Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this show is edgy and interesting, but not for kids. The characters are all experiencing deep traumas: mental illness, addictions, marriage gone awry, cancer, suicide, human euthanasia, you name it. A major ongoing theme involves how people cope (or don't cope) with their personal pain. Some characters use prescribed drugs, while others use street drugs; some drink socially, while others drink to anesthetize themselves; some rely on healthy intimate relationships, while others have dangerously random encounters; some "dialogue" endlessly, while others won't; and some reach for help, while others fend it off.
Families who choose to watch can talk about all the ways people avoid their feelings about difficult issues. What works for these characters as they tackle or avoid life's issues, and what doesn't? When is taking medication a smart choice, and when are drugs a very false friend? What kinds of relationships sustain us, and what kinds are toxic? Does having money assure these characters personal security or a satisfying life? Also, can people save each other? Can someone be saved when he or she does not want to be saved?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Brenda Kienan
Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt (Hank Azaria) is a great guy having a very hard time. So hard that he and his marriage may be cracking under the strain. Huff, a successful psychiatrist, was living a wonderful life until, in the series premiere, a 15-year-old patient killed himself in Huff's office. In the aftermath, Huff sees himself as a caregiver, but finds that he can't save everyone -- or maybe even anyone, including himself. It's a spectacular mid-life crisis, with life presenting every imaginable (and imagined) curveball.
Huff's best friend, Russell Tupper (Oliver Platt), provides counterpoint to Huff: Bed-hopping, drugs, and drinking are Russell's hobbies, and he is verbally abusive to his no-nonsense assistant. On the surface, Huff seems like a good guy with foibles, while Russell seems like a bundle of foibles with a good guy hidden somewhere underneath. But Russell's often-funny and always-outrageous behavior also offers deeper meaning. Like Huff, Russell saves people from the effects of their problems -- he's an attorney -- and like Huff, his appearance of success belies a deeply troubling inability to face what troubles him most.
HUFF started out darkly humorous and then began to delve deeper and deeper into the personal hells of each of its characters. Huff's mother, Izzy (Emmy-winning Blythe Danner), anesthetizes her emotional pain with alcohol, while his mother-in-law, Madeline (Swoosie Kurtz), refuses painkillers in the late stages of cancer (because she "might miss something"). Huff's mentally ill brother, Teddy (Andy Comeau), is all angst and confusion trying to find stability, while Huff's adolescent son, Byrd (Anton Yelchin), looks like the most stable member of the family but secretly breaks into other people's houses for mysterious reasons.
Throughout all this, Huff's sexy, complicated wife, Beth (Paget Brewster), loves him but struggles with his issues as well as her own. A mysterious "homeless Hungarian" (Jack Laufer) appears to Huff in key moments -- part conscience, part guardian, part imaginary friend, this apparition may or may not be an indicator of Huff's own mental-health crisis.
Whether to avoid your personal pain or confront it -- and how to confront it -- is a major theme here, and the storyline for each of these characters has them experiencing a full range of personal demons.
Huff is rich with brilliantly drawn characters, provocative themes, and sharp writing. A stellar ensemble cast and outstanding guest stars (such as Lara Flynn Boyle, Anjelica Houston, and Sharon Stone) deliver extraordinary performances. For adults prepared to cope with its complicated themes and characters, this is a show well worth watching.
Fans of this show might enjoy other pay-cable dramas that pair strong adult themes with raunchy dialogue, such as The Sopranos and Deadwood.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSex, which takes place frequently, is depicted both as healthy intimacy and indulgent debauchery. |
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ViolenceBloody suicide; homicidal attacks by psychotic patients; fistfights. |
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LanguageFoul mouths run rampant ("motherf---er," "c--t," "ass-wipe," ethnic slurs, more). |
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Social BehaviorMost characters are in deepening psychological trouble; how they deal with it is a provocative theme. |
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CommercialismA major theme is that money doesn't buy happiness. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrugs (of all kinds) and drinking (a lot of it) in every episode. |
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