I realize that ‘Hung’ isn’t a show for all tastes. (For example, Drew here at the blog doesn’t care much for it.) It’s rarely the type of comedy that leaves you howling with laughter. However, I really feel like the characters have grown on me and are settling in nicely. And once you’re down with the characters, an episode like this week’s (called ‘Sing It Again Ray, or Home Plate’) has some really funny stuff going on. (Some profanity after the break.)

The episode opens with Ray’s son Damon sneaking onto the school’s baseball field late at night and pissing on home plate. He’s seen by a security guard, and word eventually circulates its way back to Ray. He tells Tanya, who’s convinced that this was a symbolic gesture of the boy’s unhappiness with the family relationship, and floats a crackpot theory that this was somehow an artistic statement. Tanya’s kind of a weirdo, isn’t she? She’s also apparently way behind on her rent and on the verge of being evicted unless she starts making cash soon.

Ray is worried about last week’s development in which Lenore learned about his connection to Jessica. He warns her to stay away from Jessica, but Lenore won’t listen. Instead, she tells him that she’s scheduled him with a new client.

Ray tells Tanya that he wants to dump Lenore and go back to their original one-pimp/one-ho situation. The problem with this, of course, is that Lenore is the one who’s been getting them clients. He asks Tanya if she can line up clients like Lenore did. Tanya insists that she can, and tells him about the wealthy older woman who gave her the sweater. She lines up an audition of sorts for Ray, so that the woman can get a look at him; but she still isn’t quite ready to commit.

So Ray winds up following through with the client that Lenore set up. He has to meet her at a fancy hotel, where his buddy Mike happens to be attending a singles’ mixer. Ray begs off without quite explaining what he’s doing there. When he gets to the room, a young and quite hot girl is already three-quarters naked and ready to get right to it. She tells him that it’s her birthday, and he’s her present. Then she orders him to screw her while singing ‘Happy Birthday’ over and over again. The scene is surreal and very, very funny.

The next day, Ray tells Mike that he has a new wealthy girlfriend that he met at the hotel. He even claims that this new girlfriend is the one who paid for the team uniforms. The story seems to fit nicely.

Jessica and Ronnie’s relationship comes under heavy strain when he keeps pushing the baby issue. She refuses to even consider it at first, but then inadvertently implies that she’ll do it for him. He becomes so overjoyed with this news that she can’t bear to tell him the truth. She meets up with Lenore again later, who advises her (with her own agenda in mind, no doubt) that she needs to save her marriage at all costs. Part of that, of course, is that she needs to stop meeting up with her ex-husband.

Ray tries to confront Damon about the baseball field incident, but the boy claims that he’d just had too much soda to drink and needed to pee. Ray is relieved. At Tanya’s insistence, they both go to a poetry slam event where she reads a poem she’s written called ‘Phallus’. Its symbolism is as subtle as a sledgehammer. She bombs on stage at first, until turning the room around with a rousing refrain of chanting “You can’t fuck me because I’m already fucked!” again and again. The line is funny, sad, and ultimately triumphant all at the same time. She turns out to be a pretty big hit, especially with Damon, who chooses to stay and hang around with Tanya and her pretentious friends when Ray leaves for the evening.

The episode strikes a good balance of important story progression sprinkled with some outrageous humor. I have to say, I just like this show, and I’m glad that HBO brought it back this season.

Do we have any other ‘Hung’ fans here?