Smallscreen Reviews

Review: HBO's 'Hung' melancholic recession sex and reinvention

By April MacIntyre Jun 27, 2010, 23:17 GMT

06/23/2010 - Jane Adams - HBO\'s "Hung" Los Angeles Premiere Season 2 - Arrivals - Paramount Pictures Studio - Los Angeles, CA. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

HBO's interesting dramedy about a man, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) -  blessed with a generous male organ - who turns to using it in his economic time of need is back for season two tonight (June 27).

But it feels like a sexed-up "Big Chill" slice of American life, as everyone tries to hang on to their jobs, their marriages and their ways of life; not easy "in this economy."

Three's a crowd in the pimp-ho business

Ray's now an earning man-whore, a high-school baseball coach, and father and ex-husband to a woman he thinks about way too much still.

His burned-down lake house being remodeled is symbolic to the larger picture of Ray's troubles; he is a work in progress, not quite fit for inhabiting but close enough he can make do.

This fellow just wants his even keel back, his life before the flames consumed his inherited dwelling, one he would never be able to afford on his current salary and prices of real estate on the lake.

The series is more a painting of where the American middle-class is financially and the moral dilemmas that average people find themselves in when the screws are into them for money. 

The second season is a continuum of the first, where the ennui and cobbled-together livelihood of Ray is broken up with some light and funny moments, but overall the mood is depressed, dark and often sad.

Ray's clients come to him for all the wrong reasons: unhappiness, loneliness, loveless marriages, physical insecurities and sex-starvation; it's heavy stuff.

Ray, who has given his body over to two women now who call the shots, is also at the beck and call of his rich, bossy Israeli (married) next-door neighbor who is a sex-starved exhibitionist who keeps tabs on him from her manse.

This season sees his main pimp Tanya (Jane Adams) start to try to assert her dominance, and she even confers with an old-school black pimp on the ins and outs of their flesh-peddling trade.  Here it is revealed Ray has his limits and will not be selling his wares to the gents, a more lucrative market we learn.

Jessica (Anne Heche) is Ray’s ex-wife and the mother to his ungainly teen-aged twins (Ronnie Saxton and Sianoa Smit-McPhee). She is bored, unhappy and adrift, living her life through a well-to-do dermatologist and earns the pity of her own children.  Ronnie (Eddie Jemison) the dermatologist who replaced Ray as her husband is also feeling the Jessica "un-love" and has his eyes peeled for a new adventure too.

The series leaves you with an odd blend of contemplative thought amidst some humorous relief, but overall it is not a light-hearted affair.

Outstanding performances are achieved by Heche, Jane and Adams, who together are trying to rebuild their lives, find themselves and chart new happiness.

Harder than it looks.