TVSquad

(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.

(S03E07) "L.A. has made us soft. You used to be able to run for Lexington Avenue with the best of them. Elbowing the investment wankers out of the way. Your cell phone in one hand, mammoth ball sack in the other hand, Hollywood Reporter between your teeth. Not even breathing so you wouldn't inhale the $&*$ing piss stench." - Hank to Charlie

So now that the No. 1 Missus wants the family back, with Hank included, he's got to get the rest of his conquests out of his system. In the real world, such a thing would be easy to do. Call each one of them up, tell them it's been fun but we've all got to settle down eventually and this is that time. Hang up the phone and never leave your home or greet another human being in person until the big settle down day.

But this is television. Nothing is ever that simple, especially for a cat like Hank Moody, a man who sees simple as a wussy excuse to go through life.

(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.

(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.

Almost a year ago, it was announced that there would be a movie sequel for the hit TV series Sex and the City. It took years for producers and actresses to agree to a first movie, but a few months to decide a sequel was needed. Then again, with the popularity of the Sex and the City movie, it was inevitable that a sequel would follow.

Production is underway for the movie, set to be released at the end of May 2010, which means spoilers are leaking on the web! As expected, all four main ladies are back. But what is in store for them? Who, besides the ladies, will star in the movie?

Spoilers coming up!

(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.

(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.

(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?

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.

Is Hank Moody a likable character? From the scenes I've seen of Californication, he seems like one of these drinking/smoking/sex-addicted/wise-ass guys you see a lot of, but there's also a smattering of a****le in there, too, and it seems like he crosses from anti-hero to kind of a dick. Maybe I'm wrong, though I hate anyone who uses the word "cashish." The last line in the season three promo below is pretty funny, though.

The new season debuts September 27.

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.

Well last weeks trivia question wasn't as hard as I thought. It would appear that the readers here at TV Squad are a bit more knowledgeable about TV, if not more web savvy, than I am used to.

Along with all the answers I got for last week, I also received a request for some information. A reader by the handle of Jefferson wrote, "There was a really crappy show on Fox in the '90s - and yes, I am aware that does not narrow down the field. It was a 1/2 hour sitcom that centered on a group of individuals that survived a nuclear blast and was now living together in some stranded hut together where they have to rebuild civilization and all that stuff. "

Well, as I'm sure many of you know that series was called Woops! starring Evan Handler and Cleavant Derricks among others. It ran on FOX for one season in 1992.

On to this week's question ...

(S01E18) All in all, I enjoyed this hostage-crisis episode better than the previous hostage-crisis episode, "The Wrath of Khan", the one in which attorney Alexis Cruz got axed.

Evan Handler gives an enjoyable performance as the poor loser who claims he's innocent and is looking at his third strike. Handler played Hurley's probably imaginary friend Dave, the title character in a Lost episode last season and, more recently, one of the two hacky comedy writers on Studio 60, that Matthew Perry's character liked to bust on.

(S01E09) OK, now this is getting a little strange. This is the fourth episode of an NBC show (the others were two episodes of 30 Rock and an episode of The Office) where product placement was mentioned. In this, because of a blow the company is going to take on the Macau deal, Jordan says that 15 people are going to have to be let go from the show. Jokingly, Matt and Danny bring up product placement, but Jordan thinks it's something they should seriously consider.

The hell? Is NBC trying to convince us that product placement is here, it's good, and we should get used to it?