4x10 Hillennium

[7.3/10] It’s a trip, to say the least, to watch this episode in the midst of a global pandemic. Suffice it to say people giving into the prospect of becoming a prepper, faring the worst, and hoarding toilet paper are sadly still salient in the dwindling days of 2020.

But it’s also a trip because we know, in hindsight, that Y2k was a tempest in a teapot and that, by extension, Hank was right. It was wrong to panic, fear the future, and give into the comforts of the past. But that plays differently today when there’s a very real crisis and threat that people are ignoring under the same “don’t give into fear” banner that King of the Hill flies in this episode.

Which just goes to show that context matters. “Hillenium” wraps up Hank’s fears as being rooted in a distrust of technology wrapped up in discomfort over what the new millennium would bring. It ultimately plays as an anti-luddite tract, which could actually work surprisingly well with modern ills of distrust of science and experts, not to mention the transmission of misinformation and games of telephone that distort the genuine facts.

Still, apart from the political and societal relevance to today, “Hillenium” is just a solid story. There’s a good emotional journey for Hank, initially writing off Y2k panic as nonsense, giving into it when the structures and institutions he believes in most start to crumble (read: propane), and ultimately realizing that while the future may be scary, it’s worth it to brave what comes next rather than trying to revert to a nigh-imagined “before time.”

It doesn't work perfectly -- Hank gives in and recovers rather quickly. But it’s fodder for some good comedy, in the form of Dale’s usual paranoid prepping, Peggy’s computer-related Xmas present hints, Bobby’s TP anxiety, and Chappie the “off the grid” Xmas tree salesman. I particularly enjoyed Hank’s varnish-infused hallucination, with a combination of Tom Landry and the whack-a-mole game Hank was championing earlier coming together to give him the epiphany he needs in an impressionistic fashion.

Overall, the message this episode sends may play a little funny right now, at a time when we wish people were taking the risks of a catastrophe more seriously not less, but it works as a story for its time and has some laughs and creative choices to bolster it