Californication Season 2 Comes to an End Laughing

Last night's Season 2 finale of Californication on Showtime had what has to be one of the funniest, falling-down-laughing scenes I've ever seen on television. Hank had been mumbling all season that he wasn't sure if he was the father of Sonja's baby. He said it again, a few times, right before the baby came out ... and, ta da! ... the baby is black! Hank was right, he's off the hook, Sonja realizes the father was an African-American barista she had forgotten about, and Hank's "Yes!" victory air-pound on the floor is hilarious!

Life is working out pretty well for just about all the other characters in Californication - Becca's boyfriend loves her, Karen has a job back in New York, she's feeling good about Hank and happy to leave Becca in his good keeping, Hank's even ok with Mia going on tour with his book - yeah, life's taking a good turn for everyone - with the exception of course of Runkle, whose masturbation once again gets him into trouble.

And I guess life didn't work out too well, either, for Lew Ashby, who died last week. He was a great character, though - the musical equivalent to Hank's writer - and Hank's book about him could well be the beginning of a new day for Hank's writing.

Speaking of writing, Tom Kapinos gets big creds for sparkling great dialog in Californication. David Duchovny continues to be perfect as Hank, so does Evan Handler as Runkle, and you couldn't ask for anything more from Callum Keith Rennie as Lew. The women were all fine, but I especially liked the newcomers Daisy (Carla Gallo), Janie (Mädchen Amick), and Surfer Girl (Michelle Lombardo), who, come to think of it, was also on in 2007. Anyway, I hope we see all of them back next year, and hear more Warren Zevon, whose "Keep Me in Your Heart" was a great theme for last night.



See also: Sneak Preview of Californication Anew and reviews of Season One: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ... 11: Pivitol Mia ... Californication Comes ... To a Season's End


podcast review of Californication, Season One

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Californication Continues: 3

Californication continues ... and continues to be so funny and laughing out-loud sexual that it's hard to write about it without posting an R rating, or whatever they might call it for blogs. No promises - and I think the rating system for movies is inane, anyway.

The main plot line in tonight's Episode 3 on Showtime has Hank running into Meredith (played by Amy Price-Francis - just fine) - the redhead he was rude to in the first episode (she wanted to talk to him about Hell-A Magazine - I actually didn't think he was so rude). He apologizes tonight, they sleep together (of course), and Hank apparently really pretty much likes her - even though "drowning in a sea of pointless pussy" seems to be the theme of this episode, if not the entire series at this point.

All of this was customarily enjoyable and funny.

But the two scenes that really got me laughing tonight, for some reason, were:

1. Mia, the beautiful 16-year old who doesn't look sixteen and punched Hank twice, comes by unannounced, looking for something she can use as an assignment for her creative writing class. Hank says he doesn't have anything. Mia says, come on, you must have "some piece of shit short story" around here somewhere. Words that rang true - something that every writer has a least one or a lot more of ...

2. Even funnier was a scene with Hank's agent Charlie (Evan Handler - good actor, good name - you want that in an agent, or at least an actor who plays an agent). Anyway, Charlie fires his secretary - slightly gothic Dani, nice, and nicely played by Shaun's Rachel Miner - for getting him the wrong kind of soda. It seems she's always making these sorts of mistakes. By way of apology, she sends Charlie an email, with a slide show of her scantly dressed, in black ... to which Charlie masturbates. The pacing, the photos, the expression on Charlie's face, the phone call at the end, were just right. And hilarious. And, of course, he rehires her. (And she advises him to "punish" her if she does anything else wrong, which, of course, she soon does.)

Great writing, with more laughs per minute than anything on television or in the movies.

See reviews of other Californication episodes: Californication Going On Mondays ... 2 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ...
10 ... 11: Pivitol Mia ... 12: Californication Comes ... To a Season's End



5 minute podcast review of Californication

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book