Why he feels that he and everyone at Railton College around him are mediocre has more to do with Hank’s internalized shame than the actual talent (or lack thereof) of those around him. It’s the kind of thing that so many American people would love to have - safety, stability, support - but rather than being grateful, Hank’s focused on what he doesn’t have. Hank, in contrast with the lonely Jimmy McGill, has a good marriage and, it seems like, a decent relationship with his kid. He’s tired because of his own complacency. But it doesn’t seem like Hank has been disparaged by anything particularly troubling. The character is beaten down by life, not unlike Jimmy McGill after his time as Saul Goodman. And so, he got his own show.īob Odenkirk’s performance as Hank Devereaux is also interesting enough to warrant an entire show about this very average man. Exploitative in nature but somehow strangely likable and funny, Saul Goodman was the kind of character that people just wanted to see more of. Better Call Saul would not have existed had Odenkirk not made Saul Goodman such an interesting character. Saul Goodman was first introduced to audiences in Breaking Bad - another one of the best television shows of all time. Odenkirk was nominated for six Emmys for his performance as Saul Goodman / Jimmy McGill, and while he didn’t win any, it was truly an outstanding television show, led by Odenkirk’s performance. Better Call Saul, which ran from 2015-2022, was one of the best television shows of recent years. You can’t talk about Bob Odenkirk on a new television series without talking about the legendary character, Saul Goodman. He’s now a man (slightly) unburdened, his true thoughts no longer shelved. ![]() The young student that Hank insulted most directly in his outburst, Bartow (Jackson Kelly), demands an apology, and rather than saying what he needs to say to move along and keep his job security, Hank doubles down on what he said and refuses to apologize. When his students pressure him to say something, he gives them his honest feedback - that Railton College is “mediocrity’s capital.” While not a planned outburst, this shakes things up in a way that Hank has been craving. We meet him as he stares blankly across his college campus and enters a classroom to be absolutely pummeled by a student’s terrible writing. Hank - Henry Devereaux Jr., to be exact - is grumpy. While not all AMC series may quite live up to that gold standard, judging from the pilot episode alone, Lucky Hank very well might join those ranks. I’ve written before about the kind of quality that we’ve come to expect from AMC - character-driven stories that feature excellent settings and really build full, believable worlds for our characters to live in. ![]() Lucky Hank comes from co-showrunners Aaron Zelman ( The Killing) and Paul Lieberstein ( The Office), along with a team of executive producers that include Bob Odenkirk, Richard Russo, and Mark Johnson (who also produced Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). The drama / comedy stars Bob Odenkirk as Hank and Mireille Enos as his wife Lily. The eight-episode series is based on the 1997 novel Straight Man by Richard Russo, and it follows an English professor at a rural Pennsylvania college as he grapples with middle-aged insecurity and boredom. Lucky Hank is about a perfectly average man and his midlife crisis. ![]() This discussion and review of the Lucky Hank premiere episode on AMC contains some light spoilers.
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