There was a time when Californication was definitely in my top 3 series because seriously, what wasn’t there to like about it?
Hank Moody was a really compelling character. A charming rogue who, though he slept with hundreds of women, only ever loved one (Karen) and spent the whole of the first season trying to win her back.
However, the plot twist that really made the series compelling happened in the first episode when Hank sleeps with a woman (Mia) who he later finds out is not only 16 years old, but is also the daughter of the man Karen is dating.
This transgression haunts Hank throughout the next four seasons of the show, with things coming to a head at the end of season three when he finally confesses to Karen that he slept with Mia.
It made sense for there to be a fourth season after that – everyone wanted to see how Hank was going to make things right after his epic confession, but to be honest, season four felt a little tired.
To put it bluntly, I was glad when season four ended because it felt like they were wrapping the series up. Hank gets acquitted of the statutory rape charges laid against him for sleeping with Mia and he packs up his life, heading back to New York to make a fresh start of things.
It all ended with a nice, stereotypical driving into the sunset shot while this sense of closure washed over us all.
The End.
Or so we thought…
Enter Californication Season 5, which takes place two years after the last season and finds Hank flying back to California, and meeting up with Runkle again because a hip-hop artist / music producer who calls himself “Samurai Apocalypse†(TERRIBLE!) wants Hank to write a movie for him.
I’ll watch Season 5 because I’ve watched every other episode to date and it doesn’t feel right missing out. Also who knows, maybe they can save it, take the series in a completely new direction and breathe new life into it, but judging from the first episode this could very well be the weakest season of Californication to date.
-ST
A hip-hop artist / music producer who calls himself “Samurai Apocalypse” – that’s a pretty obvious dig at RZA.
Californication’s fourth season suffered from the same problem as Lost’s final season. They focussed too much on tying up the story, the characters lose some humanity and the way everything turns out is too unbelievable. Make no mistake, I love Californication but I am getting tired of being spoon-fed the same “Hank fucks-up and goes through some shit but in the end it somehow works itself out” story cycle. In season 1 and 2 Hank Moody felt like a real person that screwed things up like the rest of us but season 3 and 4 seemed to shift the focus to the creative ways that he screwed things up.
Will I still watch season 5? Of course… If only to bitch and moan about how shitty it is.
Yeah, with you man. The cycle of “Hank means well but fucks up by fucking everything that moves and then somehow gets forgiven by Karen and Becca AGAIN” started wearing thin in S3 and by S4 was just a tired joke.
Hank used to be a living, breathing, 3 dimensional character. His witty banter was actually funny and the way he picked up women marginally believable. Now he’s just a cardboard cut-out of his former self, making the same dumb mistakes over and over again.
And don’t get me started on Becca. The second I hear her nasally whine it makes me twitch involuntarily as I contemplate throwing the TV off the balcony.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is, it can only get better from here, right? 😉
-ST
Hey, so I watched Episode 3 of Season 5 last night and it looks like the story line that has been built up so far is not going to drag out the whole seasons so hears hoping it gets better!
(small spoiler: Hank finishes the Samurai rapper’s book in Ep 3)