(Season 1, 2007)
Californication Season 1 (2007) is a Showtime
effort staring David Duchovny. His character is an author who wrote his third
successful book, and moved to Hollywood to work on the screenplay with his
live-in girlfriend and their young teen daughter. While the movie was
successful he felt like the director destroyed his literary masterpiece, and
he was so absorbed during the filming that his girlfriend had an affair. He
left, but has now discovered that it is her he really wants, after sampling as
many other women as possible. Further, he seems to have lost the ability, and
certainly the inspiration, to write.
He picks up a young woman in a bookstore, beds
her, then finds out two unfortunate facts. First, she is 16, and second, she
is the daughter of the guy his true love intends to marry. That is enough to
get you well into the plot line.
Interestingly, this is really more like a raunchy romcom than a series. The
nudity and sex is heaviest in act one (like most US raunchy comedies), and the
"happily ever after" ending wraps up all the ongoing plot points.
Nevertheless, it has been picked up for a second
season. Season one was well written, however, so there is hope the writing
team can come up with a good yarn for season two. They have several
sympathetic characters to work with, and even the villains are somewhat
likeable. If this were shortened to a 110 minute film, I would not have felt
cheated. Considering how I view most TV, that is strong praise.