Californication

I just watched the pilot on-demand and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed by this show. David Duchovny was a pure gem to watch as the sardonic and hapless writer in the surreal realm of Southern California. The dialogue is top-notch, the plot is thick and juicy. Hank is a deep, 3-dimensional character that we seldom see on television. Though he is definitely damaged, there is something in his tribulations that audiences can relate to. His difficulty in writing is a situation I have felt many times when I sit down at the keyboard. Similarly, I empathize with his relationship problems. The problems he faces are problems that real people face brought to life in a very funny, unique way.

With this show, Weeds, The L Word and Dexter, Showtime is becoming the new HBO. That being said I really hope this show keeps the spark that made the pilot so good for the full run of the series.

Maybe I missed something, but the promos of this series made it look like one long ad for a freewheeling guy living a hedonistic Hollywood lifestyle. That's SO not what Californication is about, and frankly, it's a stupid title. There is definitely a high volume of disreputable behavior, and the show is not for kids, but there is a good story here. Hank Moody (Duchovney) is a Los Angeles-based writer whose long-time girlfriend, with whom he has a child but never bothered to marry, has left him. The whole series is about his desire to win her back, his writers' block at the loss of his muse, and his role as a father all in the context of his emotional instability. Duchovney's girl-getting eyes have the same effect on every female opportunity that comes his way in the story as they do on his millions of female fans. The series calls for a bit of a stretch, asking the audience to believe that his power to attract women never once led to an indiscretion while he was living with his non-wife. I loved the characters and although it is not realistic, it is an interesting venue for the observations made about what destructive behaviors women are willing to put up with. It also gets very far away from the Jerry Seinfeld, man-child type characters that are romantically inept. Hank is a ladies man AND a man's man. He's the lovable bad boy with a heart of gold. For those concerned about content for kids: DO NOT WATCH THIS SERIES. There is constant language, smoking, sex, frank discussions about sex, drug use viewed as acceptable, nudity, and references to all forms of adult themes. But the story line is not as prurient as all of that suggests. Hank is a family man who engages in behaviors because he has no brakes to stop him i.e. his family living with him. He doesn't actually LIKE the behaviors and wants to marry the woman who left him and spend more time with his daughter. Great acting by the entire cast --and a *really* tall cast it is!

This has to be one of the best written shows in years. It has so much going on and generally speaking, this is a recipe for disaster. The name tells you this is going to be about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and it is. It is also about love, tenderness, trying to keep kids from growing up too fast, dissatisfaction with life and settling for what you think you want.

The dialog pacing is flawless and the humor timing is spot on. Things come at you out of nowhere, delivered in Duchovney's signature deadpan to great effect here. The writing does credit to the English language, albeit it well salted and peppered with expletives. The very best part of this show is that the characters felt well fleshed out from the first 5 minutes and they have continued to feel real. The relationships in the story line are valid and authentic.

In short, it just gets better and better. I find myself watching one of the rebroadcasts nearly every evening and enjoying it more each time.

I rewatched Californication, a few years ago, in that most destructive way possible, a binge-watch. Of course, a binge sort of fits well with a show that is full of alcoholic benders, of drug addiction, sex addiction, and every kind of lasciviousness and ribaldry. I'll say one thing for the binge. Set against the other show I binged then, espionage drama The Americans, Californication came on like a great sunrise, in total contrast to the former's dourness. Californication is soaked in the Californian sun, it is replete with gorgeous people, beautiful homes, sports cars, fashionable restaurants and bars, and that most life affirming of sinful acts, sexual intercourse. It is (was) a tonic after all those 1980s Washington shenanigans.

Leaving the much vaunted The Americans to one side, what about this one on its own terms? The first season is the strongest, with the richest story scenario. No surprise, really. In Season Two matters are undone in order to create complications for our entertainment. It is contrived and very vulgar. The third season improves, the show settling into being a bawdy and riotous sex comedy. The hero, Hank Moody, sees his - what is the expression? - chickens come home to roost in Season Four. Just as with Season One, which is a stand alone season, Season Four also has a conclusive end, and one could drop the show at the end. Yet, there were three more seasons still to come.

I'd say it's worth seeing the lot, despite the weaknesses of Seasons 5-6, and the increasingly coarse language in Season Seven. The main reason is the screenwriting, which despite the story weaknesses, remains remarkably witty, right through until the satisfying final episode. Californication, for all its explicitness, is delightfully playful, from beginning to end. It is FUN, and fun in movies and TV shows is becoming more and more important to me as the second quarter of the new century continues to strike me as sulky, po-faced, faux-didactic and pseudo-serious. That tiresome obsession with sending messages of commitment, social, political, environmental - of lecturing the audience, boring us to tears. Californication has no desire to do anything other than entertain, and thank heavens for that.

David Duchovny will probably be best remembered, in the long term, for The X Files. Ok, but his character here, Hank Moody, the almost washed-up New York novelist adrift on a river of p***y in Los Angeles, shows him at his most charismatically confident. The show also has that rarest of things, a precocious teenage daughter character who is not a pain in everyone's backside, but rather someone empathetic and relatably human. There is also the comic pleasure of watching Hank's agent, Charlie Runckle (Evan handler) weeping at least once every season. Trust me, he's a hoot.

This show is almost a cousin to Charlie Sheen's sitcom, Two and a Half Men. It will also satisfy anyone who thinks Tarantino's rude wit dried up after Pulp Fiction. Like early QT it also has a banging soundtrack, classic rock through to contemporary noise bands, but its signature song is Rocket Man. Don't misunderstand Mr Hank Moody, he's not the man they think at all (oh no, no, no). He's a chivalrous soak, a knight without his lady, a hero who disdains the court. A rebel knight, a rogue hero, but a hero all the same. Come and say hello.

I can't remember when I laughed so steadily from start to finish of a new show. Family Guy? Perhaps. In Californication Showtime has one of its strongest hits . . . ever. The writing is bitingly crisp, intelligent and fresh. Duchovny's delivery has the timing of a master comic actor and his portrayal of Hank is winning. As with the very best of comedies, beneath the bubbly surface of Californication is a show that in a single episode reveals richly drawn characters of depth and purpose. Hank's lecherousness, womanizing, wry wit and in-your-face bluntness succeed only partially in covering up a complex (or perhaps merely complicated?) man who appears to be facing all of his mid life crisis's at once. Every note in this comic symphony was perfectly struck and I look forward to getting to know Hank - and the rest of his gang - better as the weeks go by. Bravo Showtime!