Five years after the end of The X-Files, David Duchovny is back on the small screen! Okay, he did guest star here and there since then but coming this Monday, he is back as a regular on a series. Duchovny will play Hank Moody, a self-destructive writer, in Showtime's Californication. TV fans who are used to seeing Duchovny portray The X-Files' Fox Mulder and haven't seen much of his other projects will be placed outside of their comfort zone when watching him play Hank Moody, especially if they tune in Californication without knowing what it's about.
About two months ago, I had the chance to review the pilot script of Showtime's Californication. Based on the script, the series seemed interesting because it had twisted and dark characters and racy storylines. It also reminded me of Nip/Tuck, a series I enjoyed watching in the past years. However, my big concern was if fans (and I include myself in this lot) would be able to not think of Fox Mulder when watching David Duchovny play the lead role of Hank Moody. Now that I've watched the pilot, I can confirm that I did not think of Mulder once.
Duchovny's acting is really good and totally made me believe in Hank Moody and forget about Mulder (people thinking of Mulder will get their wake up call about one minute in the pilot when a nun makes an offer to Moody). I truly believed he was a one-hit wonder writer who was living a destructive life filled with drinks, drugs (the pilot doesn't show him do or mention drugs but the press release does), foul language, and sex. His sex life resembles that of Nip/Tuck's Christian Troy. Moody is so addicted to sex that he doesn't ask the age of a young-looking woman he meets in a library. This mistake will make his life more complicated when she turns out to be Mia, the 16-year-old daughter of his ex-wife's fiancé. The Nanny's Madeline Zima plays Mia, a role quite opposite to that of Grace Sheffield. The series also stars Natascha McElhone as Hank's ex-wife, Madeleine Martin as Hank's precocious 12-year-old daughter, and Evan Handler as Hank's agent.
This series advertises itself as a comedy. However, the pilot made it look more like a 30-minute drama with a dash of dark humor. The series deals with drinks, drugs, and sex, as I mentioned before, but also about discovering sexuality, seduction, cheating, teens wanting to be grown ups, divorce, fighting writer's block, etc.
TV fans who are looking for series with adult situations, nudity, violence and explicit language, will find what they are looking for with Californication. If the subsequent episodes are anything like the pilot, fans should be served with good acting and fair writing. Even if writers may have given us a bit too much info about Hank, thus leaving little to discover, fans will still want to come back to the show to see how low the character can go.
You can watch a sneak peek of the show on AOL. The series premieres this Monday at 10:30 ET/PT on Showtime.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-11-2007 @ 7:04PM
David said...
I say everyone should download the episod because that's what I did and I will watch the rest of the episodes now. Great show, and it is a dark dramedy.
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8-11-2007 @ 9:44PM
Borat said...
I did watch the first episode, and I don't know how I feel...it wasn't really that funny, there were some ok moments, waaay too much nudity (not that I'm complaining), and it seemed to be "edgy" just for the sake of it.
I'll tune in for a few more episodes at least, since him sleeping with the underage girl will definitely lead to tension. But I'd rather watch Weeds and Dexter for "edgy".
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8-12-2007 @ 12:26AM
Kurifurisan said...
Are you sure that was his ex wife? I got the impression she and Hank had a open relationship/lifetime boyfriend girlfriend kind of vibe. Especially when he proposed to her on the fly trying to make up for not asking her sooner before their fallout.
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8-12-2007 @ 3:13PM
Diana said...
I liked the pilot episode, even though it was obviously edgy for the sake of being edgy. Duchovny's charm is what makes the show work, he makes Hank seem slightly sympathetic even though he's a nightmare.
I blogged my review at:
http://mediaobsessed.com/showtime/pilot-review-californication/
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8-13-2007 @ 9:42AM
khamel said...
she was not his ex-wife. they were never married but they were close (had a kid no less). you didnt even mention that she looks EXACTLY like Merryl Streep from 30 years ago. Its too creepy.
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8-13-2007 @ 12:22PM
Gordon Werner said...
So Duchovny's gone back to his Red Shoe Diaries roots, eh?
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8-14-2007 @ 6:21PM
Haggis said...
Ha! Good call Gordon.. I actually forgot about Red Shoe Diaries! I spent many many adolescent nights watching Showtime. Sometimes just for 15 minutes at a time. XD
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8-18-2007 @ 1:49PM
MacGuffin said...
I finally saw the show On Demand even though I DL'd it weeks ago.
Anyway. What a terrific show. Any man over 30 can probably appreciate the predicament that Hank is in.
Overall a great show. And the nudity made it extra good. Gotta love premium cable.
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8-23-2007 @ 5:55PM
Nelson said...
I admit up front that I'm a movie buff who has recently been lured to quality TV series like SIX FEET UNDER, WEEDS, etc. CALIFORNICATION compares negatively with these, since it's hindered by very mediocre writing. When will writers learn that even the most interesting writer isn't all that interesting a character? In Episode 2, Hank composes some drivel using an Apple store's computer that is more trite than anything Carrie ever composed on SIX FEET UNDER. Which brings up the point that such a conceit -- having Hank's blog entries fuel the show -- is a tired ripoff before it starts, and only gets worse when his most insightful comment is that "LA destroys its women," presumably by "forcing" them into a life of self-mutilation. In the same episode, no fewer than two women disrobe for him and ask for his opinion of their (spectacular) bodies before getting down to the deed. One's a porn star! If anyone should realize her body is considered sexually attractive to the average male, it's her. And what no-name novelist ever got as much attention from the opposite gender as Hank? They should have made him a washed-up TV star (hey, it is David Duchovny starring) and the whole thing would have played much more realistically, especially being set in LA. I mean, are there any novelists even living in LA?
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