![]() Plenty of TV shows feature finales with expected outcomes being realized - “Friends,” the classic NBC sitcom which found Ross and Rachel finally choosing to be together forever, is perhaps the perfect model to follow. It’s that we knew they were coming and Kapinos/Duchovny/et al couldn’t find a way to make them more meaningful. It’s not that these things shouldn’t have happened - in fact, it would’ve felt wrong if any of them had been left out. That’s where we ended up during Sunday night’s finale, as Hank came to an obvious and forced realization to be there for his daughter, proclaim his love for Karen, and get the hell out of LA. The following seasons saw a deconstruction and reconstruction of the same decision, over and over until there was simply nothing left to say. Even his accidental affair with Bill’s underage daughter brought out growth in Hank and drama for those of us watching him (and proved to be the only unanswered narrative strand heading into Season 2). ![]() Hank met, spoke with, spent time with, and, yes, slept with many women in the first season - but it all felt warranted. It took just enough time to make the audience feel he earned it and not too much to make anyone feel cheated. Hank and His Women” for all the wisdom they were oh so willing to bestow upon our hero.īut then Kapinos put a bow on it - Season 1 wrapped with Hank learning his lesson, growing up and winning back the woman of his dreams. Including his daughter, a woman young enough to be influenced by her father’s actions but old enough to replicate them without too much unease, was a stroke of genius. Kapinos perfectly established the war for Hank’s soul: The light (Karen), the dark (Los Angeles), and the murky in between (Hank’s many lovers). Season 1 illustrated how Hank took his personal frustrations and unleashed them on a culture unwilling to engage in real romance, which instead turned it into an easily digestible set of correct and incorrect choices. Hank was in mourning over the loss of Karen (Natasha McElhone), his “baby mama” who he considered - and still considers - the one true love of his life, who at the beginning of the series, had left him after too many battles and was set to marry Bill. Was it all over a movie? No, of course not. As a result, Moody became exactly that - emotionally unreliable, hiding his inner pain with brash humor and an attitude explicitly designed to pick fights (his destruction of a cell phone used by an inconsiderate moviegoer remains a personal highlight, for its cathartic joy alone). Hank Moody, a respected novelist, had his professional and personal life thrown into turmoil by Hollywood’s generic adaptation of his dark novel: The author’s version of “God Hates Us All” was morphed into a Tom & Kate conventional rom-com called “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (an admittedly odd choice considering Cruise would never make that film). In its inception, “Californication” was a complex relationship story framed under the guise of simplicity. READ MORE: 6 TV Shows That Should Have Ended After Their First Season Jessica Lange Plans to Retire from Acting Soon Because ‘Creativity Now Is Secondary to Corporate Profits’ For that first season, his flings influenced his family life and vice versa. Hank, our lead, wasn’t having sex without purpose: it was a learning experience pushing him from one jaunt to the next. Creator Tom Kapinos had created an addictive, joyful, and uniquely framed piece of romanticism for 12 episodes. Duchovny kept feeling the love from Goldy until 2012 (with an off year in 2011), but the show couldn’t muster the magic it crafted during its nearly perfect initial season. ![]() “Californication” also took home two Emmys for cinematography in back-to-back years for two separate DP’s (Peter Levy and Michael Weaver).Īll of these wins, though, came during the show’s first two seasons. The combination of racy material presented in a harmless comedic fashion resulted in multiple Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, as well as a few wins (Duchovny took home his second Globe after winning for “The X-Files” in 1997). Back in 2007, it broke onto the scene using the pay cable network’s most attractive offerings: Lots of sex, nudity, swearing, drinking, and general debauchery. Believe it or not, David Duchovny’s anti-ode to sex in LA has been on Showtime for seven years.
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