Californication: 8.5/10
Californication review. 8.5/10 Captivating, interesting, fun, funny, great acting.
A few spoilers ahead, but hopefully nothing too drastic.
Firstly, I’d like to outline that I am not reviewing anyone season of Californican, I am reviewing the first four seasons as a set. Before I begin I would like to review/outline each of the main characters briefly.
David Duchovny as Hank Moody.
The main character and base of californication. Duchovny plays Hank to perfection. The character is so incredibly likeable it’s hard to then dislike the show.
Natascha McElhone as Karen Van Der Beek
What a magnificently played role. I don’t overly like Karen, but McElhone is a star actor and her abilities in the art make the show that little bit more attractive.
Evan Handler as Charles W. Runkle
What a character. Runkle is in many respects the comic relief throughout the show. Runkle is hanks agent and best friend. What they share is a rare connection and bond and the two of them cause the show to be a lot of fun. He plays the role beautifully.
Pamela Adlon as Marcy Ellen Runkle
Another comic relief she is Karen’s best friend. She is a sexy little minx and a very loveable character.
A great asset to the show and definitely a favourite in the show.
Madeleine Martin as Rebecca Moody
Personally I felt, during the early seasons especially her acting was mediocre at best. She’s a depressing character that pipes up with occasional harsh truths about Hank and her upbringing. I feel she touches on her character and occasionally hits it through the first three seasons but it was only after about half way through or so of the fourth season that she came into the character and made it her own. Instead of pretending she became. Overall I found a necessary but annoying character.
Madeline Zima as Mia Cross
This bitch is the cause of one of the central conflicts in the series. We soon find out however she’s just a messed up girl who was looking for trouble. Enough said.
Now for the actual review.
Californication revolves around the captivating Hank Moody. Hank is in a spiral, he fucks up but he always means well. He masks his depression by sleeping with beautiful women and rolling in self-pity. We eventually learn that Hank’s self-loathing drives from his inability to win his family back, but that’s where the beauty comes in, every time he starts going out with Karen a huge conflict is solved and it becomes slightly uninteresting. So in order to keep the show the astonishing they have to keep Hank and Karen apart.
Californication wants to do all. It wants to be a comedy, a fist shaking at the depredations of the Hollywood machine and a satire of same, while being a heartstring-tugging family drama - or one about family.
And I think It may of just pulled it off - motherfucker.
So what is it that draws me to love Californication? I think it’s that I got so attached to the characters, Hank, Marcy, Charlie, Karen. I think that the acting was superb, and that compliments the show immensely. If the acting’s there, the shows there, if you’re attached to the characters pretty much anything can happen in the story because you care about that character and so anything they do affects you in some way or another. One thing that I thought was a bit annoying at first was that they went to a fourth season. I thought the ending of season three was utterly superb. One of the best endings to a program I have ever seen. So when I heard they said there was going to be a fourth, I assumed it would be one of two things. I assumed it was either going to be a complete cop out, or more of the same bullshit. The latter was what I experienced in season four. I felt it didn’t bring any new vigour to the show and started to stretch it and showed no sign of ending in a dramatic, profound ending like at the end of the season before. I think S4 lacked originality in some aspects, but in no way did it lose anything californicationy and cop out which I was afraid of, you know the happily ever after American feel good shit.
Overall I think this show is pretty damn good, because it’s so interesting, it’s like, there lives are this huge spiral and there is a sense of envy of Hank, I mean come on, he somehow finds the best in every situation, he’s smart, he’s funny, he’s good looking, he earns a decent amount of cash and doesn’t really work, and he sleeps with all the women the average man deems unavailable, oh and it’s implied he’s an amazing fuck with a great cock. The women love him and the men envy him, yet he isn’t happy because he isn’t with Karen and Becca in a family. So he’s sweet and sensitive as well now. We want to learn from him, how does he do it? And it’s asked of him a few times in the show.
I think season one came and what people were expecting was some superficial show about a writer who took drugs and had sex with women and was a general idiot, when in actual fact it goes much deeper than that. He’s not a druggy, he does drugs throughout, but he’s no druggy. The centre conflict is him trying to get Karen and Becca on side, and every time he does something from the recent past comes up and fucks it up, and it’s never hank’s fault though it’s his actions. He means well which is why our affinity and sympathy for Hank is just so profound.
Spoiler quote
“You have been accused of statutory rape but the real crime here is not one of moral turpitude, your true crime is that you seem committed to squandering your gifts and wasting what appears to be a rewarding life.”
The most important part of the show undoubtedly is, as I touched on earlier is the chance of Karen. However I’ve heard rumours that Karen and Becca aren’t as active in season five which means perhaps a new central conflict which would be great, this one is starting to get repetitive and wane a little. It’s interesting though, because what is Californication without that?
Season one came out and hit us and established the show, the main mission was get Karen to not go through with her marriage with Bill and he successfully does that by the very end of the season. But also in episode one, something happens that goes through all the way to season four, so I’m convinced season five is going to be really good like a new beginning.
Season two was superb, this was where Hank was writing Loui Ashby’s book. Hank in season two got another friend in Loui. Season two had drugs as a large vocal point where as season one was more fucking strangers, season three came out with Hank having controversial sex, sleeping with girls he probably shouldn’t be. By the end of season three the Mia secret comes out. In case you don’t know *spoiler alert* Mia was a underage girl who he slept with and she than stole his book. Anyway it comes out at the end of season three *spoiler over* and the end scene of season three was – oh my God. The ending of season three left me stunned, shocked. I played it over and over.
So overall I have to give Californication 8.5/10. If you’re into this sort of thing, Even if you don’t like Hank, you like him. He is a bit of a loser, now I don’t mean geeky loser but his life is just like a joke, but he has made it like that because he is such a joker himself. So I’m excited for season five.
That’s it from me – smell you later.
Next review: Power Without Glory.
6 
