It has been a couple of years since we last saw Hank Moody (David Duchovny) in Californication, but nothing has changed for the man-boy. Though he has been living in New York in his time away from us, and dating a new woman (Natalie Zea) with the same old “casual” motives, he still carries a torch for Karen (Natasha McElhone), and that colors every action, or inaction, as it were. After all this time, we may not have come to expect any less, but we can’t help but constantly check our watches with this one, wondering just when time will run out on Moody (not to mention Californication in general)’s good luck streak.
The fifth season premiere, “JFK-->LAX” sees Hank hopping a last minute flight back to LA to meet with hip-hop star Samurai Apocalypse (guest star RZA) who wants to get into big budget action flicks. And for some reason, he wants Hank to write it. On the plane, Hank hits it off with a slutty seatmate (guest star Meagan Good), who just happens to be Samurai’s protégé and sometimes girlfriend. Of course he does, right? This whole storyline-- from Samurai’s name to the extremely “small world” coincidence nature of the meeting/coupling-- is farfetched, even for Hollywood standards, yet is front and center, promising to be a major part of the season.
Meanwhile, the one story element we were interested in right off the bat-- that of Becca (Madeleine Martin) basically dating her father (the never more in need of a haircut Scott Michael Foster)-- gets shoved aside because it has a built in Hank substitute. And if Hank is not needed to make mistakes, the show seems to have no need to show the moments play out. That is a real shame because in the past when the show has swept Becca’s all-too-similar mistakes aside, it seemed like it was simply an extension of Hank’s POV. He didn’t worry about what she was doing because he was still doing some of the same bad things, unwilling to look inward and analyze. But enough is enough.
Much of the season five premiere of Californication sets up Hank as not only the central figure in all of these characters’ lives, but perhaps surprisingly the most grounded. That is worrisome for a number of reasons, most notably that in order to believably consider him as such, beloved people like Marcy (Pamela Adlon) have to become complete caricatures, having loud, daytime sex in front of her child. Karen, on the other hand, recognizes the pattern her daughter is making in relationships as her own detrimental one but doesn’t have enough self-esteem or smarts to say or do something about it. It’s as if without Hank in their daily lives, they have all fallen apart, and you just want to slap some sense in them even more for that. He’s not that great; he’s not your hero; have some self-respect!
This season of Californication is off to a weird start simply because without any of the characters growing emotionally in their time away from us, the audience, we can’t fathom the need for the time jump. Hank Moody is not a kid in a candy store anymore; he is showing his wear all over his body language, and without the mental maturation to match, his "old dog" behavior is not tongue-in-cheek or enjoyable; it's just old and sad. This premiere, more than ever before, proves the show is in dire need of an end date.
Californication airs on Sunday nights at 10:30pm on Showtime. “JFK-->LAX” premieres on January 8th.
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