Bob Odenkirk has a new series coming out on AMC, and the first teaser was just released. Some might wonder what’s next for the veteran actor after he captured audiences as a morally shaky lawyer and a retired assassin. Naturally, he’ll be playing the chairman of a college English department going through a midlife crisis. Why not, right?
In the wake ofOdenkirk’s endlessly-quotable run onBetter Call Saul, it looks like he’s not quite ready to slow down. AMC’s new 8-episode seriesLucky Hankwill feature the beloved actor doing what he does best, watching his life fall apart. As bleak as that sounds, Odenkirk has nailed those sorts of characters in the past, as shown inBetter Call Saul,Breaking Bad, and the decidedly more brutal filmNobody. So fans of his work may want to keep an eye on this one.
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The teaser, newly posted byAMC, consists entirely of a close-up on Odenkirk’s face as he delivers a short disembodied monologue over some dramatic violins. “I’ve always been a difficult man,” he says. “I specialize in minor strife and insignificant irritation. That’s my lane.” The view then shifts to the outside of, presumably, his office at the college where he works, bafflingly showing a goose walking by in the hallway. As the teaser ends with the title drop and release date, one is left to only wonder, why not a duck?
Lucky Hankstars Odenkirk as William Henry “Hank” Devereaux, Jr., the English department chair at a woefully underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Alongside him, the new series will also featureGood OmensalumMireille Enos as Hank’s wife Lily. She also serves as vice principal at the nearby high school. The story, based on Richard Russo’s 1997 novelStraight Man, follows them as Lily begins to question her life choices as Hank’s life becomes less and less stable.
This is certainly a departure for Odenkirk from certain roles like hisdeadly former assassin in the action-packedNobody. But it also feels right on track for those more familiar with his work asJimmy McGill/Saul Goodman onBreaking BadandBetter Call Saul. He and Enos will be joined by Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show), Sara Amini (Future Man), Cedric Yarbrough (The Boondocks), and Suzanne Cryer (Seinfeld) inLucky Hank’s regular cast. Along with them, the show will feature several guest stars, includingThe Office’s Oscar Nuñez as the college dean,Die Hard 2’s Tom Bower as Hank’s father,Twin Peaksstar Kyle Maclachlan as the college president, andSilicon Valley’s Chris Diamantopoulos as an old flame of Lily’s.
It looks as though this will be a character-focused project, which is something at which this cast excels. It’s also what many likely already expect from an AMC production. So here’s hoping it turns out to be something that brings in the fans, even if those fans end up feeling some unfortunate emotions.
Lucky Hankwill premiere March 19th, 2023 on AMC.
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