What I’m Watching: Hung

Hung: Season 2, Episode 8 “Third Base or the Rash” (B+)

Everything seems to be coming together and threatening to explode as Frances gets spooked and then clued in to Tanya’s scheme thanks to an ill-timed financial question by Mike and Ray runs into a client while at a diner with his son. The first interaction is much more severe, since Mike will now find out about Tanya and Ray and what they’re up to and the whale that was Frances will surely take her business elsewhere (or likelier, nowhere). Ray is almost as clueless as Mike in this whole situation, though that excuse won’t work once Mike comes to Ray furious about his being manipulated, and probably demanding a cut of what Tanya made for his time with Frances. And to think all this transpired without Lenore even appearing in any of the episode! Ray certainly injured his shoulder in a creative way, and what I absolutely love about this episode, and this show in particular, is the way it romanticizes Ray’s past as a baseball player. The same is true of that marvelous ending scene where Jessica starts to relive her cheerleader days by starting a cheer in the middle of the field as the scene fades to black. I’d like to make a case for “Hung” as the most underrated show on television that deserves enormous praise for its clever storytelling and masterful editing. The writing ain’t too bad either – just take any of Damon’s lines, like “I peed on home plate, Dad, I’m not a vandal.”