Californication stumbles after starting strong

I guess, as they say, what goes up must come down. After loving the first four episodes of this season of Californication, I found myself totally and completely disappointed with last night’s outing. In fact, I’m not sure that I saw a single thing that I liked, aside from always enjoying one of David Duchovny’s performances.

I actually wonder if it’s merely coincidence that led Showtime to only include the first four episodes on the screener that they sent out before the season premiere…. Not that I imagine that the rest of the season will suck like last night (I hope not) — it will take a lot more than one bad episode to turn such a terrific start completely around — but last night really sucked.

Becca (Madeleine Martin) really bothers me. There’s no reasonable explanation I can think of for her sudden mood shift, and if there is one, give it to us! Don’t just show her pouting in the face of all things Hank. I know she merely breezed in and out with the opening and closing credits, but man did she kill the mood from the word go.

And Hank should have just gotten out of LAX as fast as he could after seeing her off. Who the hell was this moron Zloz (Kevin Corrigan), and what did we do to deserve him, even just for one episode? Not only was he disgusting, but he didn’t advance any part of the story, and he made Hank look bad by association. If Hank had been smart, he would have let the guy hang himself, either at the party, or at the strip club. Old friends don’t have to be losers who suck the life out of you, you know.

I wasn’t wild about seeing Daisy (Carla Gallo) again, either. Not that I prefer Marcy (Pamela Adlon) for Charlie, but I think Daisy was the harbinger of a really bad trajectory for his character last season. I’m not sure that her brief visit hurt any less, considering the fact that she was alerting him to possible STDs that he’s been walking around with.

The winner, so far, in last week’s “gal for Hank” poll was Karen (Natascha McElhone). I’m not sure that I agree with you — or rather, I know for a fact that I don’t — but I do think it’s interesting that she’s dropped back in, even if only for a visit. The last image we had of Hank’s classroom was of Jill, Felicia (Embeth Davidtz), and Jackie (Eva Amurri), all assembled and hanging on Hank’s every word. Add Karen to the mix, in the classroom or out, and Hank is going to have one messy night next Sunday. As well he should, assuming that he and Karen are still “on again.” But I’m not so sure that they are, and I’m not so sure that that’s just Hank’s fault. We’ll see what Karen’s doing back in LA.

Anyway, I see easy-going Jackie being the crazy jealous one (maybe Karen will shoot her? Jackie continues to tank all of Hank’s screen time that he spends with her), and Jill taking a respectful step back while at the same time questioning what she and Hank have. Felicia will probably get off on the thrill of sleeping with Hank under both her husband’s, and Karen’s, noses. Sure, this will all be short-lived, but maybe it’s meant to shake out the “who” and “what” for Hank going forward.

After setting the bar so high — for two seasons and so far this year — the worst thing that the show can do is skimp on its best characters. Right now Jill and Felicia number among them … last night’s final mistake was cutting them out entirely.

I’m hoping for much better results come next week.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 26, 2009 @ 13:30 EST5EDT