TV Review: King of the Hill (Season 14)

It’s been a long 15 years since King of the Hill unceremoniously left the air – and though many of its network counterparts have persisted, television’s had a big hole since it said farewell to the laidback charms, endearing idiosyncrasies, and the heartwarming small town dynamics of Arlen, Texas, and the people orbiting around the lives of the Hill family. First announced back in 2022, King of the Hill‘s revival arrives in a different TV landscape than the one it was announced in just a few years ago; after three years of constant perfunctory, soulless reboots, reimaginings, revivals, and remakes, there’s certainly a bit of audience fatigue – plus, how could a show about King of the Hill remain relevant and stay its apolitical self in 2025, without completely compromising its soul?

Set ten years after the original King of the Hill, the revival begins with Hank and Peggy returning from time spent in Saudi Arabia (where Hank finished out his working career as an assistant manager of propane for an oil company), returning to an Arlen that is both the same, and just different enough to give King of the Hill a lot of potent storytelling avenues to explore. With a changed family dynamic – 21-year old Bobby now lives in Dallas, running a restaurant he co-owns with Chane Wasanasong – and their friends retired and settled, King of the Hill is able to immediately reinsert itself back into the lives of its characters without immediately feeling like an empty retread, exploring new stories like Bobby’s burgeoning chef career, Hank’s inability to enjoy retirement (or, in some of my favorite stories of the 10-episode new season, Hank exploring taking up new hobbies and jobs to fill his time).

With the Hill family returning to Arlen for the first time in years, it gives King of the Hill a naturally way to reintroduce the audience to its world; and it does so with a slight touch of mystery, making the premiere “Return of the King” an exciting 24 minutes of discovery, easily able to tap into the nostalgia driving our current era of TV reboots, reimagining, and revivals (Dale’s still crazy, Bill loves Peggy, Boomhauer mumbles, etc.) – but this time, from the perspective of a couple who are slowly watching the world start to pass them by. As one might expect, a lot of King of the Hill forces its characters to contemplate with what the world’s become since the end of the series in 2009; and though it occasionally stumbles its way through “modern” stories (like a character who is “ethically non-monogamous”), the show unsurprisingly does a great job at letting Hank observe what America’s become in the past decade – at times, King of the Hill becomes a prescient story about a man struggling with not only his identity, but the identity of his country, offering an interesting (and consistently objective, keeping the series as politically neutral as it can be in 2025) take on the changing values and desires, and the unchanging couple still trying to maintain his place in that world.

At one point in “Return of the King”, Hank asks Peggy if they made a mistake coming back to America; it really asks a larger existential question of the series itself, pondering whether it would be able to fill ten episodes of material juggling the King of the Hill world we know and love, and the world it finds itself existing in 2025. The good news is that it mostly works; and when it doesn’t, it does so without betraying its beloved characters, making some of its more awkward attempts to reflect on living in today’s day and age feel quaint and honest, rather than forced and reductive (I haven’t seen a single character go to therapy, which is nothing short of a friggin’ miracle) – and most importantly, often work in service of the personal stories it tells about the Hill family and their Arlen community.

It makes for an extremely satisfying, if occasionally clumsy season, mixing its reflections on 21st century life into its old, familiar rhythms of tales about Bill’s social life or Peggy’s attempts to find purpose in retirement, it feels like King of the Hill never left the air, the only difference being some aged-up characters (some of which I love, like Joseph Gribble and an older Boomhauer), and a few welcome additions on the fringes – like Bobby’s sous chef Emilio, probably my favorite of the batch. But it’s not just a complete nostalgia play; as the alley beer crew tries to find purpose watching the second act of their lives come to a close, King of the Hill maintains the quiet reflection on life it had in the best moments of the original series, offering up its observations on friendship, identity, and inner peace in subtly serene moments like Hank and Peggy buying Girl Scout cookies (one of my favorite scenes of the entire revival, if I’m being honest) or when Joseph and Bobby hang out on their apartment patio, joking about the neighbors living across from them.

With slightly longer episode lengths (24-25 minutes as opposed to the 22 minutes of the original), it also gives King of the Hill room to explore a bit more, allowing characters like Connie and Chane, and stories like the occasional tensions of Hank and Peggy’s decades-long marriage to expand a bit more within the show’s narrative – and as the show moves into the second half of its 10-episode order, moves from its preambles and into some heartfelt stories about its characters and the things we face as we age; death, divorce, disappointment – and for Hank, his legacy, as he contends with the paths his son (and others of his son’s generation, including at least one familiar face) have set themselves on in their young adulthood.

Of course, it helps that King of the Hill remains as funny as it ever was in the original series; given its humor was never built on pop culture references or high-concept premises, King of the Hill has a deep well of characters and idiosyncrasies to draw humor from (for example: Peggy pronouncing ‘Saudi Arabia’ is just as good as you’d think it’d be). And when it does reflect on today’s age through its humor, it finds a lot of fantastic avenues, from Ring cameras to fusion restaurants, and a whole slew of other things I don’t want to spoil in this review (you’ll have to wait for the episode reviews being August 4th!).

Most importantly, King of the Hill has made it to 2025 with its heart firmly in place, even though the revival is a bit softer than the original (and at times, you can feel the show pulling itself away from reflecting a little too hard on modern society). When King of the Hill pulls back to observe the few lasting bits of Americana identity remaining in the Hills and the Arlen around them, it remains as iconic as ever, a warm bit of comfort food properly updated to find its way in our strange times.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

• As noted, stop back in next week for episode reviews when the season goes live August 4th!
  
• Boy, it hurts to see King of the Hill return with so many of its original cast members having passed.