SHOWTIME
Poor Hank Moody. He is a writer, probably gifted, who has had one successful novel. And now he's experiencing severe writer's block. On top of that he is definitely a New York kind of guy, and for the sake of his girlfriend's career they have moved to Los Angeles, a city Hank quite distinctly hates. Hank and his long time girlfriend and soul-mate Karen have a daughter together, Becca. At the beginning of the series Becca is just beginning to enter her teens and is filled with the angst that comes with that; coupled with being very intelligent and very perceptive. Hank and Karen's best friends are Hank's agent Charlie Runkel and his wife Marcie.
Hank is played by David Duchovny of X-Files fame. I never really got into that show, but I will say that Duchovny was born to play Hank Moody. He has the troubled, philandering, shiftless, unfocused, self-loathing artist down pat. I can't imagine any other actor being able to pull this role off at all, let alone with such finesse.
The other characters are equally amazing. Natasha McElhone who plays Karen is one of the most beautiful women ever, and can totally captivate anyone with just a glance. Madeline Martin is a wonderful Becca, pulling off some very quirky and funny lines with total believability. The hapless Charlie Runkel (Evan Handler) and Marcie (Pamela Adlon) are excellent in a disastrous relationship that could easily have been a show of it's own. Finally, Madeline Zima as Mia Lewis rounds out this fabulous cast.
In the first season, Karen has left Hank, and is in fact going to marry another. Hank is lost without her, left to moan about her to his agent and to be adrift in a sea of cigarettes, drinking and debauchery. In one of his escapades he meets a woman in a bookstore and ends up sleeping with her, only to discover later that she is the 15 or 16 year old daughter (Mia Lewis) of the man Karen is going to marry. He writes a memoir about it which later is stolen by Mia, and it ends up catapulting her to fame. Hank never goes public, because he then opens himself up for statutory rape charges.
And it goes from there. Hank is a lost bad boy child without Karen, but when he finally gets her back he can't help himself in continuing to screw it up. She truly is the best thing in his life and he knows it but Hank stays on a difunctional tailspin. Even with all his glibness - and he's a funny guy - one can still always feel the sad, underbelly of despair. So Karen comes in and out of his life. The most solid thing he has is his daughter Becca, who at her early teen age ends up raising her Dad; and she resents it. Hank can't fix his life as symbolized by a headlight he smashed out of his never washed Porshe in season 1. Season after season it's still broken.
Though Californication is definitely not family fair - plenty of profanity and nudity - the story lines are gritty and compelling. Hank has to wade through all the things he hates the most; the fake and plastic people of L.A., his own weakness amid an army of people who thrive on the weaknesses of others, and the shallowness of other people. But I want to know what happens to Hank. I want to know if he ever gets it together. I want to know if he ever gets Karen back for good. I want to know if he ever writes another successful novel. At the end of Season 4 there is also a Klingeresque moment (see the final episode of M.A.S.H.). And Hank is off again looking for something he may never find.
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