It's Showtime for Sex, Drugs and Twisted Family Values
Don't look for Showtime to win a good-parenting medal anytime soon.In the compellingly caustic new comedy
Californication, the debauched anti-hero (David Duchovny) brings his 12-year-old daughter home, and she solemnly wonders: "Why is there a naked lady in your bedroom?" (Make up your own "That's no lady" retort.) Meanwhile, in the third rollicking season of its companion show
Weeds, TV's most desperate drug-dealing housewife (Mary-Louise Parker) is seen supervising her son packing bags of pot as she reluctantly sinks deeper into criminal intrigue.
Subversive? Of course. Pay cable is all about pushing the envelope. The racier and more twisted the satire, the better the buzz, and in that regard, these shows deliver. But beneath their sardonic surface, they share an undercurrent of regret that their characters' lives have come to this.
In Californication, Duchovny is as rakishly appealing as any cad can be, playing an embittered writer who stews in self-contempt but grins through the pain as he bed-hops his way through a paralyzing creative block. "I'm disgusted with my life and myself, but I'm not unhappy about that," he cynically tells his agent. Can he redeem himself to his alluring ex and newly rebellious daughter? Won't be easy.
Ditto for Weeds' Parker, frozen in a dazed panic as she juggles outrageous scenarios involving threatening gangs, suspicious Feds and nosy neighbors, all while trying to raise a family. "If I deal with one thing at a time, I'm less inclined to shoot myself in the head," she says. Martha Stewart would be so proud. Wouldn't she?
Weeds airs Mondays, 10/9c, Showtime
Californication airs Mondays, 10:30/9:30c, Showtime
Sidebar: High School Musical 2
And now for something completely wholesome. It's time to put down Harry Potter and pick up the remote. Especially
the replay function. Trust me. By the time the sing-along version of High School Musical 2 airs Sunday (8/19, 8/7c), two nights after the first screening, many kids already will have memorized the lyrics—and probably many of the dance moves. It's going to be that addictive.
Why didn't they make adorable kitschfests like this generations ago? Wait, they did. Think drive-ins. "Beach Party." Sandra Dee. It's like "Gidget" goes to the country club. In this comfort-food summer sequel, music breaks out all over the posh Lava Springs resort: poolside, in a kitchen and most deliriously on the baseball field, where an elaborate dance number hits it out of the park. Try not to join along.
