REVIEW: ‘King Of The Hill’ Season 14 Is the Best Revival Ever

King of the Hill Season 14 is easily one of the few times I have been craving a revival. The Mike Judge-created series is one of the best and funniest representations of the state I call home. With the returning voice cast and some funny new additions, this revival season feels like we never left Arlen.

Cracking open an Alamo beer (which are now actually available across the state), Hank Hill (Mike Judge) has returned to the alley behind his house after returning with Peggy (Kathy Najimy) from a job overseas in Saudi Arabia. The new season picks up several years after the events of Season 13, and Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon) is thriving as a chef in Dallas, though his love life can use some work. 

King of the Hill Season 14 reintroduces audiences to Arlen, Texas, only it’s a bit different. After years spent in Saudi Arabia, where Hank pursued his propane career to secure a retirement nest egg, he and Peggy come home. They look forward to reconnecting with their longtime friends Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick), Boomhauer (Judge), and Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root), only to find their hometown has undergone significant changes.

Meanwhile, their son Bobby, now 21, has embraced adulthood in Dallas, living his dream as a chef and enjoying his twenties alongside his former classmates Connie (Lauren Tom), Joseph (Breckin Meyer), and Chane (Ki Hong Lee). The series, known for its humorous and insightful take on American life, continues to explore the challenges and quirks of everyday existence, now with the added layer of a new generation’s experiences.

Bobby Hill gets the respect he deserves in King of the Hill Season 14.

King of the Hill Season 14 is honestly the best revival that has ever been made. The reverence for its past is still intact, but it’s also grown. Mike Judge understands Texas the same way that Texans do. King of the Hill has evolved over time, with the characters’ ages increasing naturally, not just through arbitrary artistic decisions. Instead, Bobby, Connie, Hank, Peggy, every character has lived a life before we came back to them, and that’s important. 

This is the reason why King of the Hill Season 14 can pick up where the last left off, and it does so without missing a single beat. This has always been an adult animated series, but there is something refreshing when you watch a series and can see the growth of your entire life reflected in it. I was Bobby, and our family was the Hills. Like back then, this season is a snapshot of Texan life. 

King of the Hill Season 14 is authentic, heartfelt, and never compromises its comedy. It’s challenging to capture cultural moments and sensitivities in a thoughtful manner that doesn’t come across as preachy. But Judge and his team have done it.

Humor isn’t just in making fun of the past; it’s in dissecting what we grow into.

Hank now likes soccer, thinks changing a Girl Scout Cookie name to be respectful is a good idea, and still can’t stomach crazy conspiracy theorists. Peggy is still the same as she ever was, if only way more aware of how people perceive her. And sensitive Bobby Hill is still charming, eccentric, and now, he’s a successful restaurateur, having made his way back to his father’s barbecue lessons in heart and spirit.

Outside of our core characters, King of the Hill Season 14 features episodes that tackle cultural appropriation (which even highlights how non-offended many Latinos are regarding Speedy Gonzales), trading stocks, homebrewing, the importance of change, father-son bonding, bad relationships, and even the manosphere.

But even with overt theming throughout the season’s 10 episodes, none of it feels artificial. The conversations aren’t overly sanitized for consumption, and much of the relationships evolve like they do when you just talk to friends in real life.

And that is what made the series’ original run so successful. It was a slice-of-life series with enough humor and irreverence to fit into the FOX programming block we all watched after school. But it was always a reflection of Texas, and it never forgot the people, even showing the worst of us at times.

King of the Hill Season 14 is a love letter to Texas and the people who call it home.

The series engages with the discussions that the general pop culture sphere has had since its release. Which of the characters would have voted for Trump? Which ones were crazy? And to be honest, Judge and crew answer those questions with little leeway to accept the worst versions of the characters that the public made them out to be, simply because they were from Texas. 

I say this to say that my big, beautiful, and often politically backwards state is still the only place I want to live, and it’s because of these characters. It may not sound like much, but yes, even the middle-class white family in the Dallas suburbs can be good, thoughtful, and caring people. King of the Hill Season 14 sees your stereotypes, embraces them, and then shows the audience exactly what Texas is and, more crucially, what it isn’t. 

But even if you don’t have any of this emotional connection to the state or the Hills, King of the Hill Season 14 is just damn funny. It calls back to the past 13 seasons, with characters recounting events like memories, and moves forward with humor and grace. It takes swings that sometimes ignore sensitivities, but it always lands on the right side of it all. King of the Hill remains the quintessential animated series about a place and a people that just doesn’t miss.

King of the Hill Season 14 will stream exclusively on Hulu now.