'Hung' A Reaction

I just got around to watching the pilot of Hung.
Um, excuse me all you reviewer haters - it's not that bad at all!

It's actually very watchable. In fact, it's kind of fun.

Hung's story line is relatable and farcical at the same time. It's about a man, Ray, who is trying to fix his family and finances. Ray, is a guy who seems to be unable to catch a break, is costing as a teacher/coach and isn't terribly talented. He does however have all the right assessts any lascivious woman would want in a man.

He decides via a series of events stemming from the self-help 'make me a millionaire' convention that he is going to become a man-whore, with the help of this 38 year old poet chick he bangs.

Now, it's not exactly what you'd call a family sitcom, excluding the fact that this does center around a "modern family" (which basically just reads as family dealing with divorce and realistic teenage antics). I can't help but liken it to The US of Tara, which is another show that many don't like because it doesn't feel real that a family would be put through a mother with multiple personality disorder.

I find it oddly heartwarming to watch these shows where parents do ridiculously scarring things to themselves and their children, but then are able to come back looking to their children for forgiveness.

I know we've long left the world of Leave it to Beaver behind. The Happy Days where kids do something wrong and then hang their heads down low and say, "Aw shucks, Mom, Dad, I'm sorry for taking the car." The comfort in these shows was the ideal that no matter what, your parents love you.

Current premium cable shows like Us of Tara and Hung have turned this ideal on it's head and taken it for a spin in the back of a Cadillac. The parents go to the kids and say, "I'm sorry I took the car and had sex with a bunch of tertiary characters."

While it's a disturbing commentary on the way American families have changed, I I can't help but be entertained by these shows. At the end of the episode, they tell us all, "It's ok, you'll always have your family." Which is sweet, until you realize that they're also saying, "...and you got to see some naughty things done, too."

But what the hell, I'm a fan of them. I love seeing people with crazier lives than my own.