That MAN Ain't Right

All right, it has finally happened. I think the King of the Hill revival has finally made a major misstep, at least in the larger context of the series, which is a shame because it comes in an otherwise relatively enjoyable and funny episode, The Best Little Marriage in Texas. And that misstep has everything to do with how they've handled Nancy and John Redcorn. But like I said, this also has some great comedy and also propels the Bobby reality show storyline forward in an interesting way. So, there is plenty to talk about overall. Let's dive into King of the Hill season 15 episode 5, The Best Little Marriage in Texas. And like last year, I'll not only be covering every episode of the season, but I'll have my uncut reactions to each episode posted over on my Patreon as well. Check those out if it interests you. Thanks. So, you might not be surprised to learn that geeking out about cartoons on the internet was not my planned career path. I used to work in film and TV production. 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And after Peggy wonders if they could spend some more of their spare retirement time helping with church activities, Stroop asks them if they'd be willing to help out at a marriage counseling retreat. However, while Peggy wants to be a mentor, it turns out what they actually need is for Peggy to prepare food and Hank to do maintenance. I do really love this setup. Peggy being so eager to volunteer only to hate the job she's given, while Hank had no interest to begin with but was given a job that he is incredibly excited to do. This leads to some great line deliveries about menial tasks from Hank. >> Now, I'm going to go to town on some rotted window casing. >> But of course Peggy would want to be in charge of something like this retreat. A perfect place for her overconfidence to manifest. And of course she would be particularly peeved to learn that Dale and Nancy are the couple leading the retreat. I do think that this is on its face a good premise because it plays on Peggy's overconfidence. It also plays on that sort of open secret in regards to Dale and Nancy's marriage, which then in turn plays on Peggy's jealousy. In classic Peggy Hill fashion, she completely commandeers the first session to basically everybody's chagrin, especially Hank's. But this also ends up putting a bit more of an interrogative spotlight on Hank and Peggy's marriage than intended. With the group being a bit critical of Hank and Peggy falling into pretty typical gender normative family roles. Hank being the breadwinner, Peggy doing the cooking, not to mention Peggy's musings not quite hitting the same in 2026. >> Hank calls me his better half because I better half dinner on the table when he comes home. >> The most interesting thing that comes up here is the revelation from Nancy that Peggy has expressed regret about never going to college because then she could have taught full-time. Something that comes as a shock to Hank and reads as a major red flag to the couples at the retreat and I do think that this is pretty fertile ground to explore for Hank and Peggy as a couple. Particularly in this revival era that brushes up with commentary about the modern lens. Hank and Peggy are for sure an old-fashioned couple and while there's nothing wrong with how they chose to structure their lives if that's what they wanted, there's plenty of people who fell into those roles because it was expected of them. Modern couples tend to interrogate that a bit more and allow more possibilities and flexibility. It's interesting for Hank and Peggy to be so secure in their marriage but then find themselves second-guessing because these younger folks told them they must be doing it wrong. I think that's how a lot of older folks can feel. On the flip side, you've also got Hank being a bit condescending towards this guy who is a stay-at-home dad. Ultimately, it just comes down to the fact that people shouldn't be told what the right formula is. It can look different for any number of couples. But they do point out that Nancy and Dale are a bit more modern given that Nancy is the breadwinner of the family. All of this fallout leads Reverend Stroop to tell Hank and Peggy that they actually should participate in the retreat given that it seemed as though their lack of communication was on full display which again is a development I find interesting and maybe a direction I wish the episode had continued further in. You could show the ways that Hank and Peggy actually do have solid communication thus proving themselves as a couple. You could also give them incremental growth in some of the areas they have shortcomings. It could have been both a win for Hank and Peggy as a couple and a way for them to grow as a couple even in their retirement ages. Instead, while blindfolded for a trust exercise, Hank blabs that Nancy has been cheating on Dale for quote over 20 years without realizing Reverend Stroop was in the area having heard deeply question whether they should be leading the retreat. This is where some of my issues start to come in, because I do think that in a vacuum this is an interesting premise. But the issue really stems from that retconning for over 20 years line. But I will get to that in depth at the end of this video. It was interesting to finally get a pretty concrete list of people who are aware of the affair, which included both Bobby and Connie, who I think previously we really only had hints that they were in the know. And I do think there is at least something interesting being brushed up against here as Hank and Peggy sort of reconcile with whether or not they are judging Dale and Nancy too harshly. Given that they themselves had just been judged by an entire group in a way that they felt was unfair. I do think my favorite moment in this storyline is where Hank follows up on Peggy's college aspirations, making sure that she hasn't been harboring resentment about how they decided to structure their lives, and Peggy reaffirms that she has no regrets. >> It was my [music] choice, too. And I am very happy with how things turned out, Hank. >> This is just a really great Hank and Peggy moment in my opinion. Hank feels genuinely concerned that he didn't realize Peggy had ever considered college. Hank is a bit old-fashioned in how he sees certain gender roles, but he would never want Peggy to have done that if she didn't want to. He's a good husband and it's a really sweet scene. But the place they try to go with the Nancy and Dale of it all here, to me, really misses the mark, despite bordering on something interesting. To me, it just feels like they aren't actually reconciling with the affair of it all particularly well. I really just didn't care for this line from Nancy. >> But it always felt like a way to, I don't know, make it up to the universe. >> I did like the idea that she felt these retreats were actually really good for her and Dale's marriage. There's maybe something there, but making that the afterthought to her sort of weird universal make good on the affair soured me. And on top of that, they also aren't really showing how Dale and Nancy are a good healthy couple. The whole climax of the story is Hank and Peggy's last exercise that they lead going awry. They have three separate but differently important ships in the water, and they punch a hole in the relationship, and they're supposed to use tools from the friendship to patch up that hole. A fine enough metaphor. Of course, Dale drops the tools in the water, and then Nancy and Dale's friendship has to tow Hank and Peggy's relationship to safety. And you know, I don't hate the metaphor of friendship being one of the things that keeps a relationship afloat. It just didn't feel like there was anything about Dale and Nancy's communication that led to the salvaging of the exercise. I wanted to see more Dale and Nancy nuance and more about their dynamic as a couple. And a lot of this is just kind of played for laughs with naked Dale. I really just wish this had maybe taken a different approach to actually show us something new about Dale and Nancy that both we as the audience and Hank and Peggy might not have seen before. Them pointing out positively that Dale and Nancy have been together for 25 years rings a little hollow when there's still this big and apparently ongoing secret being kept from Dale. And that is also why the ending feels pretty hollow to me as well, with Nancy telling John Redcorn that her headache has cleared up and sending him on his way, implying that she is cutting him off. Before what I felt was a bit of a tired joke, to say the least, referencing the old crying Native American recycling PSA. And I do have like a full rundown for why I think this really didn't work in the context of the series and how I would have done things differently in both this episode and the revival as a whole. But before I go on that long rant, let's do quick run-through of the pretty entertaining B story in this episode. The other half of this one is all about Bobby getting his big chance to be cast on the King of the Grill reality show that they set up in the previous season. They loved his submission and are sending a producer to see if he works on camera as they hope he does. There are a ton of really enjoyable beats in this storyline. As we hit the kitchen, Bobby is super upbeat himself. I particularly love seeing how happy his kitchen staff is and how excited they are for Bobby when they find out he's going to get his big chance on the show. I think the series is a pretty great job showcasing that Bobby is a good boss without using too much real estate. I have maybe slightly mixed feelings on the initial idea here that Bobby comes across flat on camera, mostly because Bobby has always been so confident and entertaining, even as a kid, but I think it works because we can chalk it up to both nerves as well as the fact that he seems a little too focused on the finer details of the cooking. The issue is more that reality TV is looking for something big, loud, and salacious, not something informative. I also laughed pretty hard at this response to the Burbank reference. "Burbank, that's where they film Raven's Home." "Raven's Home, didn't that show end like only 3 years ago? Wait, there are six seasons of Raven's Home? That's more seasons than That's So Raven. Everything I thought I knew was a lie." But the most interesting part of this story is that after Bobby thinks he blows it, he flies off the handle a little, and to me this is interesting because it's sort of got shades of Hank's anger that we used to see a lot more of earlier in King of the Hill. Bobby has not really been shown to be an angry guy, but given that he feels he just blew a major opportunity, I like this as a place where they can show he's got a little bit of those Hank and dare I say Cotton genes. The story is not particularly deep, but I think it all works really well. When Bobby leans into the whole angry chef persona, which is obviously not uncommon given the Gordon Ramsays of the world, the producers really love it, but his staff is genuinely miserable. And that is just not Bobby Hill. The fact that he actually gives up the show because he feels more loyal to his staff and their positive experience in his kitchen says a lot about Bobby's integrity. I do wish that maybe the resolution here was a bit less of a like magical win, but it all works. He ends up getting on the show because the producer learns that he's only 21 years old, and that that is a workable hook for reality TV. I feel like they probably would have known that before they got there given the submission process, but it works just fine. We won't look too hard into it. This is a pretty thin story, but it makes me love and appreciate Bobby as a boss all the more and gives us some great kitchen time with his staff, while obviously setting up that ongoing King of the Grill storyline a bit more. Okay, let's just finally get into the issue that I have with this whole thing. Why I feel this story about Nancy, Dale, and tangentially John Redcorn was the revival's biggest misstep and maybe a missed opportunity. As I'm sure any King of the Hill fan knows, the whole Nancy and John Redcorn affair was a relatively persistent aspect of the first four seasons of the original run. But in the episode Nancy Boys, things changed. After a night out with Dale, Nancy sleeps with him for the first time in years and they rekindle their romance. By the end of the episode, Dale and John Redcorn have connected as friends and both John Redcorn and Nancy make the decision to stop seeing each other, all in front of Dale, who remains none the wiser. And while Nancy and John Redcorn were the subject of some episodes after this, largely due to the Joseph connection, they never continued the affair. Now, even from just the intro sequence of the new King of the Hill revival, fans were pretty quickly concerned that the affair had started back up as we see John Redcorn pick Nancy up in his Jeep. Then, when the revival started again, it seemed like they were doing a bit of a fakeout via the selling Arlen ad, making it look like they were still together when they were actually just TV host partners. But throughout both season 14 and up until this episode, there have been a handful of jokes once again implying that Nancy and John Redcorn were having an affair again. So, I think what really bothers me about this episode is that it feels pretty redundant. It doesn't feel like Nancy and John Redcorn getting back together was explored in any meaningful way in the revival. It actually just sort of seems like they retconned that they had ever broken up. And while I think this episode has some pretty fun and interesting aspects in a vacuum, in the context of the series, it feels like a major repeat beat and it doesn't feel like it delivered that beat as strongly as Nancy Boys. It kind of bums me out that the show undid a major development from the original show, then redid it 15 episodes later, and kind of feels like they're patting themselves on the back for it. Not to mention that the episode had close to no John Redcorn involvement and features what will be the final recorded Redcorn lines from Jonathan Joss. And on top of that, I feel like they really had an opportunity to deliver a surprising and maybe poignant reveal that could have actually fit the themes and ideas of this episode better if they hadn't been so committed to the retcon. The obvious joke of the whole thing has always been Dale is obsessively conspiratorial about everything, but can't see the conspiracy that's right in front of his face. But I think the writers could have uno reversed that joke onto the audience in a way that also doesn't ruin the integrity of the original joke. Obviously, they had chosen to sprinkle all of these little hints that led the audience to believe the affair had started up again. But I think the funnier thing all these years later would be for all of those hints to have been to intentionally mislead the audience. What if in this episode, Hank and Peggy accidentally blab about the affair, believing as the audience does that the affair had been ongoing, only for the reveal to be Nancy and John Redcorn never actually got back together. They really were just co-workers who have a completely professional relationship. And maybe this is going too far, but I think if you really want to hit on those themes of misjudging somebody else's relationship without getting the full picture, they could have also revealed that Nancy did tell Dale about the affair in that interim period between the original run and the revival, that they went to therapy, that they worked through it, and in part thanks to the work that they did, now have a strong marriage that really works, and isn't still harboring a massive secret. This could not only hit as an effective reveal for the audience, but for Hank and Peggy as characters who would have been harshly judging Dale and Nancy's marriage without actually being up to date with the full picture, which also fits with the fact that they had moved away from Arlen for years and that they may have missed some major developments. Ultimately, I just have a hard time with the whole "Wow, see, their relationship actually is good" angle while Nancy is still keeping something so massive from Dale, and it feels like they could have delivered that message better if they had gone this other route. I know that other route takes some big swings, but I don't know, I just think it could have been a really interesting place to slightly shift the character dynamic and status quo. I never liked the theory or idea that Dale always knew about the affair. That kind of just ruined the joke, but I think him having learned about it later really could have worked. And if they really wanted to make the affair the subject of one of the revival episodes, they could have actually brought it to interesting new places instead of retreading familiar ground. It feels like for so many other aspects of the revival, they have really effectively and interestingly moved characters into the future with believable shifts and new dynamics that still echo the original run, but the John Redcorn Nancy affair just feels like it's a bit stuck in the past for me, which is a shame because I do think this episode has a lot of really good stuff going for it despite me not liking its place in the larger context of the story. Sorry that this also just half turned into my King of the Hill fanfic. All that being said, despite my big misgivings with how the revival handled the Dale, Nancy, and John Redcorn of it all, I think this episode still has some admirable qualities and some big laughs. Hank being enthused about menial maintenance is always charming. Peggy's overstepping worked really well in the scenario, and the Bobby Be story, while a small part of the episode, gave me a ton to appreciate about his role as the head chef of Robotech chain. I think I just wish they had taken a bit more of a risk on how they approached Nancy and John Redcorn in the revival rather than falling back on the old old status quo. And that is what I've got to say about season 15 episode 5, The Best Little Marriage in Texas. If you enjoyed this breakdown, please stay tuned because I have breakdowns for every season 15 episode on the way. Maybe even subscribe if you're interested, and also consider checking out my Patreon where you can see my uncut reactions to these episodes. Hey, I also have plenty of other King of the Hill videos across the channel if those interest you, including coverage for every season 14 episode from last year, which I even threw into one big compilation for your viewing convenience. Stay tuned for more. Peace. >> I stay mellow watching Johnny 2 Cellos. He talks cartoon teasers, really cool fellow. He keeps you posted on adult cartoons if that's what [music] you're into, then grab a spoon [singing] and a very big bowl of your favorite cereal. Feels like Saturday morning [music] cartoon material. Johnny 2 Cellos, watch him on YouTube. Now enjoy the groove and bust a move.