"Lucky Hank" on AMC

I watched, It wasn't great but I cut AMC some slack. Their shows always take some time to gel.

Unexpectedly my favorite part was the wheelchair dwarf faculty lady.

Agreed re: the first episode. I found it kind of flat -- the "home life" stuff was really dull, but the on-campus material was better. Anything with the English Dept. faculty was, to me, the most entertaining.

Happy to see Nancy Robertson and Suzanne Cryer among the ensemble, too. I like them both.

I reread the Richard Russo source novel, Straight Man, leading up to the Lucky Hank premiere. I could remember very little of it, except for the main character threatening a goose. I also remembered the "Orshee" character, a male colleague of Hank's who today might be described as an SJW. (For example, he expresses that no more white males should receive tenure, but then he realizes that that excludes him, so then he hopes he didn't leave the impression that he would be UNGRATEFUL if he received tenure, etc.) I'm surprised that character didn't carry over to the series. I couldn't see any analog for him in the faculty gathering with the vote.

Anyway, I didn't love the book. It's distinctively Russo and has amusing episodes, but it's no Empire Falls or Nobody's Fool.

The first episode of the series was okay. Not a great pilot, but I'm interested to see where they go with it. The track record with Odenkirk on AMC shows is buying the series some goodwill for now. No one from the surrounding cast really stood up for me, but then, it took me a few episodes to see what a gem Rhea Seehorn was on BCS.

Bob O is hot af. What a waste he’s straight.

I taught in a wacky, troubled univresity for a year and wanted to turn the department into a workplace sitcom treatment. This show proved that I should have tried that. It's probably not everyone's taste or life experience, but I really enjoyed it.

I’m going to watch this because I LOVE Empire Falls, both the book and the series.

I preferred the Sandra Oh series The Chair, but unfortunately Netflix canceled it after one season!

Second episode DOA. Total snooze.

The dearth of responses to this thread makes me think you're not alone in your assessment R8.

I rather liked Hank's tirade about "mediocrity" and how the school is the capital. Student was clever enough to point out that Hank was also there.

Bob had his heart attack sometime shooting the last season of BCS. If this one is up and running, he must’ve jumped right in after wrapping up Saul with little to no downtime, no?

r9 It's DOA on Reddit as well. People immediately got suspicious because the network was just plugging Odenkirk and not the show itself during the marketing push.

I am enjoying it. It’s low key and genial and not overly manic like I expected - I thought it would be more of a Mrs Fletcher deal.

Episode four an improvement

[quote] "Bob Odenkirk"

Aren't viewers satiated w/Odenkirk content out after two back-to-back series?

According to my allegedly smart TV, only episode one has aired. But I liked it and found it far funnier and truer to English departments than the Sandra Oh show was.

Kyle MacLachlan as Dickie Pope in episode 4 was good casting. He's always had such a great speaking voice.

I don't see a favorable prognosis for the series, though. It's a perfectly pleasant show, but it's so low-key and low-stakes that it doesn't leave you with much.. When a week has gone by since the last episode, I'm not exactly eager to find out what happens next. If I feel that way, I have to imagine it lost a lot of other people after the pilot.

It's a much more diverse show than you'd expect from reading the novel. Billy Quigley (Meg's alcoholic parent) got a gender change to Billie Quigley. And they're shading a lot down in the content, which doesn't surprise me. In the book, Hank picks the goose up by the neck and threatens to kill one a day until he gets his budget. Here, he just threatens to "box" a goose, without actually touching one.

From the comments here, sounds like it's not 'edgy.'

It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.

I initially read the thread title as "Lucy Hank" and thought that maybe it was a nonbinary remake of "Lucy Mame."

Well, r15, TV viewers seemed always up for a series starring Robert Conrad, Michael Landon, Tom Selleck, Betty White, MTM, etc.

[quote] "Well, [R15], TV viewers seemed always up for a series starring Robert Conrad, Michael Landon, Tom Selleck, Betty White, MTM, etc."

Touché, R21.

[quote]TV viewers seemed always up for a series starring Robert Conrad, Michael Landon, Tom Selleck, Betty White, MTM, etc."

Both Betty White and MTM had series that were huge flops.

I couldn't get through the first episode but - as others have posted - sometimes it takes awhile for AMC shows. If it lasts an entire season, I'll binge it.

Latest episode with the dinner party was a total write off

I’m liking this show a lot more, I really loved the dinner ep. Mireille is great in this.

R23, Nitpick. MTM ruled for 16 years. Betty White is literally in the Guinness Book of Records for "longest TV career for a female entertainer (74 years)."

Try seeing the forest next time.

Episode 7 a total write-off. Another hour of tedious moping.