Propane, Pride, and Second Chances

TV SERIES REVIEW
King of the Hill: Season 15
TV-14 -     

Genre: Animated Comedy
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 10 x 22m episodes
Writer(s): Mike Judge, Greg Daniels, Saladin Patterson, and others
Cast: Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom, Toby Huss
Where to Watch: the series will return July 20 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers

RAVING REVIEW: Hank Hill doesn’t retire so much as relocate his sense of duty from one job to every problem within walking distance. That’s the joke running through KING OF THE HILL: S15, a season that understands Hank was never only a propane salesman. He’s a man who needs a fence, rules, a neighbor doing something wrong, and preferably all four before breakfast. Retirement hasn’t loosened him up. It’s just given him more time to notice everything.

Coming off the surprise of Season 14, this new batch doesn’t carry the same shock of return. That was always going to be hard to repeat. The previous season had the benefit of reintroducing Arlen, aging everyone up, and proving this revival wasn’t just a nostalgia trip with updates. Season 15 has a different job. It has to show whether the revival can become a series again, not just a return. For the most part, it does, even if the season is a little more comfortable, a little more uneven, and slightly less exciting than the one before it.

Hank and Peggy are settling into retirement on Rainey Street. At the same time, Bobby continues to deal with adult responsibilities, old friendships, his relationship with Connie, and the pressures of being an entrepreneur. The show doesn’t treat aging as a punchline by itself. It finds humor in the gap between who these people believe themselves to be and what their lives now require of them. Hank wants to be useful. Peggy wants to be relevant. Bobby wants success without losing the charm that made him Bobby in the first place.

Bobby remains one of the best arguments for the revival’s existence. Adult Bobby could’ve been a disaster, either turned into a cheap inversion of his younger self or frozen as a grown man still acting like a child. Pamela Adlon continues to make him feel recognizable without making him feel trapped. His restaurant, his relationships, and his attempts to navigate the pressures outside the Hill household give the season a satisfying throughline. The show remembers that Bobby’s strangeness was never stupidity. It was a different kind of confidence, and adulthood hasn’t erased that.

Connie’s expanded role also helps. Her relationship with Bobby gives the season a softer tone without turning the show into a romance. They’re not written as a perfect grown-up version of childhood affection. They are two people with histories, expectations, and mismatched ambitions trying to figure out whether an old connection can survive new lives. That’s a smart direction for both characters, especially because KING OF THE HILL has always been better when it lets relationships bend instead of forcing them into one direction.

Hank and Peggy’s retirement stories are a little more hit-and-miss, though the hits are worth it. “Care of the Dog” gives the season a warm storyline without overselling its emotion, and “Searching For Bobby Phisher” lets Hank and Peggy become vulnerable in a way that feels believable to people who assume they’re too sensible to be tricked. “Hank Encounters of the Nerd Kind” features a funny clash of cultures by placing Hank in sci-fi fandom, where his resistance predictably creates discomfort. The episode works because it doesn’t need Hank to understand the world around him. It only needs him to survive being near it.

Peggy has some strong moments this season, especially when the show lets her insecurity and self-importance coexist. Kathy Najimy still plays Peggy with that perfect mix of confidence and inappropriateness, and Season 15 gets mileage out of watching Peggy face versions of life where expertise can’t simply be pushed into existence. Her poetry class, church volunteering, and meddling in Bobby’s restaurant all give her familiarity, but the season occasionally nudges her into more personal stories. “Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes” appears to be one of the clearest examples of the show recognizing that aging isn’t only Hank’s story to process.

The neighbors are used well, though not evenly. Bill remains one of television’s most reliable sad-sack comic inventions, and Stephen Root continues to find subtle variations in a character who could’ve become a one-off joke years ago. Kahn’s involvement in boosting Bill’s confidence sounds like the kind of odd couple pairing this revival can use more often, while Boomhauer’s storyline with Luke Jr. gives the season a chance to stretch beyond expectations. The season is at its best when it lets the supporting cast create pressure around Hank and Peggy rather than simply orbiting them for recognition.

Some episodes feel more KING OF THE HILL than others. “Failure to Hard Launch,” with Hank hunting down the owner of a truck parked in front of his house, is exactly the kind of grievance this show knows how to inflate without making it ridiculous. “Propane Recall”, bringing Hank’s past and present into direct contact through Strickland Propane. That kind of story gives the revival a reason to revisit old spaces rather than simply keeping them within arm's reach. Hank isn’t going back because the audience remembers the location. He’s going back because part of him never left.

Some of the weaker stretches come when the season leans a little too hard on modern ideas. Scams, reality competitions, entrepreneurship, and aging anxieties all fit in the world, but a few of them feel like they’re being forced. The electric truck makes sense, the AI deepfakes feel a little more forced. KING OF THE HILL has always been funniest when it treats social change as something passing through ordinary people’s yards, not as a topic being assigned to an episode. The reality-show material is a good example. Bobby auditioning for a reality show and later participating in a competition gives the season a window into his ambition. Yet, the concept feels a little too familiar by the time it returns. Bobby works better when the show trusts the smaller contradictions of his life. The chef who wants to be taken seriously, the son who still wants Hank’s approval, the boyfriend who doesn’t always know how to match Connie’s pace, and the businessman who’s still figuring out what success should cost him.

The voice cast remains the stabilizing force. Mike Judge gives Hank that wonderful trapped sound, as if every sentence is being filtered through manners, annoyance, and blood pressure. Kathy Najimy keeps Peggy majestic without making her unbearable. Pamela Adlon’s Bobby remains the revival’s most successful adjustment. At the same time, Lauren Tom gives Connie enough maturity to make her more than Bobby’s childhood friend, brought back for continuity. Toby Huss, Stephen Root, and the rest of the ensemble help the season feel like the Arlen of today.

The real achievement here is that Arlen no longer feels like a place the show keeps revisiting. It feels like a place still aging, still arguing, still making bad choices in front yards, restaurants, churches, and alleys. Hank may be retired, but KING OF THE HILL clearly isn’t done finding work for him. Season 15 proves there’s still humor in watching these characters adjust to a world that refuses to stay still, especially when Hank Hill keeps trying to stand in its way with a firm handshake and a complaint ready to go.

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[photo courtesy of 20TH TELEVISION ANIMATION, 3 ARTS, HULU]

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