Rent King of the Hill: Series 13 (2008)

King of the Hill: Series 13 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

The final season of King of the Hill is a bit of a bittersweet handful of episodes. Far from the simpler stories of Hank Hill teaching his son about cigarettes or Peggy coming to terms with discussing sexuality, the show had changed greatly by its thirteenth season to feature more wacky and out-there ideas that unfortunately seemed to become sidetracked into portraying a much different show. That being said, there is a pleasing end to the series with a heartfelt final episode.

There’s a lot of topics this season covers that are kind of embarrassing for how flimsy and flexible the logic becomes. "Earthy Girls Are Easy" once more addresses environmentalism but this time with Hank fully on board to commit to common-sense environmental regulations in the episodes attempt to salvage the idea of carbon offsets. "Lost in MySpace" features Strickland Propane handling social media in the early days when MySpace was still a thing (kinda) with disastrous results. There’s also a commentary on the Boy Scouts ("Straight as an Arrow") and school testing ("No Bobby Left Behind") that unfortunately don’t say much, often finding characters making the wrong call.

Most of the episodes pose certain scenarios that don’t always pay off well, often taking the easy way of making characters tumble. "What Happens at the National Propane Gas Convention in Memphis Stays at the National Propane Gas Convention in Memphis" finds Hank Hill once more confronting his boss’s infidelity amid a propane convention but ends up with Hank being the one who needs saving after drunkenly vomiting on stage. Similarly, "Nancy Does Dallas" finds Nancy doing the news is Dallas and has her world come tumbling down because she becomes drunk (both with power and booze).

Some decent milestones are reached this season as well. Luanne and Lucky finally have their baby in "Lucky See, Monkey Do." But then there are episodes that simply don’t work. One of the worst of the season is by far "Uh-oh, Canada", where Boomhauer trades homes with a Canadian family that starts an intense rivalry with Rainy Street, forcing Hank to fight against those evil Canadians. Equally as troubling is "Born Again on the Fourth of July" where Rainy Street tears itself apart over who has the better fireworks. Of course, pettiness is part of the satire but this season goes the extra mile to stage such absurdity to the point where the characters are more like parodies of themselves. Would season 1 Hank really be that invested in sabotaging the neighborhood fireworks displays?

The good new is that the series ends on a positive note with "To Sirloin with Love", where Bobby finds his passion of becoming a meat inspector. It’s a profession that’s just specific enough and riddled with Texas traits to make Hank proud of him as well as something that Bobby seems to enjoy. It’s a wonderful way to end the series even if Bobby’s knowledge of meat seems rather inexplicable.

Now, yes, there were a handful of episodes that aired after "To Sirloin with Love" but those were cut from the scheduling and ended up in syndication, throwing off the order. But, really, "To Sirloin with Love" is a better end to the series than "Just Another Manic Kahn-Day", where Hank exploits Kahn’s manic depression for grill-building purposes.

The final season of King of the Hill is a rocky one to be sure but thankfully receives a proper finale that is most deserving of such a long-running and iconic animated sitcom.