Rent King of the Hill: Series 8 (2003)

King of the Hill: Series 8 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Animated sitcoms always have this writing formula of pitching what-if stories. Season 8 of King of the Hill struggles as hard as it can to make a lot of its wild scenarios stick that sadly treat into Simpsons territory for how many one-off meandering stories come about. Different professions are had, family relations visit to never return again, and the status quo snaps right back to normal so fast you can get whiplash.

The season opener of "Patch Boomhauer" takes a confounding route of Boomhauer trying to be the voice of reason when his horny brother Patch gets married to his ex-girlfriend. While the neighborhood thinks Boomhauer shouldn’t be down on himself and take the marriage with a grin, a series of accidents make him seem like the bad in the weirdest ways. The episode is at least good for a few laughs, as with the climax featuring match sputtering “Dang ol’ Hank loves hookers!”

There’s a there-goes-the-neighborhood episode in "New Cowboy on the Block" where a former Cowboys football player moves into the block and proceeds to take advantage of the hypocrisy the community has for his status. "The Incredible Hank" is probably the most morally unhinged episode where Peggy secretly drugs hank with puberty enhancers, causing an increase in energy but ultimately being a harmful action to his body in more ways than one.

Then we have the one-off career episodes. Peggy becomes a cheerleader coach in "Cheer Factor". Dale becomes a dreary cubicle slave in "DaleTech". Kahn becomes a redneck in "The Redneck on Rainey Street". Hank becomes a shop teacher in "Talking Shop". It’s not the writing that doesn’t falter in these episodes; it’s particularly entertaining watching Hank navigate through a flawed school system. But, of course, by the time the running time is up, the characters are forced to hang up their aprons so that the writers can throw them into other scenarios for later seasons. This even carries into the Christmas episode of "Livin' on Reds, Vitamin C and Propane" where Hank and Bobby become truckers.

There are thankfully a few episodes with simpler stories that touch on more intriguing issues. "That's What She Said" finds Hank Hill dealing with a new hire that creates a hostile work environment forcing him to make the uncomfortable claim of sexual harassment. Though it would be better Hank didn’t have an aversion to legal action in such cases his eventual coming forward to his boss sends the right message about accountability for the workplace. "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Alamo" brings the focus back to the classroom in how textbooks leave out key parts of Texas history, namely the battle of the Alamo.

There’s also a more compelling aspect to some of these episodes that try to stage small corners of hypocrisy that forces Hank to recognize a flawed system. "Hank's Back" finds Hank experiencing a work-related injury and being targeted by firm seeking fakers who just want to get out of work. "After the Mold Rush" finds Hank contending with a mold expert who gains the systems by ripping up houses with the smallest traces of mold for the most insurance money. These are some surprisingly elaborate scripts for such a show.

Series 8 is a mix of standard and sublime episodes that overall turns out to be a decent continuation of the series. You can start to see the spokes starting rust, for sure, but also that there was still a bit of original grease still in its gears.