Hung - Season 3

When I heard that Bored to Death and Hung got canceled at the same time, I felt slight disappointment at the former and a bit of remorse at the latter. Hung's second season didn't do much for me, but the show has some likable elements and I thought I ought to at least see how they ended things. I blasted through the third season in one sitting using HBO's on demand service, and I found it to be mostly enjoyable. It doesn't give itself a proper conclusion and there are a few annoying elements, but it was possibly the best year the show had. There was a definite arc, the story had definite stakes, and there was some really strong character work. Plus Tanya seemed less awful this time. Not a bad note to go out on.

After having a falling out with Lenore last year (right?), Ray and Tanya need a way to get their business going again. They manage to finagle a loan and start up a wellness center for women as a front for their prostitution business; Tanya runs classes and talks to the women, then setting them up for Ray's "private consultations". He then proceeds to have sex with lots of women for money. What a good show to be talking about on Christmas. Anyway, Lenore is still angry and has a number of attempts to get her cut of the profits, including finding a second guy to make money with and trying to stick Ray's ex-wife in the middle of things. There's a nice back and forth, and it actually felt like people had a purpose this season and had things to fight for. Also we get a lot more of Lennie James' pimp character, and any scene he's in is a good one. Anne Heche doesn't have much to do besides be put upon, and her kids are even less of a factor than before. But they don't really get in the way, and the show is pretty strong based on its decent humor, the competent plotting, and Thomas Jane's once again totally affable performance. There's no proper ending this time, but they did a good job with fixing the show in the time they had.