Work calls today, so I’ll be doing a full rundown of ABC’s new shows tomorrow (complete with vids, as usual). But HBO doesn’t submit itself to this upfronts thing (not having advertisers to worry about) so I can do its shows piecemeal.
This one’s called Hung and it’s about a guy with… Well, you can guess. A bit hard-up on his luck, he decides to use his amazing dimensions to make money as a male escort.
Years ago in high school, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) was athletic, popular and destined for success. Now, as a high-school teacher and basketball coach, he’s underpaid, uninsured, and embittered that his wife of 20 years (Anne Heche) has left him for her dermatologist. After a fire damages the rundown Detroit home he inherited from his parents, Ray’s fortunes reach an all-time low when his twin children, who had been living with him, move in with their mom and her clean-freak hubby. Lonely, run-down and at wit’s end, Ray attends a local self-help class whose mantra is to identify a personal “winning tool” to market for financial success. After a not-so-fulfilling encounter with a fellow attendee – an ex-flame and would-be poet named Tanya (Jane Adams) – Ray has a “eureka” moment. With the help of Tanya, Ray resolves to take advantage of his greatest asset, in hopes of changing his fortunes in a big way.
