"Californication" The Devil's Threesome (2007)

Director:

John Dahl

Writers:

Tom Kapinos (creator)
Tom Kapinos (written by)

TV Series:

"Californication" (2007)

Original Air Date:

15 October 2007 (Season 1, Episode 10)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Charlie desperately wants to get laid and enlists the help of a very reluctant Hank. Meanwhile Karen and Marcy get drunk together.

Plot Keywords:

Writer | Male Female Relationship | Father Daughter Relationship | Family Relationships | Los Angeles California

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Hank Moody
Natascha McElhone	...	Karen
Madeleine Martin	...	Becca Moody (credit only)
Madeline Zima	...	Mia Lewis
Evan Handler	...	Charlie Runkle
Pamela Adlon	...	Marcy Runkle
Rachel Miner	...	Dani
Laura Niles	...	Laura

Runtime:

29 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-MA

Company:

Aggressive Mediocrity

Goofs:

Continuity: When Karen and Marcy are drunk at the bar the amount of liquid in the shot glasses changes from one shot to another.

Quotes:

Marcy Runkle: It's like disconnecting a bomb. I mean, there's all these wires and all down there, who knows which one you're supposed to cross, or pull... plus: the studies show that the female orgasm is like 99% mental - who has time for that!
Karen: OK, so - so that's good. So you want to go back to the 4-minute gruntfest thing, like in-out, done...
Marcy Runkle: Yeah
Karen: So you're done with the uh - the lesbetarian experiment...
Marcy Runkle: The grass is always greener, you know?
Karen: Uh-huh
Marcy Runkle: Isn't that how you got engaged to be buried?

Movie Connections:

References Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Soundtrack:

One Man

"That sexy little smurf..."

Ah, back to business: one of those episodes where the sex scenes are likely to upset someone. Remember the filthy dream in the pilot and the sex-and-vomit bit in the second episode? There's a very peculiar threesome in this one that's right on par with those two moments. Explicit, maybe, but also tremendously fun.

The threesome derives from Charlie's desperate attempts to get laid, now that he's moved in with Hank in order to get over Marcy's lesbian affair (although, as Hank points out, Charlie had an affair with the same person first). While at the gym, they meet one of Hank's countless exes, and since he can't remember her he gets beaten up in a boxing ring (you see, she's a boxer). The situation evolves in the aforementioned way, and while the guys have fun, Karen and Marcy get drunk together and think about their relationships. Oh, and Dani approaches Mia about a novel she's written (get the hint?).

As always, there's plenty of fun to be had, be it because of the dialogue, the painfully hilarious climax (pun intended) of the central sex scene or simply Duchovny's laid-back performance. In this case, however, a special mention goes to all of the female cast, who get a lot more meat to chew on this time around. Quite fitting, then, that The Devil's Threesome is directed by none other than John Dahl, the neo-noir genius who made Linda Fiorentino a star with The Last Seduction and gave American cinema a whole new breed of femme fatale. Of course, there's no noir in Californication, unless you count Mia's cunning scheme to rip off Hank...