Post-Recession Media and "Hung"

      Looking at Hung through the lens of post-recession media that Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker provide in “Neo-liberal Frames and Genres of Inequality: Recessionary Chick Flicks and Male Centered Corporate Melodrama” my thoughts immediately jumped to comparing Bridesmaids to  (Paul Feig, 2011) Hung. While both deal with effects of the economic downturn on their respective protagonists there are big difference between the resolutions of each respective story. The female Annie in Bridesmaids is given hope and a silver lining through a new relationship and romantic love. In Hung (2009) however, Ray Drecker the protagonist uses sex as his means to a more secure and happier future. At first glance Hung could be mistaken for a misogynistic interpretation of asserting masculinity. The man is asserting control of his future, while in Bridesmaids Annie gets swept off her feet by a man who steers the wheel. A closer look however and more time spent observing Hung revealed itself as more complex than my initial reaction allowed.

     After reading the Negra article my mind immediately told me – well Hung is privileging the male again regardless of his economic situation. When I watched the second episode at home however, it became clearer that Hung paints a more cutting edge and controversial depiction of the man in crisis. In episode 2 of season one Tanya’s character is developed and she becomes Ray’s pimp. Increasingly in episode two Ray is painted as helpless and clueless in different arenas of life. Tanya has to teach Ray not only about women’s desires, but how to market and manage himself properly. While Negra’s argument holds truth especially in context of the films she draws on in her article, as Hung has exemplified, there is room for more complex depictions of the male in crisis. Canceled after three seasons, Hung illuminates that the problem here is whether audiences are willing to be challenged by such depictions of men during times of crises, not that they don’t exist.