{"id":1921260,"date":"2023-04-29T10:27:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T14:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-lucky-hank\/"},"modified":"2023-04-29T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T14:31:46","slug":"review-lucky-hank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-lucky-hank\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: \u2018Lucky Hank\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">6<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freview-lucky-hank%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1921260&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Disappointing Adaptation of Richard Russo\u2019s Straight Man<\/h2>\n<p>Richard Russo\u2019s <em>Straight Man<\/em> (1997) is one of the funniest American contributions to the tradition of the campus novel. It follows the middle-aged English <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poll-shows-growing-democratic-opposition-to-cheap-labor-migration\/\" title=\"Poll Shows Growing Democratic Opposition to Cheap Labor Migration\">professor<\/a> William Henry Deveraux Jr. during a particularly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pelosi-on-democrats-3-5-trillion-social-spending-bill-lets-not-talk-about-numbers-and-dollars\/\" title=\"Pelosi On Democrats\u2019 .5 Trillion Social Spending Bill: \u2018Let\u2019s Not Talk About Numbers And Dollars\u2019\">eventful week<\/a> at West Central Pennsylvania University (not a real school) in Railton, Pa. (not a real town). An adaptation of Russo\u2019s work is airing on AMC, but because no network executive in his left mind would greenlight a show called <em>Straight Man<\/em>\u2014you might as well pitch <em>Cisgender Patriarch<\/em>, even if Russo\u2019s title refers to the stiff in a comedy routine\u2014it\u2019s called <em>Lucky Hank<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p><em>Lucky Hank<\/em> is an enjoyable show with many excellent performances, but six episodes into its eight-episode season, it underplays the novel\u2019s slapstick humor and squalid setting. Bob Odenkirk, fresh off his marvelous performance on <em>Better Call Saul<\/em>, stars as the title character, a struggling novelist and chair of the English department at Railton College. Underachieving and acerbic, Hank is frustrated by his mediocre students, bickering and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-lucky-hank\/\" title=\"REVIEW: \u2018Lucky Hank\u2019\">back-stabbing colleagues<\/a>, and financially duplicitous administrators who plan to shrink his department even as they find money for a new tech center. <\/p>\n<h3>The Dysfunctions of the Railton English Department<\/h3>\n<p>The dysfunctions of the Railton English department is a source of some of the show\u2019s funniest moments. With their selfishness and pettiness, the professors are <em>Seinfeld<\/em> characters with graduate degrees. The most they can do when one of them (Cryer) lands a poem in the <em>Atlantic<\/em> is to offer her muted congratulations as she over-celebrates. These characters are compelling in part because whereas the novel is narrated by Hank, the series devotes many scenes to the Hank-free perspectives of the supporting cast. <\/p>\n<p>A cynical viewer might observe that the department\u2019s faculty looks like it was selected by Railton\u2019s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion administrators, but that\u2019s hardly relevant when the characters are so funny and played so well. More tragic is the disappearance of the professor in <em>Straight Man<\/em> known as Orshee. <\/p>\n<h3>The Disappointing Humor and Setting<\/h3>\n<p>The show\u2019s humor has been disappointing in other ways. Even though the first two episodes were directed by Peter Farrelly, one of the Farrelly Brothers behind <em>Dumb &#038; Dumber<\/em> and <em>There\u2019s Something About Mary<\/em>, it has generally eschewed the slapstick humor that made the book so memorable. <\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019ve been especially disappointed by how the show depicts the college campus and the surrounding town. The series makes clear that Railton College is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/busted-actblue-unfairly-targets-union-members-with-layoffs-employees-say\/\" title=\"Busted: ActBlue Unfairly Targets Union Members With Layoffs, Employees Say\">experiencing financial difficulties<\/a> and that the faculty is unhappy. Yet the school itself is beautiful. Apart from the duct tape on the steering wheel of his Volvo, Hank seems to be living comfortably. <\/p>\n<p>But in <em>Straight Man<\/em>, Hank\u2019s building is going through the long process of asbestos removal and its ceiling is in disrepair, while Railton itself is in postindustrial despair. Such details are crucial to understanding Hank&#8217;s personal and professional crises, so the show is shallower for only hinting at them with the occasional sound of a passing train. <\/p>\n<p>Previous adaptations of Russo\u2019s novels showcased the run-down nature of the towns in which they were set, which helped viewers understand some of the forces shaping the characters\u2019 lives and hindering their ambitions. But <em>Lucky Hank<\/em> flinches. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m interested to see how the next two episodes of <em>Lucky Hank<\/em> resolve the tensions and plotlines it has developed so far. But I\u2019ve given up expecting it to match the quality of its source material; that train has left the station. <\/p>\n<p><em>Lucky Hank<\/em> airs Sundays on AMC.<\/p>\n<p><em>Christopher J. Scalia is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the funniest American contributions to the tradition of the campus novel is Richard Russo\u2019s Straight Man (1997), which follows the middle-aged English professor William Henry Deveraux Jr. during a particularly eventful week at West Central Pennsylvania University (not a real school) in Railton, Pa. (not a real town). An adaptation of Russo\u2019s work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":1921261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[14671,6082,7289],"class_list":["post-1921260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-hank","tag-lucky","tag-review"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}