby to unravel. His enterprise companion and former center college bully Chane Wassanasong (Ki Hong Lee) is just too busy partying along with his frat bros to essentially assist with any of the particular work, however he’s all the time round to take the credit score for Bobby’s successes, as when he caters a thirtieth marriage ceremony anniversary occasion for Kahn and Minh. He’s additionally making an attempt to determine the right way to make peace with the truth that Connie, who he nonetheless very clearly has emotions for, is in an “moral non-monogamous” relationship with Chane.
Throughout these 10 new episodes, Choose and showrunner Saladin Okay. Patterson current a King of the Hill that feels endlessly acquainted to anybody who’s spent numerous hours rewatching reruns of the present in syndication, or on Hulu. It’s true to the unique method with out feeling stale or caught in a bygone period. It isn’t overly obsessive about how a lot has modified since its cancellation in 2009, however does remark sometimes on the methods through which society has moved ahead — and backward. When Hank attends a “male empowerment” seminar along with his youthful brother, he’s fast to dispel the poisonous masculinity that’s on provide, and that’s what we’ve come to count on from a man like Hank. He could be a bit of caught in his methods with regard to Ronald Reagan and propane, however he’s not prepared to cosign hateful conduct.
It’s additionally refreshing to see that Hank has absolutely embraced grown-up Bobby, even when he’s nonetheless confused by a lot of his son’s selections. “That boy ain’t proper” should be his commonest chorus about Bobby’s conduct, however it’s all the time apparent that he’s making an attempt, that it comes from a spot of affection. He may not perceive why Bobby needs to be a chef as a substitute of a propane salesman, however he all the time helps his son finally.
In the end, it simply feels very nice to be again throughout the digital desk from the Hill household as soon as once more. Watching Hank and Peggy stumble by a clumsy dinner with Bobby’s vegan girlfriend is each nostalgic and of the second, the type of healthful escapist tv that makes you wish to maintain coming again for extra. If something, I’m principally bummed that there aren’t extra new episodes to maintain me distracted from the horrors of the world, and I’m beginning to suppose that now’s the proper time to rewatch King of the Hill’s whole run from begin to end.