King of the Hill Season 15 Is Proof Hulu’s Revival Is Only Getting Better (Review)

King of the Hill is back for a new season of episodes as it continues through its new era of revival with Hulu, and Season 15 is proof positive that this new era is only going to keep getting stronger from here on out. King of the Hill made its return last year with a new season of episodes 15 long years after the original TV series ended its broadcast run, and introduced fans to a Hank that had been living in Saudi Arabia for many years. It was a season of reintroductions and steps toward the future.

Serving as both a revival of the franchise and continuation of the original series, King of the Hill set a high bar with its debut comeback season. It was such a high bar that any future season would have to work that much harder without the benefit of the novelty in getting to see the show return. Thankfully, King of the Hill Season 15 is not only up to the challenge but absolutely excels with another incredibly funny batch of episodes. The king isn’t going anywhere.

Rating: 5 out of 5

King of the Hill Season 15 Makes Room for the Shenanigans

King of the Hill Season 15 has admittedly an unenviable job of following up such an incredible debut season for the revival. That first season already had a tough job of getting fans used to the idea of older versions of their fan favorite characters from the original, and this season has a much tougher job of maintaining that level of intrigue as it sets into a more relaxed pace that the original series was known for. Because while that first season was a great introduction for the revival, this season feels like the first time it’s really King of the Hill again.

This streaming era for the show has meant there’s much more forward momentum for each of the episodes, but there’s less of a concrete serialized narrative between each of the episodes this time around. That might sound like a weakness for Season 15 overall, but it’s in fact made the series much stronger and more in line with the classic King of the Hill run. Because while King of the Hill had always paid attention to how its characters developed and maintained any concrete changes to its status quo over its seasons, it was always best when it was able to relax and just have some slice-of-life fun.

That’s all over King of the Hill Season 15 as now that the show has done all of the important leg work, it can have fun with this new timeline that it had set up. With both Hank and Peggy no longer working, and the other characters all within various levels of retirement, there’s a lot more freedom for the show to have wacky fun with all of them in the way the best episodes of the classic used to do. There’s just much more time overall spent on shenanigans this season, and that’s truly when all of the characters shine at their brightest and bounce off of one another.

This additional time also makes up for some gaps left by that debut season as well. For example, there’s a lot more of Peggy to go around. Peggy (voiced by Kathy Najimy) has always been the most divisive element of the original series, and her focus episodes are also some of the most divisively received by fans. But on the other hand, there are some truly fantastic episodes that really dive into Peggy’s quirks and that’s true here. She gets some focus episodes that that find new ground to explore for her, and will likely go down as some of the best in the show overall.

King of the Hill Season 15 Takes More Steps Forward

Even with all of that being said, King of the Hill Season 15 still has its fair share of forward momentum. As seen with the debut season, one of the benefits of its streaming era revival is the fact that the series is making status quo changes and is allowed to explore them in a more firm nature than before. Any character changes are now immediately felt in the following episodes, and the season proves that there are still new developments possible for each of these older characters to change their lives (and the show) moving into the future.

With King of the Hill confirmed for at least two more seasons after this one, and that debut season starting off at such a strong foot, there was a concern that the show would have trouble building on this new era. That’s not the case as there are some concrete moves for each of the characters. It’s tough to really dig into this element without getting too into spoiler territory, but a major example is how it decides to move forward with Bobby and Connie’s new relationship. Now that they are a confirmed couple, the majority of their focus this season is navigating the start of their new dynamic.

This is a great move for the two of them as it allows King of the Hill to explore a romantic dynamic that even the original show never got to explore with an adult couple really just starting out. There is a bit of a divisive element to this as some of their issues are going to be familiar to sitcom fans, but thankfully that is few and far in between. There is such good momentum with every character and development that it feels like the revival is gearing up to launch into its next new era to come with its next couple of seasons.

King of the Hill Season 15 is proof that this revival era is only getting stronger with each new episode that passes. It’s building on the new status quo framework it had set with its years long time skip, and it’s relaxing in the way it’s telling its stories to offer a more comfortable vibe that fits right in line with the best of the original show. It’s still just as character driven as the franchise has ever been, and still somehow finding fresh new angles for its characters after all this time. It’s also setting up for something big, and fans will want to see what’s next.

King of the Hill Season 15 debuts with Hulu on July 20th. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!