Californication – Breaking up is hard to do

I have seen the future, and it is good. The fine folks at Showtime were kind enough to share screeners of this entire season of Californication, and what seemed a bump in the road for the past two weeks was actually just an anomaly. And if you thought tonight was good, you have no idea what’s coming next week.

With Karen back in the mix, it was expected that Hank would be putting to rest the three quasi-relationships that he’d been building since the season premiere. You’d think that the nature of each coupling was such as to make that an easy assignment. But then I suppose you never pondered the wonder that is Hank Moody.

First up was Jackie. A call to Hank’s office was naturally at first mistaken for a sex-romp, but that was quickly cleared up when Jackie started in on the plight of the sex worker. Why do people feel as if they’ve been used in these types of situations? Hank never started a formal relationship with her — where’s the using? It was extremely funny that Dean Koontz walked in just as Jackie was getting into position on all fours for a little goodbye … and funnier still that he in some way bought her explanation of a “joke.” But long story short she’s not letting Hank go.

Next up was my choice for Hank, Jill. Jill got an invite to a nice lunch, but Hank’s speech was interrupted by the appearance of Jill’s “egg waster,” his new fiance on his arm. You can’t tell me that Hank isn’t a good guy after he went over there and pretended that he and Jill’s ex had had a sexual encounter, during which Hank contracted a VD. Unfortunately for Hank, that only endeared him more to Jill. Strike two.

Last came Felicia, who I’ll admit would be an interesting side project for Hank while dating Jill. Felicia had actually moved on with her freebie — I hadn’t realized that Hank had turned her down with any finality — to yet another writer, this one played by Ken Marino (Tony from Reaper). And this time it was Hank who ruined things by “saving” Felicia from going the wrong route with her extramarital affair, instead magnanimously offering himself up as her mate. Always the gentleman.

But it was all good fun, and it was definitely a return to the strong start that season three had made. I told you that the classroom needed a voice in the episodes to be good right now!

Becca was off again … who was surprised that she was covering for Chelsea and a guy, as opposed to being in the room naked with her when Hank walked in? I totally thought that that’s where their friendship was heading. It also kind of stuck out as a total non-sequitur to both the rest of the episode and the rest of the season. But then again Becca tends to be doing that a lot lately.

Also a bit off was Sue and Charlie’s visit to her original client Peter Fonda, although I had no idea who he was while watching the episode (they didn’t say!). What was that all about?

But whatever; a little divergence was not going to harm such a strong outing. And like I said, stay tuned for next week. And before Collini’s out:

“You’re Runkle; you’d whack it to a cat dancing on YouTube.” – Sue

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 08, 2009 @ 22:30 EST5EDT