By Curt Schleier
CALIFORNICATION has gotten better as Hank Moody’s (David Duchovny) mojo returns. In fact, this latest episode blew me away on many levels.
The show’s premise is that Moody, a successful New York novelist moved to California after his book was purchased by a studio. In his mind at least the film that came out of it was a load of crap. Maybe it was the film, maybe it was California, maybe it was losing his longtime girlfriend and their daughter, but somewhere along the way Hank lost his desire and/or ability to write. So he’s been kind of vegetating, compensating by bedding women left and right.
It’s a great idea for a show, but one that could easily go south. At some point, Moody could have transformed from a sympathetic figure to a loser, and who wants to watch a show about a loser? Fortunately that hasn’t happened. While he still isn’t writing novels, Hank has begun to blog and that alone has added a positive aura around him.
It’s important because the success of CALIFORNICATION really rests on Moody’s appeal. And he certainly is appealing. Women find him irresistible. What man hasn’t imagined that happening? I mean you of course. I don’t have to imagine.
He’s a man’s man. When he learns some a-hole called his former girlfriend the “C” word, Hank decks him. What guy hasn’t dreamt of doing that? Again I mean you.
And it’s not just the bed and brawn. He’s also a great father, honestly, and if I wasn’t watching him I’d want to be his friend.
In this episode, Meredith, his latest girlfriend, talks Hank into attending a fund raiser. Interestingly, her former boyfriend, the married co-worker she’d been with for five years is there, hardly coincidence. While the two of them go off to fetch drinks, married guy’s wife makes a pass at Hank and asks if he understands.
“It’s hard not to know what you mean, especially when you’re being so subtle about it,” he responds. How can you not love a guy who responds with a kind of tongue-in-cheek cockiness that you can’t get angry at?
This episode is particularly well done because it spends more time with some of the characters who have been more on the periphery of the show. And the more we get to know them, the less the show will have to depend on Hank.
Becca (Madeleine Martin), Moody’s daughter, is home with her soon-to-be step-sister Mia (Madeline Zima). She’s a smart, tough New York City girl who is totally aware of what’s going on around her. “I want to be a 40-year-old virgin,” she says. “Once you’ve been laid basically your life turns to shit.” It is a perceptive, intelligent remark that is dead solid perfect coming out of her mouth. And it is typical of the perceptive, intelligent writing that has been a hall mark of the show since its premiere.
There’s another well written moment that struck me. After the fund raiser, Hank’s former girlfriend Karen (Natasha McElhone) comes home and goes into Becca’s room to kiss her good night. Becca wants Karen and Hank to get together again – and so does Hank, for that matter. “Do you love dad,” Becca asks.
Yes, Karen answers, “but not in the butterflies in the stomach way we love Johnny Depp.”
Then she goes on to describe the virtues of her fiancé Bill (Damian Young), Mia’s father: he’s a great guy who is dependable. And it doesn’t sound so much as she’s selling Becca as much as she’s selling herself.
Karen and Hank clearly belong together. Will it happen? You gotta come back for more.