Lucky Hank (1×03) Escape Review

For our review of the last episode of Lucky Hank, click here.

While Hank may have thought he was done with his father, he has slowly but surely been coming back during what has been a bad time for him which has left him spiraling even more than he already was. That energy was then taken out on those around him if not to torment them, especially his coworkers. This week, Hank received yet another reminder of his father as a shipping crate containing his father’s old office was dropped in his driveway and of course blocked his car from exiting his garage. At the university, Hank was tasked by Dean Rose (Oscar Nuñez) to come up with a list of professors to fire as part of cuts across all the faculties in advance of potential budget cuts. Told not to tell his faculty about it, the rumor of the list had already caught up with them so he just confirmed it which only made things worse and left them spiraling with the newest professors joining Bartow’s club as academic advisors.

Opening the shipping crate, Hank came across a series of correspondence between his mother Laurel (Anne Gee Byrd) and his father in a drawer which only made him question their relationship with each other and with him. His father abandoned he and his mother when he was young and he was under the impression that they were estranged. He thought it was just he and his mother therefore he was shocked to learn that that wasn’t necessarily the case. In what should come as a surprise to no one, Hank’s dad was planning on moving back to Railton and living with Laurel. However, Hank made sure to let him know how unwelcome he was.

Hank’s adjunct professor Meg Quigley (Sara Amini), who worked at a bar to make ends meet while taking care of mother, was still waiting for his letter of recommendation to help put her on the track for tenure but he tried to convince her against it despite her wanting to stay and supporting her mother. Unsuccessful, he resulted in lying to her about a lack of opportunities in the future at Railton to get her to go elsewhere. To celebrate that bad news, they started drinking and at the end of the night, Hank drove Meg home because she was too drunk where she responded in a provocative way which was not reciprocated.

Still scratching the surface of Hank’s relationship with his father, there is plenty of ground left to explore in order to further flesh out the character and give more context for his state of mind. Alluding to a difficult past, this is what the series is missing but not playing all its cards right away is understandable.

In other news:

Lily may have hit her breaking point at the high school which was definitely relatable, simply for the lack of support she received when no one was seemingly interested to clean up urine around a group of lockers in the hall after a student decided to make a scene and pee on some lockers. As a result, she finally decided to interview for the job she was looking for in New York City. Russell’s interpretation of Hank and his relationship with his parents was an interesting one, perhaps proving that he was smarter than he looked. Meanwhile, Hank made it worse with Julie by misinterpreting her asking of advice, thinking she meant wanting to leave Russell.

still courtesy of AMC Networks

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.