Californication: Pilot
By fred | August 15, 2007
(S01E01) Californication marks the return of David Duchovny on TV, and if there’s something for sure it’s that watching the show you won’t see Fox Mulder any more. The show might not sound very interesting on paper, the life of a messed up, one-hit writer whose book was turned into a crappy movie, living a destructive life filled with drinking, drugs, foul language, and sex, lots of sex.
Of course he has a daughter, with an ex he’s still in love with, but it’s a bit too late for that.
No, none of this sound good. But don’t let that fool you, the show turned out to be pretty good in the end!
Duchovny’s character, appropriately named Hank Moody, may not seem interesting in the big lines, but following him going through his daily life was actually pretty entertaining, and funny.
Moody had his one-time big success, turned into some insipid Hollywood movie starring no other than “Tom and Katie”, and now all he’s being offered is to write for some L.A. blog… How very “Sex & The City”, right? Funnily enough, he learns about the offer through his manager, played by Evan Handler.
Everything on the show was very natural, nothing seemed forced or cliché, and Duchovny’s performance is so good that not only will you completely forget about Fox Mulder and really see Hank Moody, but he makes his whole past, personality and lifestyle completely normal, for him that is.
He learns his ex-girlfriend Karen with whom he’d like to get back with, is now engaged - and to make things worse Hank realized he slept with a young 16 years old cutie, who also happened to be the ex’s fiancé. Hank and Karen still belongs in each others’ lives though, as they have a kid, a precocious 12 years old girl might I add.
Again, not sounding very new, but the kid isn’t the usual annoying overly smart and when you actually watch it’s all part of the flow of the show, a very good one you get sucked into without even realizing it, and by the end of the episode you just want to see more of Hank and his messed up life.
It will be interesting to see if they can hold on to this episode’s level and interest, though, because it worked fine also because it was an introduction to all characters. But what will make the show is that part I don’t care about : Hank’s inability to write, his chase of his engaged ex-girlfriend, his lack of work offers, none of this is on the list of why the show was great.
Let’s be honest, the show isn’t really deep, meaningful or anything like that, yet I had a good time watching it ; all of the performances are very good and the show was filled with good ideas or funny moments that made it be a much better whole that what you could have expected from its original concept.
It’s like the opposite of October Road, both shows aren’t quite exciting on paper, but while one takes itself so seriously and tries too hard to be intelligent so much it hurts ; the other one turned it into a great, fun, enjoyable show.
Californication isn’t perfect of course, and part of it don’t really make sense, clichés are there, but for some reason as we watch it we just don’t care. So what if he’s all depressing and self-hating, despite being a rich, good-looking guy who spend his days doing whatever he wants to, when he wants to, and sleeping with every girl he walks by.
Let’s hope the show will be able to keep his fresh and funny tone while having his characters evolving, because what we don’t want to see every week is Hank fighting in theaters, having sex with a few hot young girls - which would make him both happy on the moment but also get him to feel quite miserable on a longer term, then being at one time charming at the other a PITA asshole to Karen, feel awkward towards Becca not knowing what to do, and trying to educate his daughter not to follow his example.
The show will probably never make much of an impression, but it could provide a very entertaining and enjoyable ride…
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Californication
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