HBO’s new comedy series “Hung” is two episode old, and according to HBO, a hit.
Here are some random and pointless thoughts. They will most likely tell you nothing about the show.
- The Title Sequence/The Theme Song – Very disappointing. The song is “I’ll be Your Man,” by The Black Keys. It’s a slow, blues riff, that could certainly stand on its own, but as part of the opening credits seems rather boring, especially when compared to other HBO opening themes, which are generally of the highest quality. Think about these other shows: The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Entourage, The Wire. They are all excellently done. They’re catchy and cool. Their only problem is occasionally, they’re too long; probably because they’re so good that producers didn’t want to cut them. The True Blood theme scares the crap out of me. Even Sex and the City, which I didn’t watch, has an annoyingly catchy theme. I also can’t see that HBO logo pop up without starting to sing the Curb Your Enthusiasm tuba intro. Hung does not follow suit. It’s not just the song, but the actual opening sequence that’s flat. It’s just Tom Jane walking down the street, languidly taking off his clothes. That, mixed with the slow, mellow song which unfortunately fades to the background, makes for a title sequence that isn’t terrible, but just doesn’t live up to HBO standards.
- It takes place in Detroit; an interestingly and culturally relevant city for obvious reasons. Hopefully, this was done on purpose, besides just making the connection between the down and out protagonist and the down and out city in which he lives. They can probably make some statements about or an examination of the current economic crisis, which would be really cool to watch, just like The Wire did in the fifth season when it showcased the dying newspaper industry. But that type of commentary might be too much to ask for in a show about a guy with a big dick.
- The show has a voice over, which it probably doesn’t need, but works OK. In the first episode, the main character Ray, who does the narration, had trouble maintaining his mid-western accent. At first, I thought it was intentional and found it an interesting detail and pretentiously tried to find a reason for it. Then I realized it wasn’t on purpose. By the second episode, the issue is resolved. They kept the voice-over, but it’s done in a smooth and hilarious Detroit dialect.
Those are my notes on the show so far. It’s brand new, and it’s pretty good. The plot is developing slowly and I’ll stick around and see what happens. The show is OK and has some potential. I see it being a decent show and one that I’ll keep watching even though I know it’s not all that good; a lot like Californiacation (which also has a mediocre title sequence) .
