Lucky Hank Trailer: Bob Odenkirk Powers Through a Mid-Life Crisis

Lucky Hank, a new series starring Bob Odenkirk, just got a trailer. After closing out his era as the shrewd lawyer Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul, the Emmy-nominated star is returning for another AMC project. This time, he plays the eponymous, bitter English professor at a severely-underfunded college, who identifies as a born anarchist. Based on the 1997 novel ‘Straight Man’ by Richard Russo, the eight-episode series is slated to release March 19 on AMC+. In India, the AMC+ service is available as an add-on channel on Amazon Prime Video. Gadgets360 has reached out to the latter for confirmation on the release date for India.

The trailer for Lucky Hank opens with a short-tempered William Henry ‘Hank’ Devereaux, Jr. (Odenkirk) demeaning a student for showing a lack of academic promise. “The fact that you’re here means you show very little promise,” he says. “You’re here at Railton College, mediocrity’s capital!” It doesn’t take long before the audio of his disparaging comments is released publicly, worsened by the fact that he is the chairman of the English department at the college. “They twisted my words – No, that’s… pretty much verbatim,” he reads off a transcript. His comments set off a chain reaction of events that question his authority, obligatory meetings with parents, and personal text messages filled with hatred.

“Being an adult is 80 percent misery,” he tells his wife Lily (Mireille Enos), who herself is the vice principal of the town’s local high school. As Hank’s mid-life crisis nears boiling point, Lily decides she wants to leave the mundane lifestyle behind and pursue her professional career elsewhere. But Hank remains adamant about staying, for reasons only his therapist understands. “I’m concerned that I might say something really consistent with my personality. But inconsistent with a modern college campus,” Hank says in the Lucky Hank trailer, presumably referring to an important faculty meeting regarding his role/ dismissal from the college.

The series chronicles the most absurd moments from Hank’s life — switching between familial problems, exchanging snarky comments with students, getting smacked by his peers, and even boxing a goose in the middle of the day. The Lucky Hank trailer also touches upon the prospect of him just being a misunderstood citizen, with neighbours assuming that ‘everything’s a joke to him’. It’s essentially a dramatic showcase of a man’s downward spiral, all set within the course of a single week.

The series originally shared the same title as the book, ‘Straight Man,’ but was then revised last month to Lucky Hank. Rounding off the cast lineup are Cedric Yarbrough, Sara Amini, Diedrich Bader, Suzanne Cryer, and Olivia Scott Welch. Frequent David Lynch collaborator Kyle MacLachlan will also appear as a guest star.

Lucky Hank is slated to release March 19 on AMC+. Currently, there is no confirmation as to whether the episodes will begin streaming the same day on Amazon Prime Video, in India.