- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 30, 2009
Critic Reviews
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A junky sitcom that isn’t old school so much as mold school.
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The basic concept isn't bad. It's nice to see a captain of industry humbled, particularly now, but even that is unsatisfying in Hank.
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The show's main strength is the admirable comic acting ability of Kelsey Grammer and decent wordsmithing by sitcom veteran Tucker Cawley. But even with those assets, Hank comes across as familiar and formulaic--something you don't mind watching but wouldn't go out of your way to see.
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It's a slight premise, and the odds of it morphing into a fresh, lively weekly adventure feel about the same. Slight.
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This isn't only "Frasier," recast as a standard family sitcom. It's "Green Acres."
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The comedy pivots on Hank’s painful adjustment to middle-class living, but that joke is undercut with syrupy life lessons about parental responsibility and quality time.
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While Hank doesn't promise to add much cachet to those Hall of Fame credentials, this is a show transparently designed for paychecks, not posterity.
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The result is a silly, one-dimensional cartoon of a family that I am guessing viewers will start tuning out before the half hour ends.
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There's nothing here you couldn't imagine from the premise, but there's also nothing wrong with what's here: McGraw is a good foil for Grammer, and Grammer is good at what he does.
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There's an unfortunate whiff of Marie Antoinette about Grammer's breezily ungrounded Hank.
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Hank, is one of the worst new (or old) comedies of this or many other seasons.
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In Hank, pompous comes off as merely pitiful. Or it would, if you could waste even a moment feeling sorry for anyone but the viewers, for whom the laugh track's likely to serve as a bitter reminder that somewhere, someone else is having a good time.
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In a bad sitcom, everybody dies, as the laugh track gets louder and louder, and Hank, though it isn't a horror, has that loud laugh track and the slight, familiar scent of death.
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Hank is the kind of show Dr. Frasier Crane would sneer at, which makes it particularly sad to see Kelsey Grammer reduced to starring in this ABC sitcom as a Dumb Daddy.
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It just doesn't seem the best fit for Grammer. He's playing a character who's as pompous as Frasier but with less justification, less heart, less wit--and less able support.
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It’s lazy, predictable and spectacularly tone-deaf.
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A moronic and ghastly effort that suffocates under the cloying and annoying blanket of a laugh track so disturbing it should be destroyed.
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Hank does fill a network void where family-friendly comedy is concerned, but Grammer is just going through the paces here. And I’m not sure a void actually deserves another void.
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This new version works so hard to not fall flat on its face that of course it falls flat on its face.
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Grammer's so much better than the unfunny show that has been built around him.
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Lacking vividly drawn characters to react against, he must use his trademark crack timing and deadpan silences to carry the show, which just makes you feel bad for the star.
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Hank is a multi-camera sitcom shot on a cheap-looking set with a forgettable supporting cast speaking rarely funny dialogue.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 29
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Mixed: 5 out of 29
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Negative: 15 out of 29
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ShawnLOct 19, 2009
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AngelaGOct 8, 2009
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EstherM.Oct 3, 2009Bad writing. Overacted. Irritating.