REVIEW: ‘King Of The Hill’ Season 15 Doesn’t Skip A Beat

Mike Judge‘s King of the Hill is a classic in just about every sense of the word. While I enjoyed it growing up, now, as I approach 40, it’s clear just how much of a capsule this adult animated series is for Texas. Well, more specifically, the Dallas suburbs, something that the series has leaned more into upon its return. King of the Hill Season 15 continues the momentum of its perfect return to television, but it somehow manages to do so with rougher edges and more heart. 

If you’re unfamiliar, King of the Hill Season 15 isn’t another revival like the ones we’ve seen from nostalgia-baiting streamers. It’s a continuation of the first family of Texas. Their lives have continued forward in their time off the air. Now, when we see the family, we’re seeing them as products of experiences that we don’t quite know. Still, last season, the series tackled the questions and debates many fans had since it stopped airing. 

Hank Hill (Mike Judge) took the manosphere to task, Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon) showed us that the weird little kid was always destined to be a fusion chef who probably belongs in Austin instead of Dallas, and Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy) is, as always, attempting to be right about everything, only now with more culture and years under her belt. Still, Season 14 was a reintroduction to the family, and now King of the Hill Season 15 is an embrace of who they’ve become. 

King of the Hill Season 15 keeps its stride, proving Season 14 wasn’t a fluke.

One of the big changes from the last season to this one is that King of the Hill Season 15 takes the time to show the audience moments from the past. While the final episode of the season takes us to Bobby’s Jungkook era (yes, ARMY, the boys are even mentioned on King of the Hill), which makes sense as DFW-area residents, it also finally shows us what made Hank leave his beloved Texas for Saudi Arabia. 

But it doesn’t look to the past as some idealized version. Instead, King of the Hill Season 15 tells the audience what has happened in its time away by using a narrative structure that everyone uses when telling their friends about something that happened. The flashbacks feel purposeful and always move the story forward, pulling together small one-liners, comments, and gags that we’ve seen in Season 14 and throughout the rest of the season. It all just works.

If the return of the series was there to showcase how much living abroad can do for folks who have never known life outside of their city, King of the Hill Season 15 is about the importance of personal relationships instead. As expected, each episode tackles different situations that put one of the main characters or an ensemble cast member at an inflection point in a relationship. 

Humor, heart, and the Dallas suburbs are still alive and well in King of the Hill.

The best thing about the episode structure? It’s not all the same focus. There is romance under the weight of disapproving parents as Bobby and Connie (Lauren Tom) make their relationship public to Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick) and Nancy (Ashley Gardner), who have become marriage counselors, and Minh (Lauren Tom) and Khan Souphanousinphone (Ronny Chieng) are still navigating their separation, now that it’s out in the open. But beyond those moments, we also see Hank at his most empathetic as he works to help Peggy cope with menopause and the reality of aging. 

King of the Hill Season 15 also explores male friendship, offering vulnerability through the eyes of 60-somethings doing the best they can. Whether that’s Kahn training Bill Dautrerive (Stephen Root) to be a replacement for Minh, only to realize their friendship is something truly important to him, or the guys playing football in the park helping Bill cope with his need for physical touch.

It’s all the right kind of emotion, packed with the right kind of thorny humor we can find in our parents. And most importantly, there aren’t any episodes that retread what we saw last season; each one in King of the Hill Season 15 touches on something new. 

And while last season saw Hank and Bobby get a father-son episode, King of the Hill Season 15 gives Bobby and Peggy a mother-son episode that all rests on Peggy’s inability to mind her own business. When a well-meaning mother leads to Bobby’s restaurant receiving a negative review from a prominent critic, she decides to put her pride aside and admit she did something wrong—at least, kind of. 

Still, the most moving episode of King of the Hill Season 15 centers on the bond between a man and his dog. One of the most emotional pet-owner moments since Seymour Asses waited for Fry outside in Futurama, this episode centers on Peggy adopting a new dog named Ceaser. And as many of us experienced in our own families, Hank doesn’t want him.

Set on not falling in love with this little dog, when he shows a knack for guarding the house, his heart melts. With the best food and all of the attention, Ceaser is beloved. But when they have to take Ceaser to the vet for an emergency and find out he is really a senior dog, not a 2-year-old pup, Hank rejects him. It’s a moment that you don’t entirely get, but you don’t stay in the dark for long. When Ceaser brings Hank one of Ladybird’s old toys, you know why Hank doesn’t want him. He doesn’t want to lose his best friend again.

King of the Hill’s return was obviously missing Ladybird, the beloved family dog. Having been off the air for 15 years, even our most beloved pups have passed on by then. It’s clear, even though he won’t vocalize it, that he’s sad, and more importantly, he doesn’t want to just replace Ladybird and feel that grief again. But when he opens up, not to Peggy or a friend, but to Ladybird’s tombstone, he finally lets the little crusty dog into his life.

King of the Hill Season 15 excels in its relationships.

While much of King of the Hill Season 15 caters to jokes about being old, like Peggy and Hank falling for a phone scam or how ashamed Hank is that people think he may have an electric truck, the series does what it always does best: be sincere. Even with its prickly characters, the heart shines through, knowing when to land a punch and knowing when to lend a hand. 

As I’ve come to place King of the Hill on a pedestal in my heart, I’ve come to understand that the series isn’t about representing every part of Texas. The series is, of course, one of the best representations of the state, along with Mohammed Amer’s MO on Netflix. Still, in this season, the Hulu Original series is more concerned with representing people instead of a culture. It focuses on how we treat each other and how, even when the love we show isn’t ideal on the outside, it still means the world to us. 

It’s still easy to see your family in King of the Hill Season 15, and if anything, that’s where the charm is. I’m not Bobby’s age, and I’m not at his point in life. But I am a person watching her parents age, trying to stay thoughtful, and learning the world over again as it moves faster. And ultimately, no number of rough voice-acting moments can diminish that. 

King of the Hill Season 15 is streaming now, exclusively on Hulu and Disney+.

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