Hung

The title of the new HBO series “Hung” isn’t meant to be a double entendre of the kind that induces snickers—it’s straightforward slang, a reference to the physical endowments of the show’s main character, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane). But the word, despite what it implies about size, also denotes deflation and death. That meaning fits Ray, too: he is a history teacher and basketball coach at the same high school in suburban Detroit where he was a star athlete twenty-five years ago. When his bungalow is burnt down, he’s pushed even closer to the edge—his finances force him to live in a tent in his yard.

It’s no coincidence that “Hung” is set in the capital city of mistakes and their consequences—Ray’s spirit reflects the hopelessness around him. “Everything’s falling apart,” he says in a voice-over at the beginning of the first episode, explaining what didn’t need to be explained. It’s hard to know whether the tediousness of Ray’s interior monologue is meant to be funny or whether you’re supposed to empathise with him.

The writer-director Alexander Payne is also an executive producer, and he directed the hour-long pilot of “Hung.” In Payne’s previous work—his movies include “About Schmidt” and “Sideways”—men of a certain age, like Ray, find themselves at a crossroads and fling themselves forward on uncertain journeys. Ray’s journey happens doesn't involve roadtrip, but the impulse is similar, albeit with a twist. Can he become a new man, a man with some purpose, by being a gigolo?

It’s not yet possible to tell where “Hung” is going, but the the writers depict the protagonist as questionable and yet understandable, cross the line between legal and illegal, making us ask ourselves whether the line is in the right place. However, I feel that “Hung” is strangely superficial in examining the American dream.