There has always been a specific niche of animated sitcoms made over the last thirty years that involves an element of political satire, or more specifically, writing characters or plots with political elements in it. I say niche, because while shows like The Simpsons and South Park have dabbled in political themes and satire, the latter especially, they were not shows made to leverage that in a full-time capacity, though maybe this season of South Park. In the greater Mike Judge universe, however, Daria can often be considered an early political satire series as Daria herself is typically a progressive-coded character, and expressed many such themes, especially when up against many of the more patriarchal characters in the show. When it comes to King of the Hill, Judge’s most successful series to date in the Beavis and Butt-head extended universe, Hank Hill is very much a conservative-coded character in the same way Stan Smith was also a conservative-coded character in American Dad. But in typical bait-and-switch fashion, they’re not led down a path of solely conservative-laden values, instead they have to navigate a forward and changing America over the course of the late 1990s into the 2000s, and beyond. By the time King of the Hill left the air in 2010, they hadn’t really began to breach the tech-accelerated world that kicked off with the advent of the iPhone and social media. Hank was only then learning what a JAY-PEG is.
The revival, officially classified as the fourteenth season, timeskips everyone in the Arlen Texas universe about a decade and change, where Hank and Peggy Hill have spent the last ten years in Saudi Arabia working for an oil company doing propane business. The opening montage reflects this passage of time, including Bobby, Joseph, and Connie growing up, Didi and “Good Hank”, Dale running for mayor, and a new character Brian, who rented their house while they were gone. The show starts with their flight back to the US, making fun of Hank’s narrow urethra to kick things off.
From there, the show cleverly just… continues as if no one was ever aware there was a passage of time. Hank and Peggy remain retired. A twentysomething adult Bobby Hill has a career as the head chef for “Robata Chane”, a Japanese-German fusion restaurant he “co-owns” with Chane Wassanasong and his father Ted. Joseph Gribble is Bobby’s apartment roommate and works in construction. Connie Souphanisophone is an engineering student. The rest of the characters seem to either be in their same spots in life, or also retired, though Nancy Hicks-Gribble is now a real estate agent instead of a weather forecaster, and John Redcorn still tends to his land.
Let’s start with some callback references. There were many, from the very start with Hank trying to pee, to several references of Nancy and John Redcorn’s relationship, Joseph telling Bobby he was the whitest guy on the construction crew, Bill and Kahn’s mother, Mega-Lo Mart, a Tom Petty song during the beer competition montage, and so much more. But they did not cram it full of easter eggs and endless callbacks like an episode of Family Guy, and I appreciated that. Even Hank’s Japanese half-brother made an appearance in the Good Hank episode.
But probably the main highlight of this season is Bobby’s love life. It’s implied in his running into Connie at the college after his brief hookup with a college girl that they hadn’t seen each other in awhile. He still has the hots for her, but she is with Chane, and in some kind of “open relationship” which Willow aptly paws off as “side dick”. Willow was seen in some of the promo material, making you think she would be Bobby’s squeeze for awhile, but she’s only in two episodes, from when he meets her stealing grease from behind the restaurant, to this extremely interesting event at the end of the football camp episode.
I admit, I was not ready for this scene at all, and I was further amused by Hank’s calm demeanor about it walking to the car after where she tries to explain it. Perhaps I thought he’d be a little more Season 1-3 Hank about it and less later season Hank, but I guess that’s what makes him such a good character to have watched a girl drop a shit on a desk and just be like “I’d like to hear you try [and explain that.]” It’s implied after that, and in the next episode, that Bobby breaks up with her to more pursue Connie. I’d be interested to see if Willow returns to make another attempt at Bobby, or if she’ll just be among their apartment friend group.
Otherwise, most of the episodes covered typical scenarios of the characters with slightly modern twists. Dale’s shenanigans were still pretty classic Dale, Bill is still pinning for Peggy, so much that he befriends a bunch of black barbers and convinces them she is his wife. Kahn and Minh were revealed to be divorced but still living together, so as to still suck up to Ted and the others in the Laotian community. Didi looks like raising Cotton’s bastard has taken quite the toll on her. It’s still a motley crew.
But regarding Connie, I wasn’t really sure what they were going to do with her in this revival. She was always kind of Bobby’s sidekick and somewhat love interest before, but to me it would have felt a little weird just immediately shipping them together so soon. Granted they waited until the season finale after putting Bobby through some paces and weakly addressing Chane’s bullshit. I never cared for the character of Chane, and not just because he’s a trust fund asshole from an overbearing Asian family, but because I feel like he would not stay and go to college in Arlen, he’d end up at some Ivy League school west or east or travel abroad. Connie staying in Arlen seemed more apt as Kahn had money, but not the kind of influence Ted had, and it’d be a good story angle to have explained that they weren’t able to get her into a top school, but she didn’t want to go anyway to remain in town with her friends.
I also low-key would actually like Judge to consider doing another timeskip later down the road where the show is still called King of the Hill, but the focus is now on Bobby Hill and whomever he marries, and their child(ren). I’ve always had a soft spot for generational continuity in television, and it’s not something ever tried. Gundam AGE is the last show I watched that did that, thrice.
What makes this “revival”, and I like to call it a revival instead of a reboot, is the show doesn’t make any attempt to fourth-wall you with what happened previously, and instead intersperses some flashbacks of specific events throughout the series, like The Hill’s in Saudi Arabia. It also makes use of some cleaned-up animations from previous episodes for flashbacks as well, such as Cotton and Hank, or Bobby and Connie. It’s almost like eating that one comfort food you haven’t had in a long time and expecting it to be ruined by time or difference in preparation, only to find out people have kept the ethos of the dish intact. Judge does a very good job of making this season feel like old King of the Hill with new problems for the gang to solve or muddle their way through.
I will say though that where they took care to “age up” most of the characters appropriately, such as Hank and Peggy, Nancy, Minh, Khan, and Boomhauer, others don’t really look much different, like Dale and Bill. Ten years isn’t a long time per se, but it’s long enough where Dale probably should have even less hair and gray and Bill be in even worse shape, perhaps even with the Type 2 beetus for his habits. This is really a minor detail, but it’s also an important detail for timeskips. It’s a lot like anime that does the big timeskip, and you’re looking for many characters to be much more mature and composed, but retain their sense of self.
Interestingly, Hulu decided to drop all ten episodes of the season at once instead of drip-feed it, which I might’ve enjoyed looking forward to a weekly drip of this. They also currently only have two seasons ordered, with no news on when the second will air. I do hope they extend out further than two seasons though, because for as good as this revival season was, it was such a tiny bite compared to the traditional 24-26 episode shows we used to get back then. They barely scratched the surface here, and I know damn well we’ll want more.
Finally, the elephant in the room are the voice actors, specifically Johnny Hardwick and Jonathan Joss, the voices of Dale Gribble and John Redcorn. The former died back in 2023 suddenly, and the latter was shot to death earlier this summer in a conflict with a former neighbor. Both had recorded most of their lines for this season and are heard, with Toby Huss (Kahn and Cotton) taking over Dale’s voice in certain episodes. The rest of the principal cast, Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, and Lauren Tom return to their respective roles, joined by Kenneth Choi as Ted Wassanasong, Anthony ‘Citric’ Campos as Emilio, and Tai Leclaire as Joseph Gribble. IMDB doesn’t seem to be putting other names to characters, but I think Allegra Edwards is Willow in the pair of episodes she was in.
Rusty Shackleford’s Conspiracy Theories and Observations
- I was only in office for THIRTY-SIX HOURS before I figured out the scam and denied the results of my own election. I was an election denier-denier! God damn, it’s actually profoundly sad we lost Johnny Hardwick as this show was being made. His voice isn’t quite the same as it was fifteen years ago, and word on the street was he was sick when he recorded many of his lines, so it’s a bit tricky to figure out where he begins and Huss ends. As for Dale briefly being the mayor who ran on an “anti-anti mask campaign”, the running gag of the series is that Dale doesn’t trust the government, but that has never stopped him from being a government plant when it suits him. Truly the modern conservative.
- Anyone else want some colloidal silver to protect us from the Dallas 5G? Bet you anything Dale was subscribed to Dr. Disrespect. He had all the rocks around mi casa.
- Lies! The Great Ceder Ranch Scam was a false flag to distract the dummies from the real invasion by the MS-13 in the secret tunnels from Acapulco to the Denver Airport! Please tell me Dale Gribble has an actual Substack. I very much need this kind of ARC in my KOTH.
- But MBS’ secret police didn’t know one thing, soccer is despised in Texas. Despite the best efforts of that Canadian assassin Deadpool, and that Ted Lasso. This entire episode is classic Dale.
- This rattus, is gratis. [You’re gonna do this for free?] What? No, I thought gratis just meant a slight discount. That explains why I haven’t been paid in awhile. Did Dale ever get paid at all before?
- This wasn’t a Dale-ism, but at the end of the ninth episode, Didi lands a sick burn on Bill.
Rating: Eight cans of Alamo beer out of ten emotional support spanners purchased.
