# Hung (2009)

> A divorced former high school basketball star turned coach becomes a reluctant escort to keep his family afloat.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/17228

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 30
- Episode runtime: 28 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, drama
- Created by: Dmitry Lipkin, Colette Burson
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Thomas Jane, Jane Adams, Eddie Jemison, Charlie Saxton, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Rebecca Creskoff, Gregg Henry, Anne Heche
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229413/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: darkly comic, bleak, melancholic, irreverent, uncomfortable

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series positively overall, praising its dark comedy and Thomas Jane's lead performance while finding the premise's sex-work plot increasingly strained over its run.

## Synopsis

Hung (2009-2011) is an American HBO dark comedy drama series created by Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson. Thomas Jane plays Ray Drecker, a former high school sports legend who has become a divorced, middle-aged high school basketball coach struggling to support his two children. When his already run-down house catches fire, he turns to a desperate second job, using his body as a moneymaking asset. Jane Adams co-stars as Tanya Skagle, the enterprising figure who shapes his new venture, while Charlie Saxton and Sianoa Smit-McPhee play his sons and daughter. Ray's engine is simple: every week he needs more cash, and every dollar he earns from the hustle threatens the family life he is trying to save. The three seasons, all ten episodes each, move through a series of schemes, awkward client encounters, and tense domestic moments in a modest American town. The tone mixes sharp comedy with a melancholic undercurrent of failure and regret, with the sex work premise handled as a bleak hustle rather than a thrill. Fans of Shameless, Californication, and Breaking Bad will find resonance in its flawed antihero, its moral compromises, and its dark, ironic take on the American middle class.

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