Californication comes again with its second season premiere with a real-life shadow hanging over itbut more importantly for the production itself with some of its cleverness diminished And as the title of the series might suggest there is no way that this can be a family-friendly blogAt the end of the first season Karen Natascha McElhone perpetually a typo waiting to happen leaves her repressed fiance at the altar to reunite with the love of her life Hank Moody David Duchovny much to the delight of their daughter Becca Madeleine Martin we begin this episode with the couple enjoying cohabitation albeit with the mornings agenda dominated by Hanks vasectomy appointment Hank asks for and gets the opportunity for one more act of coitus before surgery with the proviso from Karen that he wear a condom one last time Further negotiation is more in fun than in earnestDuring his vasectomy the nurse in the operating room Sheri Moon Zombie somewhat improba
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Karen Ive got a car Theres moreHow great was that opening dream sequence The whole wedding congregation turned to look at Hank during the Forever hold your peace line and he looked back like What Please as you were But then of course he does the grand romantic gesture anyway as only a Hank can Tonight was so funny so incredibly romanticA lot happened and I think everyone grew up a little this episode Becca got her first period and her dad handled the f--k out of that s--t by getting in a supermarket fight for tampons hilarious and oh so Moody She then played appropriately enough Only Women Bleed at the reception a startling choice for its very adult lyrics its very unromantic vision of marriage and the fact that Bill actually let Beccas band play in the first place Meanwhile Mia grew a heart and lied to everyone about her sexual relations with Hank in order to protect Becca But Hank grew up the most by stepping back and le
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I wasnt looking forward to tonight because I could tell by the previews that this episode was going to be very Mia-centric and Ive found this whole manuscript-thieving storyline to have more logical holes in it than a hunk of Swiss Also as you all know I just dont like Mia But the episode had some sweet and charming moments so lets go ahead and focus on thoseFirst the big news Becca moved in with Hank at her own request I found it strange that we had to wait almost the whole episode to find out why she wanted to move in with her dad and that neither of her parents really pressed her for a reason her explanation only came up when Mia asked about it Karens attachment to her daughter was palpable and her angry accusation that Hank had manipulated Becca into moving out was alarming but understandable Even better was his reaction I would never f--k with her head yours yes but not hers Her sneaking into Hanks house late at night to check on Becca a
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After last weeks death-of-dadKaren-and-Hank-did-the-deed shocker of an episode tonight couldnt help but feel like a bit of a letdown But still this was an awfully large letdownAfter several weeks back east on the Moody family spread Hank returned to the Los Angeles airport coincidentally on the same plane Bill was on Waiting for her two knights in dented armor was of course Karen who after their recent cogrieving sex act treated Hank to the sight of a make-out session with Bill Granted she certainly has every right to make out with her fianc but I still found the scene distasteful and drawn out not to mention unbearably awkward That clunker of a scene was followed by another clunker in which Becca practiced with her band while the fam looked on Yall know I love Becca but that song was terrible and her dads dopey dancing was even worse So yeah Ill say it I agree with Bill I wouldnt let Becca play at my wedding either But hey that doesnt make
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Sorry for the delay in posting Californicators but this episode was such a turning point in the season I just had to invest a little post-sick day time into making it just rightSeveral of you have posted comments saying that this was the best ep of the season and Im inclined to agree So much real vulnerable depth was added to our Hank through the mirror of his relationship with his caring but deeply flawed father Hank gets news that his father has passed away and through flashbacks we got to see the source of many of Hanks bad habits and attitudes But more importantly we saw where his self-hatred is coming from and why hes so determined to be a devoted dad and life partner His greatest fear is being a failure in those two roles as his father was before him The guy was a womanizer a drinker critical as hell bitter angry and prone to calling women Sex on a stick in front of his preteen granddaughter Truly a creep So Hanks act isnt an act its the resu
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This evening Charlie and Marcy furthered their sexual-experimenting experiment by 1 mocking each others dairy habits maybe Charlies sex drive would increase if he stopped drinking soy milk 2 breaking a coupla dozen sexual-harassment laws and 3 attempting a threesome that involved nipple clamps and a trip to the emergency room But hey dont they allWell as the precocious Becca noted earlier tonight all good things must eventually come to an end Although her screen scenes in this episode were relatively short they represented some important growing-up moments for her Shes starting to see her fathers flaws and although shes sensitive enough to know how much he loves her shes also smart enough to realize that she cant always rely on him Hanks devastated look when she said Eventually you just kinda have to say f--k you absolutely broke my heart The last thing Hank ever wanted to do was let his kid down and now he has to accept that he has Of course hes
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Hank Moody is getting more like The Dude every dayThat opening scene in the grocery store just proves it Him slumping around a grocery store in the wee morning hours hunched over a shopping cart while slugging from an as-yet-unpurchased bottle of liquor was a terrific snapshot of our Hanks worldview And then of course a smoking-hot half-naked teenager hits on him a piss-drunk albeit charming rogue whos twice her age Yup that sure happens every day Oh well Ill once again suspend my disbelief on the grounds that she was only out to steal his stuff Best part of that whole scene had to be Crusty the cashiers operatic eye roll Beautiful stuffAfter Hanks nostalgic tour of the vinyl age we next see him in broad daylight passed out on the floor amid a world of records also very Dude-like incidentally with only a cleverly directed shot of a spinning record machine covering his privates As my roommate said What a needle dick Turns out hippie grocery chick has ta
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Two big developments tonight one sad and one happy The tough-but-tender Meredith stupidly dumped Hank and Charlies even tougher wife Marcy made another splash of an appearance Im a big fan of both these ladies so I hope and strongly suspect that Meredith will reenter our lives someday soon and Im glad Marcy is with us to stayWhat I dont hope to see again is another opening dream sequence involving churches references to oral sex and nuns especially if said reference includes such a tame and lame fondling between the sexless Bill and the stiff Karen Im growing increasingly baffled by Hanks ardent adoration of Karen shes a cool ex-rocker chick yes but is she really worthy of all this pining She seems dull and sparkless to me and her weird hairstyle is as stiff as her delivery Karen definitely needs to use less hairsprayMarcy however is terrific Im not surprised to learn that the source of Charlie and Marcys marital troubles is Charlie rather than
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Tonight was jam-packed with tart-tongued one-liners but it also packed a punch with a fistful of soulful heartfelt conversations that helped to deepen several of the side characters who live in Hanks world It looks to me like Hank is back on track as Hollywoods most self-loathing bloggerAs the first bed conversation showed Meredith is shaping up to be a pretty cool lady vulnerable but level-headed with a good sense of humor Shes got more than her share of baggage though what with this five-year affair with a married man whom she still seems to be attached to Despite his reluctance to have that conversation I do actually think that Hank is pretty close to loving Meredith and he seems to get a real kick out of coming to her rescue I wonder if its true that she called him a loser to her adulterous lawyer ex-lover and more importantly if Hank believes that she did If he did he sure didnt let it affect him much We also saw Hanks friendship skills come to light w
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I wonder who precisely tonights episode title was supposed to refer to Hank presumably although aside from his very colorful opening monologue describing the corruptive lure of Hollywood money our Mr Moody once again ended up behaving like quite the gentleman Of course there was also that brawl at the book-signing Leave it to Hank Moody to reduce a literary gathering to a fistfightFor the first few minutes I found myself fervently hoping that the entire book-signing scene was a dream sequence the previous two episodes opened as dreams after all Its a real test of credibility to think that a Hollywood director would appear at some screenwriters book-signing to confront him about his dislike for a movie and then to have the already improbable argument descend into a full-on brawl Californication needs to knock it off with its clichd male-fantasy shenanigans The only real fight a guy like Hank Moody would get into would look a lot like that nipple cripple
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