'Californication': B-, shows potential

With Hank Moody, the field trips are always fun. The bookstore, the dinner party, the movie theater -- wherever he goes, exciting things happen. It’s just the way he rolls. But home is where the heart of this story has always been, and that’s where we finally returned to at the end of Sunday’s episode -- and to good effect.

All the fun Hank (David Duchovny) was having -- in this case, smoking and drinking his way through his new gig as a writing professor -- finally yielded a sobering consequence: His daughter, as it turns out, is beginning to detest him. “Hate” was actually the word Becca (Madeleine Martin) used, and when she screamed that she hated him, the word cut. And then the man with a way with words didn’t know what to say, so he just screamed the same thing back at her, for lack of a better comeback.

That’s where we left off, and what gives me hope. Up until that last scene, I’d felt very lukewarm about these first two episodes of Season 3 -- not bad, not great. But “potential” is now the operative word, because it’s about time that the Hank-Becca relationship begins to show some cracks. For all his faults, Hank has always been a pretty good father to Becca, one who lives for their nightly chats or afternoon trips to get ice cream. It was sweet, but maybe sometimes a little too sweet. And she probably gave him a few too many passes on those faults of his, usually reacting with more of a “That’s just Dad” eye roll than anything else. Now this: She’s smoking weed and cursing him out. It’s an intriguing turn and a reality check that Hank Moody needs right about now.

Meanwhile, Charlie Runkle is truly an idiot.

'Californication': Booze, boobs and a snooze

Hank Moody was asleep. On top of him, a naked woman.

And so the dance begins anew ...

“Californication” opened its third season in unsurprising form Sunday night: Hank (David Duchovny) in the middle of his favorite pastime, though not terribly enthused. “Hank? Hank!” said the lady. “Yeah, present,” said the novelist, coming to. He’d dozed off. She wasn’t thrilled.

Just about anywhere else on the TV dial, the lead-in would have widened the eyes. Here, though, it met mine with a bit of a yawn. And the scene pretty much fell in line with the rest of the episode: amusing at times, though a bit uninspired on the whole.

In the end, the same feeling that came over me at the start of last season returned: I was underwhelmed, but delighted to have my friend back. That’s kind of what Duchovny as Hank has become to us “Californication” fans: a guy we’ll always want to follow, because we don’t want to miss the epic moment that’s surely to arrive, again and again. Simply put, he’s more interesting than the rest of us. And I’m still surprised Duchovny didn’t get an Emmy nomination for his work last season.

'Californication': Summer of love

I'm supposed to write this blog, but I can't stop reading. One Web page takes me to the next, and then there's another, and then another. The clues arrive, stacking up on top of each other, and I'm beginning to realize that “Californication,” a show about a writer, is much like a book: The more you put in, the more you get out. Read it again and you'll discover many new things. Don't judge by the cover.

Happily and sadly, we came to the end of Chapter 2 on Sunday night, “Californication” ending its sophomore season in much the same way it ended its first: happily indeed, but with the “ever after” part still to be determined. It was Hank (David Duchovny) and Becca (Madeleine Martin), father and daughter, strolling down the Venice boardwalk beneath a cloudless sky. “I like it here,” Hank said. “The sun is chirping, the birds are shining, the water's wet. Life is good, sweetheart. Life is good.”

Never mind that Hank was ever so close to his supposed dream: Karen (Natascha McElhone) and Becca ... and New York. It was all there for him, a road trip away. But then Damien –- Becca's love -– showed up with an iPod and a playlist. “I love you, Becca Moody,” he said, and now that's romance.

'Californication': Journey to the end of the night

The inevitable arrived too soon on Sunday night's “Californication,” as Lew Ashby walked up his final flight of stairs. The clues, of course, had been there all along: the big house, the fancy parties, the guest of honor who never showed. He was Jay Gatsby wrapped in a rock-'n'-roll world. He was outwardly bold while inwardly broken. He was.

Yes, Ashby is now gone, his particular exit coming by way of a drug overdose. Or so we think.

This week, the phone-call postmortems that sometimes occur among my friends began like this: “Wait, so did he really die?” asked the first caller, referring to the tease of a Hank-Ashby conversation in the scenes-from-the-next-episode segment at the end of the show. I hadn't actually seen this when he called, though, as A) my early screener DVD thankfully didn't include this, and B) I tend to avoid scenes-from-the-next-episode segments anyway. I prefer to be surprised. But the ending of this one seemed pretty clear and definite, and let us remember that Hank is a man who imagines and dreams, and we the audience are often allowed into this sliver of his mind. That's my guess here as well. I don't anticipate a true resurrection.

The second postmortem call went like so: “Man, I'm actually kinda broken up about Lew.”

In a weird way, me too.

'Californication' gets a greenlight for season 3

Hank Moody will live to be restless another day.

Showtime has renewed the comedy "Californication," starring David Duchovny as a novelist with a weakness for "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll," for a third season.

Production on 12 new episodes will begin in the spring for a premiere in late 2009. Tom Kapinos executive produces.

"This unapologetic show, about a group of characters led by the inimitable David Duchovny, has quickly established itself as one of our signature comedy series," said Showtime programming president Robert Greenblatt. "Beneath its veneer of debauchery, however, is a complex take on love and adult relationships that surprisingly turns poetic and romantic just when you least expect it. "

Duchovny chimed in: "We [who work on the series] all have such creative freedom and support, it's been a peak experience, and I am so happy to be doing the show."

The second season finale airs Dec. 14.

-- Denise Martin

Related:
Complete "Californication" coverage.

Photo credit: Showtime

'Californication': Unfaithfully yours, Hank Moody

This episode of “Californication” reminded us why both the show and (eventual winner) David Duchovny were nominated for Golden Globes last year. The writing was perfect, hitting emotional note after emotional note –- whether funny, sad or sweet. The lead actors, Duchovny and Natascha McElhone, both dazzled. And even the extras, like the cinematography and the set and costume designs, were spot on, taking us effectively back to April 8, 1994, to New York City, to Hank Moody's grungy studio apartment on one of the grunge movement's saddest days: the day Kurt Cobain was found dead.

For a sophomore season that has been all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll –- which has too often teetered the pendulum to flash rather than substance –- Sunday was the most refreshing of triumphs. And wouldn't you know: There was very little of California and absolutely no fornication.

Instead, we got a flashback episode to New York and the early days of the Hank-Karen dynamic. We discovered that they began their relationship by being unfaithful to others –- Hank dating a model at the time and Karen a musician who was on tour –- which shed a little light on their destructive tendencies that continue today. And, on that very morning that the news of Cobain's death brought a tear to Karen's eye, she also discovered that she was pregnant with Hank's child. After discussing their options, Hank noted as they cuddled: “We get along really well for a couple of virtual strangers.” “For now, yeah,” she said. “But give it 10 years and I'll just be another woman that you got tired of....” His response: “You know, in 10 years' time you might very well be the love of my life.” Bingo.

But...

'Californication': The music plays, the music stops, and this blogger goes searching ...

For a while, “Californication” on Sunday night was like a weird game of musical chairs. Hank was out with Lew's ex. Lew was out with Hank's. Hank and his date ran into Sonja, a woman he had slept with, along with her current boyfriend, Julian, who then propositioned that they sleep together -– meaning, the four of them.

Who would be left standing at the end, alone?  Anybody?  And the story was aligning itself with the old Tom Kapinos formula: The sex is the comedy; the sex is absurd; the sex comes easily, which is exactly the point.

“One of my goals with the show was to treat sex between consenting adults as matter of fact,” show runner Kapinos once told me.  “Because I look around this city and I see a lot of people hooking up and having sex. Sometimes they love each other, sometimes they don't. Sometimes it means something, sometimes they're just passing the time.”

And then, boom.

Sunday night's episode ended on a silent, sobering note. Consequences. A sweet moment turned sour.

It happened after Hank and Karen each shot down the overtures of their respective dates, and ultimately ended up where they belong -– together instead, in each other's arms, laughing, playing. And then ... 

'Californication': More from the Evan Handler interview

The Times caught up with "Californication's" Evan Handler for a story in today's paper, and these days, Evan Handler is a tough one to catch up to. He's on a 25-city book tour, including a current stretch of 18 cities in 22 days. "There's not much actual life experience going on," he said just before mounting a stage in Houston, just hotel rooms and plane rides, along with the never-ending signatures. Handler signs an "E" and an "H" on the title pages of his books, and scribbles the rest. "I can't even write in cursive; I print everything," he said, a habit learned from filling out insurance forms throughout his late 20s, when he battled leukemia.

His memoir, "It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive," released in May, is a collection of essays about life after his illness. But he just now finds himself on the promotional tour. "My publisher doesn't pay for book tours for many people," he said. But he managed to latch on to a tour sponsored by the Jewish Book Council, which holds book festivals around the country featuring writers and authors who may be of interest to the Jewish community.

Of course, his book has little to do with Judaism. It's "about faith, but faith more in the secular sense of trust," he said. For a man made famous by his "Sex and the City" character that promised his mother that he'd marry only a Jew, and for whom Charlotte thus converted, here is the truth about Handler: "I run from religion," he said. "I have no interest in it whatsoever."

Here are some more excerpts from both the interview and his reading:

'Californication': Girls night

Kudos to Karen. This round of “Californication” clearly went to her.

All along, she's been more or less the victim. The reactor. The counterpunch. But Sunday night, after Hank (David Duchovny) spent his day as he usually does – drink, fornicate, research, repeat – Karen (Natascha McElhone) actually hit him where it hurt.

And in a show that at times veers too far into the male fantasyland of a world in which some very bad behavior goes improperly punished, something about Karen's striking back felt very good and just. First, she told Lew what no one else could: “You're pathetic.” Then, after Lew tried to kiss her (further proving Karen's point), she used the moment to mess with Hank's already messed-up mind. Was it mean-spirited or a little unfair? Yes. But did Karen, after all she's been through, deserve a little time as the devil? Hell, yes.

'Californication': He's in love with rock 'n' roll, whoa ...

It's very simple. If you like "Californication" to begin with, chances are good that you have somewhat of a dark –- or at times, even sick –- sense of humor. If so, count me among you. And, my fellow sickos, this episode was for us.

So crude, but so, so funny. And then, just when we thought that this was simply another stroll down Guilty Pleasure Lane, we took a sudden left turn onto a nice and quiet street in Venice, where, in the fading California sun, we witnessed one of the most emotional moments of the series, a tough-love scolding of a father by the one true love of his life, his daughter Becca. 

That's what this show does when at its best: It makes us laugh, then cringe, then laugh again, and right when we can't possibly look away from the ongoing stream of absurdity –- when we in fact find ourselves pining for more in the form of that next big punchline or humorous misstep –- we instead get a surprise punch to the emotional gut, and are reminded again that this is actually a show about something more than just gratuitous fun on a Sunday night.

And then we get back to the gratuitous fun, but still ...

Sunday night's episode of "Californication" was superb. Certain moments were absolutely gross, yes, but unlike some of the previous episodes, the comedic payoffs here proved more than worth it.

Some random thoughts from a crazy Sunday night...