Contains spoilers for “King of the Hill” Season 14, Episode 6 — “Peggy’s Fadeout”

While the “King of The Hill” revival is pretty much immaculate, there’s one big fly in the ointment — Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root), whose antics are taken to such an extreme it’s hard not to wince. This peaks in “Peggy’s Fadeout,” where Hank (Mike Judge) learns that Bill has taken on another barber job after retiring. Bill has told his co-workers that Peggy is his long-distance girlfriend, and Hank is appalled.

Bill tries to wriggle out of the situation by lying to everyone that Peggy has died, leading to an impromptu memorial service at his house. He manages to turn it around by delivering a moving eulogy to Peggy, which pleases his friend and seems to make everything better. But Bill has definitely taken the biggest downward slide out of all the gang since we last saw them, and Season 14 explores that pretty ruthlessly. 

To be fair to the “King of the Hill” revival, some of what Bill does, like trying to pick up Didi Hill (Ashley Gardner) when he learns she’s single, absolutely fits his character. Bill was a butt for a lot of jokes in the original series, but here, he’s painted as kind of a selfish jerk. “King of the Hill” Season 14 changes most of the characters in one way or another, but this altering of Bill’s character leaves you wondering where the show might take him in Season 15.

Perhaps the main issue with this new, darker direction for Bill is that some of the gags go too far. For example, in Episode 2, “The Beer Story,” Dale (now voiced by Toby Huss following the tragic death of Johnny Hardwick) reveals to the gang that Bill is the only person in their friend group who knows what gun metal tastes like. It’s clear that the writers want us to know that Bill has been through a lot, but they walk a fine line when it comes to extracting the humor from his downfall.

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