We shouldn’t let our fear of the most hostile responses dictate what entertainment is okay and what isn’t, is all I’m saying. But you also can’t equivocate the farthest left in America with the farthest right. The former have a problem with attitude and seeing things in absolute terms. The latter have a problem with basic empathy and human decency.
Austin is rather cosmopolitan. Hank’s Texas might have some relationship with Bob’s Burgers as per a recent CBR article…
I agree in general a audience could handle this show. I mean people love Yellowstone. Mostly though I think Hollywood today is so scarred of the twitter reactionaries they would be to afraid to even give it a chance and even if they gave it a chance they would keep making demands that the show runners pull their punches and maybe don't have Hank have that reaction that will set people off on Twitter. And then ask for more and more compromises.
And here we go with demonization of the other side. My side a bit misguided but GOOD, other side BAD.
I've been rewatching some episodes from Season 5, ie, more or less right in the middle of the series, when it was fully formed and it reminded me of a few posts in this thread. KotH ran through all eight years of the W Bush administration and only dealt directly with him once (the handshake, noted below). And, while everyone now likes to pretend W was viewed by the other side as a "nice" Republican, during the Bush years, the democrats and large swaths of the entertainment industry considered him at least as bad as they considered Trump during his presidency: a "selected not elected," mentally deficient, Bushitler who lied us into war at the behest of his Haliburton masters. If KotH didn't "have" to deal with Bush then, it doesn't "have" to deal with Trump now. Dale was QAnon before there was a QAnon (though, to be fair, he more or less accurately predicted the idea of the internet becoming too intrusive and able to cancel people, albeit in a different way) and he was constantly bullying his friends (and family members) with his crazy and toxic (or even racist) conspiracy theories without Hank having to write him off. Hell, Dale would actually threaten to murder his friends over his crazy beliefs now and then and no one, including Hank, did more than shake their heads and sigh. Also of interest was the fact that, while Hank was largely a pretty decent guy, he had a temper, threatening to kick people's asses, especially people on the left whom he perceived as threatening his world view, family or security and he wasn't above name calling, for example, calling someone a "tree hugging communist." So, really, I think a lot of the idea that Hank would be aghast at Trump may be wishful thinking (unless he had a bad handshake, of course). At the end of day, King of the Hill wasn't "All in the Family" and it shouldn't be now. It was a character study, not a satire.