HBO's new series Hung, which debuted Sunday night, said Reed Johnson in the Los Angeles Times, is not just about a down-on-his-luck ex-jock "with a big penis who decides to become a gigolo." It's also "about the fraying of the American dream and the battered resiliency of the middle class." And the setting couldn't be more perfect: Detroit, "ground zero of declining Rust Belt America, the symbol of a nation in economic mid-life crisis." (watch a trailer for Hung)

Hung is a "darkly funny" show "about existentialism and small town American dreams," said Tim Goodman in the Houston Chronicle, which is part of its problem. Although the show's universe is inhabited by a group of "likable lost souls," viewers may find themselves "disappointed" that the show isn't "more salacious."

Not only that, said Verne Gay in Newsday.com, but do we really need another show "about the collapse of the American dream and absurd measures that some of the fallen must go to" to pull themselves up? We already have Weeds and Breaking Bad, and Sam Mendes' movie American Beauty came out a decade ago. Hung offers nothing new.