Director: Stephen Hopkins
Cast: David Duchovny (Hank Moody), Madeline Zima (Mia), Natascha McElhone (Karen Van Der Beek), Evan Handler (Charlie), Madeleine Martin (Rebecca), Pamela Adlon (Marcy), Amy Price-Francis (Meredith), Michelle Nordin (Nun/Heather), Camille Langfield (Sandy Carr), Stephen Sowan (Drunk Kid), Don Abernathy (Restaurant Patron), Michael H. Barnett (Gawky Dweeb), Craig T. Kelly (Threesome Guy), Philip Shahbaz (Man On Cell Phone), Alison Mei Lan (Hot Woman), Miriam T. Green (Penny Lyons) & Chase Penny (Tattooed Millionaire)
Sex-addict novelist Hank Moody discovers his 12-year-old daughter is becoming sexually aware..."Now you're giving me that look, right now; like I fingerbanged your cat."
-- Hank Moody (David Duchovny)
"Fuck". The final, typewritten words that close Californication's opening episode just about sums up the entire show's content. There's a lot of nookie going on; meaning copious breast shots, sexual language and David Duckovny's backside -- a sight which, on The X-Files, was more elusive than those little green men.
Duchovny stars as Hank Moody, a character whose name also says it all. Hank's a highly-sexed, lovable, laconic, cynical, novelist. His book "God Hates Us All" has just been adapted into a crass rom-com called "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love" -- so Hank's idea of pay-back is to bed the director's wife.
Hank typically lusts after "unobtainable" women, with the ultimate example arriving in an opening dream sequence about a blowjob-giving nun. Away from his middle-aged sexploits, Hank has a 12-year-old daughter called Becca (Madeleine Martin), from his failed marriage to Karen (Natascha McElhone), who has now moved in with unseen fiance Bill...
The Pilot does a marvelous job of introducing Hank and laying down his lifestyle and bed-hopping personality. Sadly, it doesn't really do much else -- with a rather perfunctory storyline about Becca beginning to notice boys at school, eventually leading to her parents stealing her away from a late-night party.
Along the way, there are some blackly comic scenes; Hank getting in a tustle with a social irritant at a cinema, brazenly insulting a woman at dinner, sleeping with a sexy bookworm called Mia (Madeline Zima) and bemoaning his daughter's fondness for Pirates Of The Caribbean.
David Duchovny is well-cast as Hank; with his smoldering good-looks and smart line delivery given sharper focus than it ever was on X-Files. He's cynical and rude, yet remains likable and charismatic. Duchovy also relishes acting in something where the show rests on his performance, and has great fun subverting the somewhat-celibate character of Mulder.
The supporting cast are peripheral to Hank's misadventures, although Natascha McElhone is an intriguing presence as Karen Van Der Beek, his stunning ex-wife who clearly had enough of his womanizing ways -- but is forever tied to him via their daughter Becca. McElhone and Duchovny have a believable chemistry together and there's clearly going to be a will-they-won't-they component to Californication's subsequent episodes.
Madeleine Martin is also enjoyable as young teen Becca, although I'm not convinced she would be the offspring of a Duchovny/McElhone union. But Martin turns in a nice performance that doesn't grate, and also gets the best line when she stumbles upon her dad's bedroom conquest: "There's no hair on her vagina. Do you think she's okay?"
It's difficult to say if Californication is a series worth making a point to watch, but Hank Moody is certainly a memorable character, and the show's open attitude to sex gives it an edge over comparatively mundane relationship shows. It's naughty, high-energy fun, without a weak-link in the cast assembled. Duchovny is on particularly fine form. Mind you, it risks devolving into lazy sex-obsessed tedium, unless the other characters are fleshed out and a real direction for Hank is established...
11 October 2007
Five, 10.00 pm
