Maybe I’m a little sensitive since I live in Detroit, but I hate the new HBO series hung and here’s why: It reinforces the stereotypes Detroit is trying to get rid of. (I was working in downtown Detroit when this was filmed last summer.)
The series pilot begins with the lead character, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), walking through downtown Detroit past some of my favorite locations to visit and eat in the downtown area. Suddenly, he is walking past dilapidated buildings, down 8 mile road – all the while he is removing his clothing – and finally jumps into a lake naked. Which lake? Nobody knows. Mind you, this is while the credits are rolling.
Then, the segment opens showing the destruction of Tiger Stadium, dilapidated manufacturing buildings, the train station used in the first Transformers movie (none of which are in proximity of one another) settling on Ray Drecker’s job at a fictitious high school in a fictitious suburb. Ray narrates, “Everything is falling apart. And it all starts right here in Detroit. The headwaters of a river of failure.” Flashes of every abandoned factory in Detroit and a junk yard are presented to the viewer. Then Ray says, “Thank God my parents aren’t around to see their country go to shit.”
And nobody sees the harm in this?
Tim Goodman thinks it’s pretty deep. He wrote, “It’s also funny, which is good since “Hung” is a comedy. And it’s unexpectedly sweet and has depth, which goes well beyond the meretricious inclinations you might expect from the title.”
Don’t get me wrong, the show is entertaining but to who’s expense? I mean really, who are we serving when you put a show in Detroit and there isn’t one black character in the show? Nor, do you see the Chaldean, Yemen, Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indian, Native American or Hispanic people either. Detroit is extremely diverse ethnically but you would think that there are only Caucasions living here beyond the rare “other” that is seen on the street.
As for the subject matter, I’m not really amused by it at all. What I do like about the show is the humanity of the character. Ray is going through what every Michigander is experiencing in this rough economy: low pay, high property taxes and kids that just don’t understand. That part’s reality. But, how we deal with our problems says more about us, “Americans”, than anything else.
Rather than look toward new markets for entrepreneurship, Ray chooses the oldest profession, prostitution – a degrading and dehumanizing act of desperation.
Is this what Detroit has to look forward to with the Film Industry moving-in soon? Will Detroit continue to support industries that take our tax incentives and then mock our attempts at re-creating ourselves?
I say “no”!
