King of the Hill’s S14 Return is its Smartest Season Yet - Here’s Why

The question is, can its already announced S15 capture the same out of time trope magic?

Hank Hill and his alley cats have made a triumphant return to TV (well, streaming) with the show’s creators, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, and the pair’s production company, Bandera Entertainment, running things. This has meant that despite a number of cast members not being able to be involved, the series’ ‘reboot’ hasn’t lost any of what made the original 13 seasons so endearing and so successful.

With the aid of time and the show’s clever decision all those years ago to feature a linear, progressive timeline for its cast of characters, and the town of Arlen (and more largely, the whole of the USA), Season 14 fills its comedic bucket with an out of time Hank and Peggy, who’ve been living it up in “Sau-Deye-Araab-eea”, as Peggy pronounces it, where Hank went to perform duties as a propane maintenance person and also learnt valuable lessons in his formerly most disliked of sports, soccer. The pair return to their beloved home, lawn and Bobby Hill, now a young adult running his own restaurant, but find that everyone around them has not only aged, but the country and western culture in general, have evolved into spaces and behaviours they couldn’t have imagined.

“Why would a doorbell need an app?” Hank says with proprietary exasperation, reminding us all just how the most benign of tech advances we now think of as ‘normal’ actually are pretty odd. Especially through his eyes. And it’s gold.

An out of time Hank Hill is about as genius a turn for this series as could have been, affording the writers a semi anti-’woke’ (or dark woke) lens through which to poke fun at everything from cancel-culture to technology to the modern youth dating scene, but all without being overtly political or preachy or petty. It’s not all perfection with a few episodes feeling lost amidst the more directed rest, but overall it’s very arguable that this is not only a great return for the series, but it’s best and smartest effort yet.

King of the Hill

What’s The Pop?: Animated TV Show
From: Disney+
Release Date: August 04, 2025
Official Link: Watch King of the Hill on Disney+
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: August 25, 2025

You’re Up, Ronny

As with plenty of shows from the late 90s and early naughties, King of the Hill made the mistake of not casting culturally-specific voice actors for all of its characters, Khan Souphanousinphone, chief among them. Originally voiced by Toby Huss who also voiced Cotton Hill, as well as others, the series came under fire alongside The Simpsons and Hank Azaria’s portrayal of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon both of which -- aside from not being voiced from people of Asian or Indian heritage, respectively -- were also deemed stereotypical and, ultimately, both out of touch and culturally insensitive. 

"In particular, comedian and honourably-owned Aussie, Ronny Chieng, takes up the exclusive role of Khan, and nails it..."

As part of the soft ‘reboot’ then, the series has placed actors in all culturally significant roles with those that have some connection to them. In particular, comedian and honourably-owned Aussie, Ronny Chieng, takes up the exclusive role of Khan, and nails it. In a series that has had to rethink, pivot and even exclude characters and relationships due to tragedies and other elements, making this move should be seen as more than just the right thing to do in the modern age, but also a thoughtful and proactive one. Chieng is an interesting comedian, and decisive at the best of times, but his actual on-screen and stage persona perfectly fits Khan’s character meaning the gesture should not be seen as ‘token’ but thoroughly considered.

Moreover, the fact he doesn’t appear until episode eight shows that the team weren’t in a rush to right the wrongs of the past nor to parade the show’s more respectful approach to its represented cultures. We’re definitely on board with the shift and in total support of Chieng and hope he plays an even bigger role in Season 15.

Would you like to know more?
Speaking of 'tokenism' and the show's very, very subtle approach to change, a black character was quietly introduced by way of Keith David's Brian Robertson, a new alley cat who just speaks his mind and quietly comments on everyone else's zaniness. Again, it's maybe a stretch to assume he was introduced for 'profiling', but lergely there's argument there given he kind of thinks all the "white folks" around him are a tad crazy. And, really, he's not wrong.

Reverent Writing

Speaking to more of the above, the show lost a number of great contributors during and after its first run. These include Brittany Murphy who played Luanne Platter, Tom Petty who voiced Luanne’s eventual husband, Lucky, Jonathan Ross who portrayed John Redcorn and, of course, the heart of the series for so long, Johnny Hardwick, who brought so much energy to Dale Gribble that the character began to transcend the show.

"It doesn’t mean those absences won't be addressed, but the way in which this newest season has panned out, everything feels correct..."

Some of these characters, of course, couldn’t be retired and others potentially too difficult to touch upon, so the team worked around their absences with the passage of time being a great co-writer. It doesn’t mean those absences won't be addressed, but the way in which this newest season has panned out, everything feels correct. Similarly to the changing of the culture guards talked about earlier, the team has clearly left enough air between those missing and the many still here with us to forge ahead in a meaningful manner where momentum is concerned. There’s time enough to write Luanne and Lucky away from Arlen, Texas, but not enough time to establish where Joseph, Connie and Bobby have wound up with that same passage of time, which naturally took their personalities into entirely new spheres. 

And that’s exactly what everyone has done, and it’s paid off in propane-fueled dividends. 

Usurper of the Hill  

As the ‘class clown’ of both his own school and the neighbourhood, it was always an interesting thought exercise to wonder where Bobby Hill might find himself as a young adult in the show’s progressive timeline. He was, in so many ways, Hank’s biggest enemy; young Joker to hillbilly Batman, if you will. Totally in tune with his Old Man’s old ways, but also pushing and pulling at his own agenda. And, as has been the case throughout this feature, we’re clearly not disappointed with how his life ended up and how he’s been written moving forward.

"It’s overall subtle, but huge on a familial magnitude and also one of ‘passing the torch’, so to speak..."

More importantly, though, he’s a beacon character now. King of the Hill has rarely ever been OTT, to its credit, and this young adult version of Bobby helps maintain that. He has a career, and a job, and both are costly. He’s unlucky-in-love but heavily devoted to both of the aforementioned, but also loves his parents and so we see a script-flip with him playing protector and voice of reason in a world Hank and Peggy feel has left them behind (and that they at times struggle to make sense of). 

It’s overall subtle, but huge on a familial magnitude and also one of ‘passing the torch’, so to speak. More importantly though, it’s a great new hook -- how he manages his restaurant, which is owned by Ted Wassonasong (and ‘run’ by his son, Chane, basically for appearances), his love-life, his friendship with a much calmer Joseph as well as his parents (alongside all other ‘alley cat’ run-ins), is exactly the sort of progressive storytelling the show deserved. Hank’s exasperation at the world and Peggy’s consistent Karenness can only carry this new stint so far. And while seeing everyone else’s growth or stuntedness is fun, we need a genuine sense of maturation of this hilariously relatable space to move alongside it in a new era.

More Please, Chef

South Park has managed to remain relevant because of its production cadence, despite only aging the town’s characters two years in its equally long life. So to have handled its characters and their growth the way they have here with this latest King of the Hill, everyone behind Season 14 should be hugely proud. Managing missing characters due to real life factors while updating existing ones through significant and respectful casting only amplifies the wins here. But the jokes still run the show and while we have plenty of saccharine moments to either tear up over or scoff at, no commentary stone has been left unturned. It's often Judge and Daniels at their best, and you can tell when they’ve specifically had a hand in proceedings, but that also takes nothing away from the whole writing team. We genuinely feel this is the snappiest and most on-point the show has ever been.

"There’s still plenty of life left in the alley cats, but we’ve now got a taste for the future and it’s looking like a great comedy fusion..."

Now picked up for a 15th season, the key query will be around it maintaining its out-of-the-modern-gate momentum, but we think with Bobby running the show in secret, it will be fine. There’s still plenty of life left in the alley cats, but we’ve now got a taste for the future and it’s looking like a great comedy fusion of the old meets the new in an out-of-time setup perfectly suited for old and new audiences alike.

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...
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