It can be hard, returning to television after you’ve finished the defining role of your career – and we have plenty of proof of that (aka “The Seinfeld Curse”). But “hard” is for mere mortals, and Bob Odenkirk is Bob fucking Odenkirk, who barely finished before Half a year cumulative tenure of 13 years as Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill, the embattled lawyer he played first in “Breaking Bad” and then in “Trust Saul” – It must be said, she was finally surpassed in almost every parameter – and here he is already back on the screen in a new AMC series (like “Trust Sol”, this will also be broadcast first on the American AMC and a few days later will be released on Netflix worldwide).
It’s probably not AMC’s next big hit, nor does it look like it should be. On the contrary, it’s a tremendous career decision on Odenkirk’s part: instead of trying to fight for big film roles, he takes a step aside from expectations – and just does what he wants. And what he wants is a small, gentle, funny and depressing series about a literature lecturer (based on the novel Straight Man by Richard Rousseau). Yes, he is depressed. Yes, he is quite privileged and the types around him are also privileged, and the biggest scandals that are going to be here are jealousy of writers and conflicts between lecturers and students, even more privileged than their lecturers. There is a very specific type of TV/literature from this genre, mostly with an emphasis on university life (Netflix’s underrated “The Chair” was one too), and either you’re yawning just from that description or it’s the thing you most want to watch in the world right now. If you are in the second group, you know what to do (yes, wait a few more days until the first episode is uploaded to Netflix, apparently).
But what’s interesting here is not only Odenkirk’s swift comeback, who returns to the screen bespectacled, bearded and looking poorer than ever – but also the name of one of the creators: Paul Lieberstein, or for you – Toby, the gloomy HR man from “The Office”, yes, that one that Michael Scott despises for no good reason. Lieberstein is not only a great comedic actor, he was also a senior screenwriter on “The Office” (and its main writer in the later seasons), so it remains to be seen what of his bitter humor will make it to this series as well. Another unexpected name in the list of credits is that of the director of the first episode: none other than Peter Farley, who together with his brother Bobby directed a series of huge nineties comedies such as “Stupid without a break”. What’s a director like that doing in a small, subtle series about the midlife crisis of a literature professor at a failing college? We will find out soon.
“Lucky Hank”, Sundays on AMC, on Netflix starting 3/27 (episode every week)