Californication Continues: 6

Hey, a pretty satisfying episode (#6) of Californication on Showtime tonight. Maybe Hank finally got to be with Karen again...

He definitely gave her a deep, satisfying kiss. And then ... he wound up in the pool, and woke up the next morning in bed, being kissed by Karen-

But, Hank was only dreaming that Karen was kissing him. It was actually Mia who was kissing Hank awake in the morning. He pushes her off, and she cheerfully tells him she was only kissing him, not blowing-

But the real question is: what happened between Karen and Hank between Hank in the pool and Hank waking up in bed the next morning (dreaming of Karen when Mia was kissing him), and how much of it does he remember?

Karen certainly looked, at breakfast, as if something significant happened between them the night before. She's close to glowing. Possibly it was more emotional than physical, but she looked to me as if she was happy about something physical (but what do I know)...

Hank, for his part, probably doesn't remember, but he's hard to read, and in the coming attractions he does say something to Karen about following through this (next) time...

Tantalizingly ambiguous - though I'm thinking, as I said, that they did indeed have a great, drunk night together.

Meanwhile, speaking of next week, it looks as if Charlie and wife Marcy (Pamela Aldon, Lucky Louie's Kim, funny and attractive) are heading for a threesome with his spankable secretary Dani (Rachel Miner). Should be good - Dani and Marcy will be a good couple. (Marcy doesn't particularly like being Charlie's submissive slave, but Dani is a different matter.)

One of the best things about Californication is the supporting characters and situations are as hilarious and enjoyable as the primary people - which adds up to a consistently delightful half hour.

See reviews of other Californication episodes: Californication Going On Mondays ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 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

Californication Continues: 4

Barely any nudity on last night's show - Episode 4 of Californication, on Showtime - what?!...

But, ok, the episode had me laughing as much as always - almost continuously - and I'm really getting to like Amy Price-Francis's Meredith. She looks great even half-asleep, just got up in the morning without make-up. And she of course looks great drunk, later on in the show, too.

I don't know if this is what the show wants, but I think I like Meredith a little better than Karen - played by Natascha McElhone - who looked drop-dead gorgeous last night, too. Hank certainly loves Karen the most, but hey, that's just his opinion.

Hank had an interestingly high moral profile last night. He punched out a jackass who called Karen the c-word. But, a little more surprisingly, he lectured his agent Charlie, who, you may recall, spanked his secretary Dani's (Rachel Miner's) bare ass last week. Hank acknowledges that he should be the last one to give advice. But he gives it, anyway, and this complex pull in opposite directions - he's still deeply in love with Karen but sleeps with anything that walks, he lectures Charlie about playing with his secretary but sleeps with anything that walks ... well, you see the pattern, and it gives the show a good, morally layered texture...

"Morally layered texture"? See, that's what happens when there are not enough layers of clothes taken off on Californication ... I start writing in academic jargon...

I'll do better next week...

See reviews of other Californication episodes: Californication Going On Mondays ... 2 ... 3 ... 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

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

---

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