Californication - Season 1 Review
I've been watching a good amount of TV shows and movies lately thanks to the innumerable amount of sites on the internet that stream tv shows and movies. Some or all may be illegal, I don't know.
I've been watching Californication upon recommendation from a friend. I watched all of season 1 on the following site: http://www14.alluc.org/alluc/tv-shows.html?action=getviewcategory&category_uid=23523
Click the link to the episodes on veoh.com at which point you'll have to download their full player to view the full episodes but it is worth it.
Trailer:
I thought I should start putting my thoughts about what I watch down on "paper" so here is the first review I have written:
Californication Review - Season 1
First of all let me say that streaming video on the Internet has come of age and sites like veoh.com are on the forefront of the revolution. The forefront of the revolution which may or may not be legal. The revolution that has let me stay away from my TV for the past week and a half and watch all the shows I want online, after downloading numerous applications and registering each time I did so.
Californication is a presentation of one of the favorite things we love to see; the love-able asshole riding his penis through life and stomping on the hoi polloi around him. We also get to come away with witty things to say the next time we're at the bar. "I love all women. I have all their albums." Our hero Hank Moody, a writer, takes us on a booze addled romp through Los Angeles. Always funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny while you're sitting watching by yourself, sometimes heart warming, arousing, repulsing, evocative, and envy inducing.
The cast of characters surrounding Hank (David Duchovny) is just as good as our main character. You don't get that feeling when you are watching their exploits, that you wished the scene would turn back to Hank so we could see what he is up to. Karen (Natascha McElhone) does a great job of being the object of desire for which Hank lusts. Most of the time we root for him in his endless quest to get his ex-domestic-partner back. Her silhouette is a joy to watch glide around the screen. Becca (Madeleine Martin) is the charming and smart young teenage daughter of Hank and every time they are in the same shot together one gets a real feeling that they share a special father-daughter connection.
Oh, I haven't even mentioned that every episode is littered with sex scenes involving Hank and grade A top class California pieces of ass. He gets so much ass that you can't help but be envious of his life until you realize that he is really a 40-something year old man with no direction who has lost his family and is falling apart. Sure, I would want to be like him at that age, but without the depravity, wallowing in narcissism, and self-pity. So basically I would just want sex with random girls who I just met at the grocery store and whose name I don't know. It would be even better if they just fucked me and then left so I didn't have to deal with them in the morning. During the first half of season 1 we are treated to the intricacies of this ritual.
As far as Hank's line of work as a writer, he is not struggling, he just stopped writing years ago. His last book was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster romantic comedy and he is now settled in L.A. via NY, originally having moved to supervise the production of the movie. We are treated to the pleasures of seeing Hank do things that we always want to do but never really have the audacity to because it would be breaking social norms. In a particularly pleasing scene Hank confronts and beats down an obnoxious movie goer who refuses to get off his cell phone during the course of the movie. Just as we do, the audience in the theater applauds him after he is done hammering that asshole on the cellphone. You all know the guy I'm talking about.
The dialogue in Californication is witty and intelligent, yet unpretentious. It leaves you at the end of each episode trying to remember the good lines so you can have some witty banter to spew on your own, albeit at that point unoriginal.
As the episodes progress through the season we see more and more of Marcy Runkle (Pamela Adlon) who is the wife of Hank's agent, Charlie Runkle (Evan Handler). She gets funnier and darker with each passing episode making one hope that if one should ever decide to move to California, that is the type of friend one would want to have at his/her disposal. Charlie Runkle is a great sidekick to Hank's debaucheries. He can best be described by saying that he really is a fuckin' runkle. What a great name.
The end of the season evokes that feeling you get when you stare down the last few sips of a great cup of coffee. You wish you could have another cup of that same delicious blend. You also know deep down that you won't be as satisfied with that second cup if you did end up having it. David Duchovny has the makings of a great show in the first season that is refreshing and littered with literary and musical references as well as endless amounts of sex. You will surely enjoy.
