Judith Steinhart

One of the deeper questions the show asks its viewers to consider is what women really want.

Ray, the main character in the new HBO show  “Hung," is a high school teacher, coach, and a has-been high school basketball star whose options have become limited since his divorce from his former high school cheerleader wife. His atypical teenage kids no longer live with him, and his parents' lakeside house, dwarfed by newer McMansions, burns in an electrical fire. Now living in a tent. Ray gets his “aha!” moment during a Get Rich Quick seminar. He believes his only marketable asset is his well-sized penis (which is left to viewers' imagination). Tanya, a poet taking the seminar, decides she can market him by starting a business for women as a Happiness Consultant, i.e., his pimp.

One of the deeper questions the show asks its viewers, and Ray, to consider is what women really want. Do they want a super well-endowed man? Of course, the women who hire him are wowed indeed by his penis size.  But the series’ most tender moment so far occurs when Ray, who usually displays little depth and empathy, is his bedding of a shy, matronly, married woman, played by the outstanding actress, Margo Martindale, to whom he is clearly not attracted. Ray leaves her hotel room once, telling her he has a cold. Later, aware that he needs cash, he returns to work to try again. Molly asks to see his penis, and, after being appropriately wowed, tells him that her husband has a small penis. Molly becomes reticent and tells Ray that he can go and that she would pay him. But, Ray, to his credit at that moment, believably assures her that being with her right then was just where he wants to be. At that moment, the way Ray treats Molly is much more compelling, and erotic, than his penis size.

Okay, penis size does matter to some, and this is the show’s hook. Sometimes it matters to men. They measure their masculinity by their size. Sometimes it matters to women. But Ray’s tenderness, Molly’s feelings of being wanted, and the trust Ray generates, allows Molly to feel more sexual pleasure than the size of his equipment (which the audience is left to imagine) would generate. When you think about what women want, these few scenes of “Hung”, Episode 4, provide genuine pleasure, for characters and viewers alike.