The King of the Hill Revival Copes Admirably With Modern Times: Review

Early into the season premiere of King of the Hill Season 14, the taciturn and set-in-his-ways Hank Hill (Mike Judge) is confronted with a recent phenomenon of the 2020s: The all-gender public bathroom. It’s an awkward moment for him, but when he talks to his wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) about it later, he’s not angry — he’s just worried about a woman walking in on him while he’s doing his business. “That’s how you get canceled,” he says. It’s an exchange that does a tidy job of capturing the spirit with which King of the Hill returns: Ready to acknowledge the ways in which the world has changed since the original series ended in 2010, but with more kindness than you might expect.

When a revival of Greg Daniels and Judge’s long-running animated comedy was officially confirmed in January 2023, it was easy to imagine the lazy jokes that could result, the satirizing of “woke-ness” that might be expected in a time when the red state vs. blue state conflict has only gotten more intense. Instead, it’s a pleasure to say that King of the Hill has a kind heart beating in its chest, and thus it continues to be a sweet, character-focused comedy. The show does tackle plenty of politically correct touchstones, but the focus remains on the Hills and their friends, just doing their best to get by in complicated times.

While there were no hard date stamps on the original King of the Hill episodes, the first 13 seasons did exist largely in a Simpsons-esque bubble where time didn’t pass much — Bobby may have been 11 when the series began and 13 when it ended. Rather than keep the Hills in that bubble, the new show jumps forward by eight years in the characters’ personal chronology.

If you were to do some math based on when Season 13 finished airing (2010), that would theoretically set the show in 2018. But we’re definitely in a post-pandemic 2020s era when Hank and Peggy return to Arlen after living abroad for years. It’s a clever way to add some fish-out-of-water tension to the series, as they cope with the changes that even their small Texas town has experienced.

While their house remains the same (thanks to their neighbor Brian, voiced by the always welcome Keith David) and the back alley remains a hot spot for drinking beer with your buds, the status quo has been altered in one dramatic way: Bobby (Pamela Adlon) is now 21 years old and operating his own Japanese-German fusion restaurant in Dallas. While becoming a business owner has helped Bobby grow up a lot, he’s still pretty young in other ways, and a big part of the new season is focused on him navigating his relationship with his parents as a quasi-adult. (He’s also dating now, and his gentle spirit makes his quest for love easy to root for.)

Hank’s small cluster of friends have also gone through their own experiences while remaining relatively true to themselves — like, of course conspiracy-loving Dale (voiced by both the recently deceased Johnny Hardwick and Toby Huss) was an anti-masker, and sweet shy Bill (Stephen Root) didn’t handle the stress of the pandemic well. Through them and others, the show does an admirable job of both reflecting today’s vibe while also keeping the focus on the humanity of these characters. Even a vegan character introduced midway through the season isn’t defined solely by her diet and alternative viewpoints — she gets a full backstory and real dimension by the end.

The animation style remains clean and simple, exactly how you remember it, while the jokes still pop and the stories still deliver some unexpected twists. (The resolution to an episode where Peggy opens up a free lending library is wry, ironic, and hilarious.) And both Hardwick and the late Jonathan Joss are memorialized properly by the show, after delivering performances that only highlight how much they’ll be missed.

The best aspect of these 10 episodes is that they do lean hard into the way society has evolved, even while Hank’s core values haven’t — seeing the way his dedication to those core values run up against concepts like “men’s rights” is where some of the show’s best jokes and most interesting tension comes from.

Later in the season premiere, Hank and Peggy run across some Girl Scouts selling cookies, and Hank asks if they’ve got any Samoas. One of the girls informs him that those cookies are now called Caramel Delites, to be more sensitive to people from Samoa. “That’s a good change,” Hank says before buying a box. “It’s nice to be nice,” the Girl Scout agrees. Words that feel especially good to hear right now from anyone, but especially from a show like this.

King of the Hill Season 14 premieres August 4th on Hulu. Check out the trailer below.