I say the following with a lot of love for Hank... he made me cringe ALOT.
Hank made a lot of terrible choices - he was a serial *beep* up.
For one, he's a serial philanderer. Can't say no? Means you're an addict. He should have sought help.
Whether he was single or not, isn't relevant. At what point does someone bang any person who offers themselves up?
Plenty of instances he was having sex with several women in a short period of time, and sometimes Karen was one of those women.
Who risks their jobs by sleeping with a student, the teacher's assistant, and the dean's wife? He slept with them AND his "true love" Karen, all within a few days of each other, also risking upsetting her if she found out.
Promiscuous behavior is the breeding ground for STDs but he didn't care about the risks. Heck, he'd sleep with women without knowing their name, let alone their age. How do you not ask for age when you're having relations with someone rather obviously that much younger, where 2 years make all the difference between legal or not?
BTW - In the real world, that statutory rape conviction would have resulted in him being a registered sex offender, with all the bells and whistles.
His behavior with the stat rape case lawyer was another screw up. He almost had it sealed if only he had stayed out of trouble. Instead, he ends up drunk at a party and with two young women's hands down his pants. Didn't he get burnt by Mia, first seducing him and then stealing his writing? Why even engage her socially?
Then he screwed up getting the replacement lawyer by being a complete dick... at their meeting, he behaved worse than a child.
Lots of more examples, could do this all day but who has the time.
Yes, there were instances where Becca & Karen were wrong about him and they screwed up as well. But at the end of the day, he was the main *beep* up. If he truly cared about and wanted to be back in Becca & Karen's life, he should have shown his sincerity & commitment to them. His apologies sounded like a broken record...
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profundity
8 years ago
Season 2 they both screwed everything up.
All of their actions were screwed but both of Hank's major issues (Sonja, Mia impending) were during his separation from Karen which she caused by having an affair with Bill. Wrong cunnilingus girl was just flat out bad luck across the board.
I do believe that Karen was sent off to New York to minimize the character to give Natascha McElhone time to grieve as she had just lost her real life husband to a heart attack while filming season 2. He was only 43 and they had just celebrated their 10th anniversary. She was also due to give birth around the early portion of filming for season 3.
I've wondered frequently if they had a different direction intended but due to those unforeseen circumstances were forced into a more "same old Hank" course.
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writetopcat
8 years ago
One area where he really screwed up was in how he allowed people to walk all over him.
I just watched that episode where he covered for Lew to protect Karen from getting hurt again. He was at their house and that psycho stripper showed up bringing Lew's wallet to him. Hank met her on the lawn and negotiated getting it back from her. Of course Karen comes to the door and Hank covers by saying she is his new girlfriend.
Then the psycho stripper practically invites herself into the house. Hank does nothing to stop her.
Psycho stripper then begins teaching his daughter how to dance like a stripper. Hank does nothing, says nothing to stop that.
Karen blows up and throws them out of the house. Becca once again goes dark and tells her dad what a screw up she thinks he is.
Hank takes the stripper out to his car. She asks him if he wants a drink. He thinks about it and flippantly says, yeah. Like why not.
He can't talk about protecting his daughter from evil influences, bad boys, etc. on the one hand, and stand there doing nothing, saying nothing as the psycho stripper barges into his daughter's home and then begins corrupting the girl.
Once outside he never even tells that psycho off for barging into the house and causing so much strife between him and his daughter, and ex.
For a guy who loves those women and wants to stay in their lives, he sure didn't give a crap about that stripper creating chaos and strife. He didn't have one word to say to her about it.
So later on (next episode) when I saw him looking depressed over it, I found I didn't care anymore. Just like the recycled arguments with Karen and the recycled Becca darkness and whining; I have seen the same scene so many times, heard the same things said so many times, watched Hank fail to defend himself so many times, I don't give a damn.
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