DavidDuchovny-related stories
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 4:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E09) "I had a plan, I did, but it just didn't work out the way I thought it would."/"What? You thought he'd (Hank) do a good job of being in charge?" - Karen to Becca
Remember watching
Friends and feeling that great sense of heavy letdown when you realized that week's diversion of reality would be a "Joey-heavy episode"?
That describes this week's
Californication to a tee, except the great sense of heavy letdown doesn't quite sit on top of your soul with the girth and grim sadism of an evil sumo wrestler.
Continue reading Review: Californication - Mr. Bad Example
Posted Nov 16th 2009 4:45AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S0308) "For someone who loves women so much, you sure don't understand them very well." - Jackie to Hank
Hank makes for an interesting character because there is never one single, solitary way of looking at him. Some people see this alcoholic horndog as a success while others look at his cavalier exterior and think of him as an utter failure. He's certainly one of the most complex characters on television for a guy who has one thing on his mind, two depending on how much booze is in the house.
So naturally all of his bad decisions and mistakes will come back to haunt him, and this week, he got hit with them all at once in a bizarre clusterf#$% of sheer craziness. It's as if a tornado of tail just leveled Hank's house and life in the process.
Continue reading Review: Californication - The Apartment
Posted Oct 26th 2009 9:29AM by Danny Gallagher
(S03E05) -
"Once upon a time's gotta count for something." - Zloz to Hank
Ah, the old friend from back home trick. It's been done so many times before in television. Remember when Rob's old Army buddy came to town in that one episode of
The Dick Van Dyke Show or that one time when Don Rickles met up with his old pal Maxwell Smart on
Get Smart? Those were some good times.
Imagine those episodes with a lot of hookers and copious amounts of beer, whiskey and vodka. Now they are twice as better, even if the hangover isn't as warm and friendly.
Zloz's one episode appearance felt like the makings of another "Guys Gone Wild" episode where the boys do some drinking, make with the smoking and then get into some fighting, but it turned into something much deeper and helped you appreciate the characters more for what they are. The ride was fun, even if you didn't really want to get back in line for it.
Continue reading Review: Californication - Slow Happy Boys
Posted Oct 20th 2009 3:18AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E04) - "You once spent an entire class ranting about how much you hate Coldplay. Something tells me you could care less about what's frowned upon." - Jackie to Hank
Hank is normally the kind of guy most average heterosexual males would form mobs against, complete with rows of flaming torches and pitchforks (used both as weapons and Freudian references to using one's phallus as a weapon).
Still, he's become the most likable monkey in the
Californication barrel. And it's not because he's living a life that would make most Arabian princes jealous. It's because there is a method to his manliness tendencies. He's vulnerable and sees those vulnerabilities in people around him, especially those of the opposite sex with genes that get saved in the secret cabinet in most high priced fertility clinics.
Continue reading Review: Californication - Zoso
Posted Oct 12th 2009 4:20AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E03) - "Don't put Daddy in a corner." - Hank to his daughter, Becca
Something spectacular happened on last Sunday's episode of
Californication, something I've been hoping and waiting to see from a big-budget television show ever since I was old enough to realize what life was worth living for, what makes television worth watching.
Jackie showed us her boobies!
That being said, there was much more to the most recent saga of Hank Moody and company worth mentioning, and Lord knows I could spend a whole review on Eva Amurri's "revealing" opening scene of Hank imaging his star pupil at her night job. Hell, if Joel would let me do a list of TV's best racks, I'd put Jackie's on the number one and two spots, left and right respectively. I have my reasons.
Continue reading Californication: Verities & Balderdash
Posted Oct 5th 2009 2:01AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E02) - "All work and no ass play makes Chuck a dull boy." Sue Collini to Charlie Runkle
A show like
Californication might seem like just another rude, crass and completely tasteless sitcom that gets away with speaking Kinsey from cover to cover because it's on pay cable.
But if you actually sit down and watch the damn thing, you'll realize it's actually much deeper and more emotional than that, or at least as deep as a group of flesh lusting horndogs can go ... and I do mean "emotionally" deep, sickos.
Continue reading Californication: The Land of Rape and Honey
Posted Sep 28th 2009 1:04AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(
S0301) - What's with all the parent plotlines on Showtime? First
Dexter Morgan becomes a new father, and now Hank Moody on
Californication? Granted, it's the perfect penance for a man who has flaunted the consequences of the reproductive act more than the entire British royal family, but it seems eerily similar and way overdone in the world of television.
It does, however, work as an obstacle and a vehicle for conflict for Hank, whose only daughter Becca moves into that awkward living hell on Earth known as "teenagerhood." The opening scene of Hank catching Becca and her new best friend Chelsea stoned out of their gourds pretty much set the tone for some, if not most, of Hank's problems.
How can he tell her to do as he says while still doing what and who he loves most?
Continue reading Californication: Wish You Were Here (season premiere)
Posted Sep 27th 2009 9:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Reality-Free
If you think of all the places that would turn
Californication's Hank Moody into a kid in a candy store, "college campus" should be at the top of your
Family Feud survey.
What would be at the bottom? Probably the Vatican. Then again, an unrepentant sexaholic like Moody always loves a challenge.
The third season follows Moody as he navigates his way through the student body of a local college as an English professor, his relationship with his growing teenage daughter Becca and the rest of his other relationships -- or at least the ones that alcohol hasn't erased from his memory.
Continue reading Californication, season three -- An early look
Posted Sep 4th 2008 4:23PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, The X-Files, Reality-Free
The X-Files creator Chris Carter has been
hospitalized for exhaustion. This was brought on by "physical exhaustion and an acute sleeping disorder."
The pressure on the man must be enormous. He's working on a new movie
Fencewalker and just finished
The X-Files: I Want to Believe movie. While reviews of the movie weren't great, it did make $60 million in the worldwide box office (from a $30 million budget). That's not including the inevitable DVD sales (which will probably be strong due to the number of
X-Files enthusiasts out there). How much does a movie have to make in order to be considered a success by Hollywood standards?
I admit that I know nothing about Chris Carter, so the skeptic in me can't help but wonder if "exhaustion" is a euphemism for some other addiction. Perhaps he and David Duchovny
will run into each other while hospitalized and chat about old times.
Posted Aug 29th 2008 8:23AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
Either this is the most bizarre viral marketing idea ever, or some of the craziest irony in the history of television. In the show
Californication, Duchovny plays Hank Moody, a sex-obsessed character. Now comes word that
Duchovny has entered a rehab facility for sex addiction. For real. And this is an Associated Press story, which means it's pretty solid. I wonder if it was rekindling all that sexual tension with Gillian Anderson during filming of that
X-Files movie.
Or maybe he was just having too much fun filming the upcoming second season of
Californication in preparation for its September 28 premiere. Here's how I think it went down.
Director: "Uh, David, I think we got the sex scene. It was great. Just perfect."
Duchovny: "No! No, we need to do it again. I wasn't .. I mean, she was ... It just didn't feel--"
"We got it, David. It's fine."
"No! I want to do it again! I
have to go again." (to actress) "Can we just practice then without the camera ... for the craft."
Posted Jul 19th 2008 12:28PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Dexter, TCA Press Tour, Weeds, Reality-Free
When I posted
the news items that came out of Showtime's portion of the CBS tour, the one question I got was "When will
Dexter be back?" Well, network president Robert Greenblatt mentioned that the third season would debut in September. No word beyond that. Didn't seem like news to me. But there you are,
Dexter fans; that's all I've got on that.
The executive session was introduced by a semi-funny clip from one of the network's stars, Tracey Ullman. Really, it wasn't that good, so I won't talk much about it here. Greenblatt also showed clips of
The United States of Tara and
Nurse Jackie during his opening remarks. Other than that? Well, isn't that enough?
Continue reading Showtime wrap-up: executive session and four shows talk at once - TCA Report
Posted May 22nd 2008 1:23PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Awards, Reality-Free, TV Squad Awards
If you ever want to get a good idea about how a TV series comes into being, see the movie
The TV Set, which stars David Duchovny as a schlumpy writer whose autobiographical series gets picked up by a network. One of the most telling scenes is where Duchovny presents an over-the-top ham that he thinks is so bad that he knows the network will reject him in favor of the more subtle actor he wants to play the lead. Unfortunately, the ham makes the network execs laugh and the subtle guy comes off as weird. Guess who the network picked to star in the show?
The reason why I mention this is that is but one of many reasons why even starring roles in television series get severely miscast. The most widely-cited case this year was Michelle Ryan on
Bionic Woman; she was so busy trying to squelch her British accent that she came off as charmless and boring. But there have been other casting boners during the 2007-08 season, such as the otherwise-great Parker Posey choking on Amy Sherman-Palladino's words in
Jezebel James. Also remember that not a lot of people liked the appearance of Britney Spears on
How I Met Your Mother. And, heck, the
Law & Order family must have a casting mistake in there somewhere, after all, they
did unleash the horrible Elizabeth Rhöm on an unsuspecting public.
What are your choices for the season's most severe miscasting? Let me know in the comments.
Posted Mar 27th 2008 7:20AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, OpEd, Celebrities
From March 14th to March 27th, The Paley Center for Media is presenting the twenty-fifth annual William S. Paley Television Festival. The Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, says that the festival celebrates "television's rich and diverse programming and the creative process behind the medium." This year the festival included
Chuck,
Pushing Daisies,
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion, Dirty Sexy Money among others.
I've already attended the
Buffy Reunion and
Dirty Sexy Money (click above for those reports). Last night I went to
The X-Files panel. For what happened during the event, read on past the jump.
Continue reading Paley Festival: The X-Files
Posted Jan 10th 2008 3:00PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Awards
This feels weird. Normally, there is a good bit of excitement around the nominees of the Golden Globes, particularly since it's the first big award ceremony of the year and a precursor to the Academy and Emmy awards. However, with the WGA strike in full swing, and the awards ceremony stripped down to a simple one-hour press conference televised by NBC, it all seems a bit anti-climatic.
But, taking a page from my heroes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I shall press on in true television reporting style and present my prediction for winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy.
Continue reading The Golden Globes: Best Actor - Musical or Comedy
Posted Nov 1st 2007 2:22PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen
Mark your calendars, schedule a sitter: the next
X-Files movie will hit the theaters on July 25, 2008.
The movie hasn't even started filming yet. The cast and crew
will reunite in Vancouver on December 10th (hmmm... I think I need to make a stalker trip to Canada). Not much has been leaked about the plot of this second
The X-Files movie. Creator/writer Chris Carter says it will be a stand-alone story, much like the MOTW (Monster of the Week) episodes that fans loved so much. All that's being said is it's a "supernatural thriller", or a downright horror movie, rather than advancing the conspiracy storyline.
The July release date puts the unnamed movie smack dab in the middle of the summer blockbuster season, so Fox is evidently counting on this movie to be pretty big. The first
X-Files film,
Fight the Future, made $30 million during opening weekend and went on to make $189 million worldwide.
Continue reading Next X-Files movie has a premiere date
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