Parents' Guide to Lucky Hank

After the breakneck storytelling of Better Call Saul, Odenkirk's followup feels a bit sleepy, yet still has promising characters and a good premise. Hank's from the "embittered jerk" school of anti-heroes: He hates his job as the chair of the English department at a college he calls "mediocrity's capital." At home, Hank and his wife seem more intent on picking at each other than having fun. And with his famous-in-academic-circles dad retiring and returning to the same small town where Hank grew up and still lives, it seems as if things are going to go from bad to worse.

Yet vivid characters and good writing save what could be a miserable slog, in this adaptation of Richard Russo's 1997 novel Straight Man. Odenkirk's great -- but he always is -- injecting even joyless Hank with humanity. It's easy to see the pain behind his misanthropic front, and though no one wants a show in which every episode ends in lessons learned, laughter, and hugs, it's a pleasure watching him warm up (but not too much) and recall what it's like to enjoy rather than endure his life, particularly whenever he's at the head of the class or sparring with the other professors in his department. Head writer Paul Lieberstein (Toby from The Office; also one of that show's chief writers) knows his way around both the drudgery and the flashes of camaraderie that occur at the workplace, and in his sure hands, Lucky Hank is no Better Call Saul, but it's worth your time anyway.