Californication - Season 1
Californication is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Tom Kapinos, which aired for seven seasons on Showtime from August 13, 2007, to June 29, 2014. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody (David Duchovny), a troubled novelist who moves to California and suffers from writer's block. His drinking, womanizing, and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover, Karen (Natascha McElhone), and their daughter, Becca (Madeleine Martin).The show's other main characters are Hank's best friend and agent Charlie Runkle (Evan Handler) and Charlie's wife Marcy (Pamela Adlon). Recurring themes are sex, drugs, and rock and roll, all of which are featured regularly, as well as the seedier side of Los Angeles. The show won several awards, including two Emmy Awards (nominated for two others) and one Golden Globe Award (nominated for five others).
Californication - Season 1
The show was renewed for a second season on September 7, 2007.[1] The season-one finale, "The Last Waltz" (in homage to Martin Scorsese's concert film),[2] originally aired on Showtime on October 29, 2007. Season two began filming in April 2008,[3] and was underway as of June 2008.[4] The premiere episode of season two aired September 28, 2008. The first season was released on DVD in the US on June 17, 2008. Showtime renewed Californication for a third season,[5] which premiered on Sunday September 27, 2009, at 10 pm.
The show is laced with rock culture references. It frequently alludes to Warren Zevon and featured Henry Rollins in a guest appearance; some episode titles, such as "Filthy Lucre", "Turn the Page", and "The Land of Rape and Honey", allude to album and song names (Sex Pistols' "Filthy Lucre Live", Bob Seger's "Turn the Page", and Ministry's The Land of Rape and Honey, respectively. Turn the Page was also covered by Metallica; episodes ...And Justice for All and The Unforgiven are named after Metallica songs). Hank's lawyer in season four is called Abby Rhoads; his first three novels, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and God Hates Us All, are all named after Slayer albums. The books Crack the Sky and Blood Mountain by Richard Bates are also the names of two Mastodon albums. A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, the movie based on God Hates Us All, is named after the song by the rock band Queen from their album The Game.[6] The segment before the opening theme is the introduction to The Stooges' song, "I Got a Right".
On June 3, 2008, Showtime released the season-one soundtrack Temptation: Music from the Showtime Series Californication , which features music from the original series. Included artists are The Rolling Stones, Peeping Tom, My Morning Jacket, The Doors, Tommy Stinson, Bob Dylan, Harvey Danger, Madeleine Martin, Gus Black, Mexican institute of sound, Warren Zevon, The Heavy, Champion, Steve Earle, Elton John, and two original tracks created for the show by Tyler Bates and Tree Adams.
Hank finishes Ashby's biography. Charlie ends up working at a BMW dealership in the Valley, introducing himself as Chuck Runkle. Sonja's baby arrives; it is biracial, which proves that Hank cannot be the father. Hank and Karen slowly move toward reuniting. Karen is offered a job in New York, and Hank is happy to go there with her. When Damien apologizes to Becca, though, and they reconcile, Hank decides taking Becca out of LA would be wrong, and stays there with her while Karen starts her job in New York. The season closes with Karen's plane leaving for New York City and Hank and Becca walking on the Venice boardwalk.
In the season finale, Hank has recurring nightmares of floating in a pool, drinking heavily while talking to his most recent conquests, who are swimming naked around him; Karen and Becca watch poolside. In reality, Mia returns to Hank's home and invites the family to the media launch of the paperback edition of her book. At the after party, Hank talks to Mia's manager, who is also her new boyfriend, who says he knows of Mia's history with Hank and offers Hank a way out by coming clean to the press about how the novel came about. Since it will affect Karen and Becca, though, Hank must decline.
The story picks up 72 hours after Hank is arrested at the end of season three, and revolves around Hank's thoroughly destroyed life. His secrets have come to light; the world knows that he penned Fucking & Punching, and that he slept with the underage Mia. Karen is disgusted and Becca is disappointed, so Hank goes to live at a hotel. Season four follows his new legal troubles, such as his lawyer's attempts to get him acquitted of statutory rape charges, plus the development of a film adaptation of "Fucking & Punching" and his sexual involvement with Sasha and Abby. Other developing storylines include Charlie learning his vasectomy may have been botched, Marcy moving in with a movie producer and learning she is pregnant by Charlie, Becca joining an all-female rock band, and Karen finding a new boyfriend.
On January 11, 2011, the season-four soundtrack was released.[10] Exclusive tracks include Tommy Lee's solo version of "Home Sweet Home" and three rock covers from the show's on-screen band Queens of Dogtown. Other artists on the soundtrack are Shooter Jennings and Hierophant, Eagles of Death Metal, Better Than Ezra, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Monster Magnet vs. Adrian Young, Cracker, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Warren Zevon, and Gregory Alan Isakov.[11] The soundtrack was co-produced by Nora Felder and Budd Carr, the show's music supervisors.[12]
The show returned to Showtime for its fifth season in January 2012.[13] Creator Tom Kapinos stated the show needed to take a completely new direction to stay fresh.[14] The narrative takes place 2 years and 9 months after season four, almost at the end of Hank's probation. Hank has since made New York his home, but he returns to Los Angeles for a short, business-related visit. His family issues end up extending it. Karen is married to Professor Bates, 19-year-old Becca is in college and has a new boyfriend, and Marcy is married to Stu Beggs, sharing the custody of her son Stuart with Charlie. Hank meets with rapper-turned-actor Samurai Apocalypse (RZA), who wants Hank to write a screenplay for a movie starring Samurai. Hank originally turns down the job but eventually ends up writing Santa Monica Cop because he needs the money. Hank has a hard time working with Samurai, and their strained relationship leads to some unpleasant situations. Hank is disgusted with Hollywood after his book God Hates Us All was adapted into a movie that he hated so is not thrilled with the prospect of working on another movie.
Season 6 started on January 13, 2013. Its storyline revolves around Hank's relationship with Faith (played by Maggie Grace), whom he meets in a rehabilitation facility, in parallel with Hank's artistic participation in the music industry. Initially, Hank reluctantly agrees to rehab, not because of a drug dependency, but rather because of depression over his role in ex-girlfriend Carrie's suicide at the end of season five. After being dumped by him, Carrie, emotionally devastated, drugs Hank and herself, but Hank is the only one who awakes, making him lose control over his alcoholism for feeling deeply guilty. At this point, Hank's family and best friends intervene, sending him to rehab.
Faith is a famous rockstar groupie/muse who is in rehab dealing with the recent death of a rockstar with whom she was involved, ultimately becoming Hank's muse. Faith and Hank seem to be made for each other, as they take off in a bus to follow a tour of Atticus Fetch (played by Tim Minchin), a rockstar who recruits Hank to write for him during the season, but in the end, Hank is too weak to move on from Karen, and though their relationship apparently has run its course, he leaves Faith and goes back to see Karen.
Production for the seventh season began in 2013.[15][16] In December 2013, Showtime announced that Californication would end its run after the seventh season.[16][17] Mary Lynn Rajskub plays a neurotic writer, whom Charlie Runkle takes on as a client. Michael Imperioli plays Rath, a television producer for whom Hank begins to work.
On June 4, 2013, actress Mercedes Masohn announced that she would have a guest role as Amy Taylor Walsh, a TV star whose plea for Hank's help ends up putting him in an uncomfortable, compromising position. Amy apparently has ties to a season-four character, Sasha Bingham.[18] Roger Howarth plays Karen's yoga teacher.[19]
The critical reaction for the first season of Californication has been generally favorable, with a rating of 70 on Metacritic.[23] American critic Nathan Rabin, though, gave that season an "F" rating on The A.V. Club, calling it "insufferable".[24]
The season-two (December 14, 2008) finale drew 615,000 viewers, with a combined total of 937,000 for the evening, retaining less than 50% of its lead-in from the season-three finale of Dexter. Season three steadily gained viewership, and the show was quickly picked up for a fourth season by Showtime.[36]
The first season takes place in the months leading up to Karen van der Beek's planned marriage to Bill Lewis, a Los Angeles publisher. Hank Moody, Karen's former boyfriend and father of their child Becca, is an alcoholic, sex-crazed writer struggling as he tries to bring back the love of his life. The season starts with his wallowing deep in self-loathing following the release of "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a sub-par yet popular movie adaptation to his most recent novel, "God Hates Us All." After picking up a younger woman in a bookstore, he soon after comes to find out she is actually Bill's 16-year-old daughter, Mia. Throughout the season, Mia continues to haunt Hank during his visits to his family, using the threat of statutory rape to steal stories for her creative writing class. The death of his father triggers a bender and an eventual sexual encounter with Karen. After the funeral, Hank stays in New York to finish a manuscript for a new novella. However, when Hank returns to LA, the original copy is lost when his car is stolen. But Mia has retained her own copy, and chooses to pass the work off as her own. On Karen and Bill's wedding day, Hank chooses to accept the way things are. But as he leaves the reception with his daughter Becca, Karen runs out and jumps into the car, riding into a new life together. 041b061a72