SNAPSHOT
Lucky Hank is a mid-life crisis tale set at Railton College, told in the first person by William Henry “Hank” Devereaux, Jr. (Odenkirk), the unlikely chair of the English department in a badly underfunded college in a working-class American town. His discontent is rooted in unresolved issues with his father, a mediocre & entitled student body, and in the fact his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans. Enos stars as Lily Devereaux, the emotionally grounded, unflappable wife of Hank and the Vice Principal of the local high school in rural Pennsylvania where they live. As Hank’s life starts to unravel, Lily begins to question the path she’s on and the choices she’s made. Lucky Hank is a series created by and showrun by Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein, who adapted the project from the novel Straight Man by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo. Featuring episodes directed by Peter Farrelly (of Green Book and The Greatest Beer Run Ever recently), Jude Weng, Daniel Attias. Executive produced by Zelman, Lieberstein, Odenkirk, Farrelly, Russo, Mark Johnson, Naomi Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero, and Jessica Held. (courtesy First Showing)
I love imperfect characters.
Enjoyable though it is to see a lead character do amazing and wonderful things and be loved by everyone, seeing someone fallible and just plain angry is a reassurance that our lives aren’t that weirdly offbeat really.
We all want our lives to be perfect, to not be held captive by the past and to be rooted in flawless decision-making and immaculate execution but the truth is that we simply don’t realise that much of the time, if at all, and that someone like Lucky Hank, narratively exaggerated though he may be for our viewing enjoyment, is more a reflection of our life than the idealised versions we hold so far.
Plus, reassurance aside, there’s something brilliantly funny about someone casting aside social niceties and just going for it; sure it’s going to end up in a dumpster fire of cluster-f*ckedness but the getting there will be FUN … and who doesn’t want that?
Lucky Hank begins streaming its eight-episode first season on 19 March on AMC+ (Stan in Australia)