The tone is a bit scattered, mixing Community’s ridicule of academic pretension with Wonder Boys’ brooding examination of the weight of being a literary one-hit wonder. Oscar Nunez rounds out the cast as Dean Rose, using the same exasperated tone he often brought to The Office as he tries to get Hank to do his job. Shannon DeVido particularly stands out as Emma Wheemer, a professor who manages to stay on the periphery of her colleagues’ antics while wielding a wit that’s just as sharp as Hank’s. Railton’s English department is an entertaining caricature of the cutthroat nature of academia, with the pilot involving plenty of politicking led by Gracie with the help of transparently scheming couple June and Teddy Washington-Chen (Alvina August and Arthur Keng). Railton is an entertaining caricature of the cutthroat nature of academia. The choice doesn’t work any better for Lucky Hank than it does for Hank’s mediocre student, distracting from the better interplay between characters or even just quiet shots of Hank moping about how the one novel he published 20 years ago hasn’t left the mark he’d hoped. He mentions in class that shifting perspective can alienate the reader, something that seems a bit meta given how the show occasionally drops into voiceover from Hank. Hank has largely contented himself with coasting on tenure, checked out as his insufferably pretentious students share their work, beg him for feedback, and then question every bit of his advice.

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