In the pilot of “Californication,” a Showtime original series, Hank Moody (David Duchovney) is in bed with four different and exceedingly beautiful women. That’s one every 7 1⁄2 minutes. My hunch is the writers will have to slow down Hank’s sexual frequency or he might have a stroke. More importantly, they need to add depth to his character or, even with humor and all that pulchritude; the audience won’t care enough about Hank and his escapades to tune in every week.
Hank is a best-selling novelist who moves from New York to Los Angeles to further his career when his book is turned into a movie. A box-office hit, the movie betrays the spirit of his novel. He pines for Karen (Natascha McElhone), his ex-girlfriend/mother of his 12-year-old daughter, who has dumped him. To make matters worse, he’s afflicted with severe writer’s block, the pain of which either is soothed or caused by casual sex and heavy drinking.
The pilot opens with a typical L.A. scene. Hank, suffering a crisis of faith (or sexual exhaustion), races to the front of an elegant church in his Porsche convertible. He enters and, in between a few one-liners, seeks guidance from the statue of Jesus. But Hank’s not alone. A nun asks if she can help. And not just any nun. Perhaps she was a former Victoria Secret’s model. At this point I hoped it was a dream sequence because if not the show was going to have real credibility problems. Fortunately, it is a dream and we cut to Malibu.
Hank awakes in the ocean-view bed of the accommodating blond from his dream. But her husband driving up interrupts the two. Hank escapes in his underwear and speeds down PCH, away from the baseball-bat wielding husband. Minutes later he pulls up in front of his condo, late for the custody switch off of his daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin), who gets a kick out of her father’s attire. (If well developed, their relationship could be a lot of fun.) Duchovney, who is not only the star but the executive producer of “Californication,” is facile with humor and can be exceedingly charming. But there’s a huge void in how his character is drawn. We might forgive Hank’s womanizing; his shallowness and narcissism were he devoted to something other than himself. (Say his daughter?) In the 1975 movie “Shampoo,” despite Warren Beatty’s womanizing, we rooted for him because we felt he cared about these women. Hank only cares about himself. (Of course, “Shampoo” was written by Academy Award winner Robert Towne.) The humor in “Californication” can be quite clever, but in pursuit of a punch line, writer Tom Kapinos assassinates Hank. For example, Hank and Karen attend a parent-teacher meeting at Becca’s school about her burgeoning interest in sex. This scene is rife for humor, but only if played off the parents’ genuine concern. When Hank jokes flippantly, I felt like grabbing the remote.
Perhaps a better illustration comes later when Hank hears from Karen that Becca has run off to a party in the Hollywood hills and the two races to rescue her. Terrified, Hank searches among the adult partygoers for his preteen daughter. Finally he spots her in the corner, about to take a hit off a bong. Heroically, he throws revelers aside and carries his daughter over his shoulder and out of the party. But when they get home, Hank’s one-liners undo the goodwill we just felt for him.
In real life, Becca’s escapade would require serious intervention. For Hank’s sake, I was hoping he would rise to the occasion. Instead, once inside Karen’s house, he’s stunned when introduced to Mia (Madeline Zima), the 16-year-old daughter of Karen’s future husband. He’s stunned because earlier he had picked Mia up in a bookstore and, unaware she was a minor, preceded to take her to bed. First Becca and the bong, and now Hank discovers he’s slept with an underage seductress.
Punch lines, no matter how clever, ultimately don’t work if we don’t feel for the protagonist. Did Hank forget only minutes earlier Becca was perhaps on her way to being a crack whore? That’s a joke I wouldn’t mind him making if I were convinced he was genuinely concerned. Hank needs an occasional touching moment so that we can enjoy his debauchery and hope he eventually finds his higher self. (No pun intended.) “Californication” is well acted, fast paced and funny in the right spots. Unfortunately, it’s also funny in the wrong spots. If we don’t care about Hank, watching him jump in and out of bed — no matter how beautiful the partners — will ultimately become tiresome for the viewer, if not for him.
“Californication” is a Showtime original series. It airs Mondays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2007. Read the original PDF.