The Two-Minute Verdict: Hung Feels Limp

On today's edition of Two-Minute Verdict, we take a first look at HBO's new series, Hung. (The cable network announced today it would debut the first of the show's ten episodes on June 28th at 10 p.m.) Directed by Alexander Payne, the trailer -- culled from what I assume are scenes from the pilot -- sets up the series' premise of a massively endowed high school basketball coach who resorts to pimping out his studding services to make ends meet. He's no Paul Giamatti, but flopped helplessly onto his belly for a proctology exam, Thomas Jane's Ray makes a nice addition to Payne's curiosity cabinet of impotent, shlemiel protagonists.

For a show built entirely around a guy's massive dick, however, there's nothing here that really made me rise to attention. On cue comes Ray's voice over, filling us in on what we'd rather just gather on our own; then there's that irrepressibly plucky score, casting Ray's sordid entrepreneurial pursuits in a veneer of ironic comedy lite. The comparisons between Hung and Weeds are unavoidable: Both feature a financially strapped, middle-aged hero, a flawed but relatable character forced to engage is illicit activities in order to pay the bills. The clash of cultures, the moral dilemmas, the very naughtiness of seeing grownups behaving the ways grownups should never behave -- that's what's being mined here. Instead of pot brownies at the PTA, you get dropped trous, failures to salute, and thoroughly underwhelmed, Detroit-area spinstresses.

At the trailer's end, Ray's first client slides a note under the door, having chickened out. Let's hope the series doesn't, too. Otherwise, I can't imagine calling on Ray for a repeat performance.

· Hung [HBO]