9.8/10. This deserves a better write up than I'm able to give it at the moment, but this is one of those "knock it out of the park" episodes of King of the Hill. The "not trying to hide it" parody of 12 Angry Men is the show at its best, blending comedy, clear stakes, and emotion to form the complete package. The episode doesn't play hide the ball, with Kahn going so far as to call out Hank for conflating his personal feelings with respect to his mother with his spirited defense of his mower, and yet it still works brilliantly.
For one thing, the show does such a great job with the 12 Angry Men framework. It sets up clear motivations and personal attachments for everyone in the room (including Billy Bob Thorton and Dwight Yoakum as a huckster of a used car salesman and a lapsed minister involved in a baptism gone wrong, characters who only get quick sketches of characterization and yet feel fully formed out of the gate), and then has Hank respond to each of them personally in building his case against the new mower that's being focus-grouped. It's great storytelling, even if it's borrowing from a classic.
And what is truly impressive, if also a little frightening, is how whole hog the episode goes on making Cotton absolutely repugnant here. In most episodes of the show, King of the Hill doesn't exactly shy away from Cotton's rougher edges, but tries to give him humanizing soft spots, quirks that don't betray the character, but which make him something at least a step below an abject monster. But not here. Cotton is abrasive, needlessly cruel, lewd, and out-and-out evil at times. His insults of Tilly are beyond the pale, and as unpleasant as it is, it sets the stakes for Hank's reluctance to stand up for his mother, and the triumph when he ultimately does.
The mower-as-mother stand in is, again, pretty obvious, but it works in the way the show acknowledges it. And when Hank breaks the metaphor, telling Cotton that it's not about the mower or Tilly or even Hank, but about Cotton himself, bitter and spiteful and the source of all his own problems, it is as powerful a moment as any in the show. There's still plenty of laughs to go 'round (the bits with the guys around the focus group table are especially hilarious, including a nice little win for Bill whose earlier "stuffing" quote is the comedic highlight) but "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men" delivers on the character-based drama in a way that makes the whole thing work. Hank telling his father that if he continues to behave this way, he's not welcome in Hank's house, and Tilly overhearing and telling Hank she already received what she wanted for Christmas is, perhaps a little easy for a holiday episode, but nonetheless is earned.
Combine a pitch-perfect parody, a cornucopia of funny moments, and a strong emotional backbone to rest it all on, and the result is one of King of the Hill's finest hours.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-01-09T08:55:26Z
9.8/10. This deserves a better write up than I'm able to give it at the moment, but this is one of those "knock it out of the park" episodes of King of the Hill. The "not trying to hide it" parody of 12 Angry Men is the show at its best, blending comedy, clear stakes, and emotion to form the complete package. The episode doesn't play hide the ball, with Kahn going so far as to call out Hank for conflating his personal feelings with respect to his mother with his spirited defense of his mower, and yet it still works brilliantly.
For one thing, the show does such a great job with the 12 Angry Men framework. It sets up clear motivations and personal attachments for everyone in the room (including Billy Bob Thorton and Dwight Yoakum as a huckster of a used car salesman and a lapsed minister involved in a baptism gone wrong, characters who only get quick sketches of characterization and yet feel fully formed out of the gate), and then has Hank respond to each of them personally in building his case against the new mower that's being focus-grouped. It's great storytelling, even if it's borrowing from a classic.
And what is truly impressive, if also a little frightening, is how whole hog the episode goes on making Cotton absolutely repugnant here. In most episodes of the show, King of the Hill doesn't exactly shy away from Cotton's rougher edges, but tries to give him humanizing soft spots, quirks that don't betray the character, but which make him something at least a step below an abject monster. But not here. Cotton is abrasive, needlessly cruel, lewd, and out-and-out evil at times. His insults of Tilly are beyond the pale, and as unpleasant as it is, it sets the stakes for Hank's reluctance to stand up for his mother, and the triumph when he ultimately does.
The mower-as-mother stand in is, again, pretty obvious, but it works in the way the show acknowledges it. And when Hank breaks the metaphor, telling Cotton that it's not about the mower or Tilly or even Hank, but about Cotton himself, bitter and spiteful and the source of all his own problems, it is as powerful a moment as any in the show. There's still plenty of laughs to go 'round (the bits with the guys around the focus group table are especially hilarious, including a nice little win for Bill whose earlier "stuffing" quote is the comedic highlight) but "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men" delivers on the character-based drama in a way that makes the whole thing work. Hank telling his father that if he continues to behave this way, he's not welcome in Hank's house, and Tilly overhearing and telling Hank she already received what she wanted for Christmas is, perhaps a little easy for a holiday episode, but nonetheless is earned.
Combine a pitch-perfect parody, a cornucopia of funny moments, and a strong emotional backbone to rest it all on, and the result is one of King of the Hill's finest hours.