Bob Odenkirk Returns to AMC as a Hilariously Crabby English Professor in ‘Lucky Hank’

Lucky Hank AMC © 2022 AMC Network Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved. Credit: Sergei Bachlakov/AMC

Bob Odenkirk continues his lucky streak playing complex and somewhat dark but witty men in this new comedic workplace drama series based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo’s 1997 novel Straight Man, about a cynical professor undergoing a midlife crisis. Executive produced by Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad) and Aaron Zelman (Criminal Minds), and costarring The Killing’s Mireille Enos, Lucky Hank (Sundays beginning March 19 at 9pm ET/PT on AMC)  takes place in Rust Belt Pennsylvania and centers around an underfunded college English department and its reluctant chairman, Hank (Odenkirk).

Odenkirk, who went straight from wrapping Better Call Saul and overcoming a heart attack to take on this new role, was happy to return to his comedic roots. “Saul was very funny at times, obviously, but he wasn’t aware of how funny he was,” Odenkirk says. “He wasn’t part of the joke, whereas Hank gets to be the wisecracker and gets to laugh at his situation too.” Though the star-studded cast is reluctant to call it a “dramedy,” the show promises to have a good combination of both elements, tackling many real-life challenges in a nuanced way, and not forgetting to add levity. Most members of the English department staff struggle with various problems: the college’s lack of funding, student sensitivity, unsuccessful career goals, as well as tolerating each other — but they’re funny about it, which makes it entertaining.

Hank’s wife, Lily, who similarly works in academia, is struggling too, not only with Hank’s career crisis but also with trying to figure out her place in the world, especially now that her daughter is married and living on her own. “She has these ideals about learning being beautiful. And then, she ends up being behind a desk, and that’s not always that fun,” Enos says of her character. “Is it noble to sit at this desk in Pennsylvania and be vice principal? Is there some kind of bigger plan? She’s on her own little kind of midlife spiral, trying to figure out what this next phase of her life is supposed to be and who that includes.”

“Honestly, one of the things I love is that our characters in the show have been married for 25 years,” Odenkirk adds. “As crabby as he is, he loves his wife. Saul was really alone. I mean he wanted Kim to love him, but they were never going to really be fully embracing each other. It was a tough guy to play. He was so alone. And so, I like that this guy loves his wife and she loves him.”