Review: Universal Basic Guys “Hoagie Jones”

Overview

Mark and Hank buy a horse together; Tammy invests in a painting.

Our Take

Ah yes, horse racing. A NJ time-honored tradition. I can remember being a young buck and spending birthdays at Monmouth Racetrack with friends and family learning all about one of America’s favorite past times. I’d win a little here and there, but overall, I’ve never made an ROI and certainly not too the level of Mark Hoagie.

I’m probably more in the Tammy camp as it pertains to luck and her whole bit with the painting was very funny and very much on the nose for those of us with Irish luck. I thoroughly enjoyed Mark and Hank investing in a racehorse, a truly funny, and hilariously written endeavor that features Tommy Pope in his role as the far too underutilized Steve which is really just a Jim Breuer/Joe Pesci impression but it works and all of his dialogue was laugh out loud funny.

We usually don’t see a lot of episodes where Mark and Hank are on the opposite sides of a debate so it was refreshing to see these two butt heads and to see Hank’s sweetness really shine through all for a twist ending that there’s no chance you see coming but when it does it might be one of the better twist endings I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not crazy about FOX changing the time slots for the show, but overall Universal Basic Guys goes wire to wire this week.