Rent King of the Hill: Series 12 (2007)

King of the Hill: Series 12 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Season 12 of King of the Hill is a bit of a mixed bag. The episode count is far larger than last season and thus a few more episodes seem desperate for ideas. Some of them became the most important of the series while others were severely lacking in a premise that doesn’t go much of anywhere.

One of the most important episodes in terms of character development is "Death Picks Cotton" where Hank comes to terms with his war-veteran father Cotton finally dying. Hank has grown used to his dad constantly escaping death that he just naturally assumes he’d be able to survive being burned and choked. And for a while he does but the doctors inform him that Cotton isn’t long for this world. It’s an aspect that Hank not only refuses to accept but that Cotton won’t let him appreciate as the last chance to say goodbye without the old codger making a crack or slinging an insult. The episode ends with the closure one has come to expect from King of the Hill.

A handful of the episodes feel more like South Park stories, as though the series is obligated to comment on such societal elements. "Bobby Rae" tries to address protesting problems within schools being over-commercialized and perpetuating soda to improve profits at the sake of student health. This episode doesn’t really explore that aspect much and instead resorts to Bobby realizing that protesting sucks. He learns his lesson about staging a walkout without forethought and the school just goes back to selling sodas, I suppose. "The Powder Puff Boys" feels as though it’s trying to provide some commentary on the questioning of gender roles but it settles uncomfortably into the world being too sensitive for not finding crossdressing and mockery of women to be funny. Yeah, that episode hasn’t aged well at all.

"Tears of an Inflatable Clown" is one of the more baffling considering a school administrator convinces Bobby to go from running a carnival to speaking with honest brutality about the history of racism and fascism. "Lady and Gentrification" comments on how ethnic communities are shattered by gentrification but takes the silly route of finding easy ways to out cartoonish hipsters from a neighborhood.

There are some better character episodes present though. "The Minh Who Knew Too Much" gives Minh more of her own episode to showcase how well she does with firearms, forcing her to choose between the working-class gun club and the snooty-skeet shooting team of the country club. "Pour Some Sugar on Kahn" features Kahn becoming a local karaoke star to build confidence to stand up to his father-in-law (kinda). "The Accidental Terrorist" is a classic Hank Hill misunderstanding story when Hank realizes he has been duped for years by a car salesman and inadvertently ends up helping anarchistic college students in his quest to protest.

Season 12 really starts to show the age of the series when King of the Hill has a higher episode count and scurries around for topics. Some of them work, some of them don’t, and some of them have aged quite poorly. There are some decent episodes this season worth checking out that I’m not as inclined to call this one of the worst. But if you’re marathoning the series, this is one of the harder seasons to plow through.