King of the Hill season 15 review: Somehow this show just keeps getting better

Then it debuted, and at first it seemed like my fears were confirmed. The first episode of the revival was rough. It had a lot of housekeeping to take care of to catch the audience up on Hank and Peggy’s lives. But after that, the show pretty quickly settled in, and the characters began to feel just like they did in the original series. Returning executive producers Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, along with new showrunner Saladin Patterson, quickly rediscovered the grounded level of humor that defined the original show. So while there was a little bit of an adjustment period, the new King of the Hill ended up feeling just like the original in a deeply comforting way, with just enough changes to give Hank new cultural issues to explore.

Yet somehow, season 15, which drops all 10 episodes on Hulu on July 20, feels even more like the original series did. With more comfortable writing and less to say about the culture wars, the show feels like a more faithful representation of the original’s domestic simplicity.

The King of the Hill revival began with Hank Hill (Mike Judge) and his wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) returning to Arlen, Texas, after Hank spent the last few years working in Saudi Arabia, for the oil company Aramco. And while Hank was adjusting to big changes, like moving back to America and being fully retired, his friends felt much like they did back in the original show, with only minor changes to their lives (especially funny was the reveal that Bill had become a shut-in during Hank’s absence).

Now-21-year-old Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon) had changed the most, finally growing up into a workaholic chef. During the 14th season, Bobby also reunited with Connie Souphanousinphone (Lauren Tom), and they rekindled the romance from when they were kids.

A lot of season 14 involved Hank getting up to speed on what’s going on with his friends and family, as well as what’s going on in the world. Hank’s always been an old-fashioned guy, but while working for Aramco, he lived in a 1950s-style residential community. Upon his return, he’s a fish out of water, even more so than in the original series.

While I’m emphasizing the changes here, they all seemed minor when compared to how much was the same. Hank went back to being the sensible center of his friend group while Dale (Johnny Hardwick/Toby Huss), Bill (Stephen Root), and Boomhauer (Judge) felt like the same guys sipping beers in front of a fence for the first 13 seasons. Even in retirement, Peggy was still the oblivious, self-important woman she was before. And even though Bobby had grown up into a responsible adult, the show made clear that the values Hank was trying to instill in Bobby in the original series really did take hold. As perplexing as it might sound, it made you feel proud of the man Bobby had become.

All of which can also be said of this new season, except that it all seems to come a bit easier this go-around. The show no longer has any housekeeping to take care of and Hank is less of a fish out of water. It's as though the writers and producers — which include a mix of vereans from the original series and new people — have settled into the characters. This allows them to generate stories from everyday life, just like the original series. We get great episodes about Peggy going through menopause and Hank falling for a phishing scam, which feel like the classic King of the Hill.

These two episodes, in particular, represent some of the best of season 15. Peggy is always at her funniest when she’s overwhelmed by something, and the menopause story is handled in a way that’s both really funny and also compassionate toward Peggy. As for the Hank phishing episode, it's great because Hank’s whole thing is that he’s a sensible guy who protects his family, so it's fun to explore an area (technology) where he’s completely vulnerable.

While this season has more of the episodic sameness of the original series, the writers find time to service some of the longer-term stories as well. Bobby and Connie’s romance progresses nicely, while the relationship between Connie’s now-separated parents continues to deteriorate. We also finally find out why Hank moved to Saudi Arabia in the first place, and the answer turns out to be totally worth the wait.

Besides the more comfortable, lived-in feeling this season has, there is one other notable change from the previous season: the show has gotten less political and I think it's better for it.

Last season, the show’s writers explored present-day issues like gender fluidity and cultural appropriation. They never really took sides on the issues, Hank just grumbled at the extremes of it all and inserted his common sense approach. The show wasn’t so much an active combatant in the culture wars the way South Park is, it was more like a conscientious objector.

The approach felt right and on-brand for Hank, whose defining trait has always been his common sense, but this was not the case with the original series, which hardly ever got specific about its politics. Sure, thinking about Ronald Reagan in one episode, Hank wistfully said to himself “I miss voting for that man.” In another classic episode, Hank turns against George W. Bush because of the would-be president’s weak handshake. But that kind of thing was very rare.

I assume the reboot got a little more political because of our hyper-political atmosphere, and the decade-long online debate about whether Hank and his pals, being from Texas, might have gone MAGA. For Dale, an avowed conspiracy theorist, the debate went as far as speculating that he’d be dragged into QAnon. But the speculation in this area was mostly about geography, not because politics ever played a major part in the original series.

This season still has a little bit of that and, once again, it's handled with Hank’s level-headed approach, but there’s definitely less of it. This is just one more point in favor of the revival’s incredible ability to recapture the voice of the original show.

Because, really, that’s what we want from King of the Hill. More than most animated sitcoms — and, really, most live-action sitcoms, too — King of the Hill is calm, quiet and clever. It’s not extravagant and it's rarely silly. It feels fairly real and most of the humor comes out of the regular mundane-ness of life. For generations now, King of the Hill has been a comforting show, so it's nice to see the revival get all the more comfortable.