"Californication" was once a promising comedy, something that spoke to my love of classic rock, English, Bill Hicks, Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson-style self-loathing.
I wanted to write a bit of a rant, however, on why this now may be the worst comedy on cable.
This season is better than last, but that's not saying much. The sexual hijinks and gross-out factor is getting insulting. Last episode has Charlie basically getting raped by a drunk woman up her butt (haha! it's funny because it's anal!), which is pretty disgusting (how funny would it be if the genders were reversed?). Female-on-male rape can be kinda funny just due to the novelty of it, but it has to be handled well, and in this episode it's just dumb and sleazy. Meanwhile the Sex Pistols guy is making out with a couple hotties, the Russell Brand dude is talking about drugging his wife so he can screw another girl, and Hank is trying to get into Maggie Grace's panties while cracking jokes about bodily fluids on the floor and butt-****ery. It isn't funny or clever anymore.
A big appeal of S1 was that Hank, while a womanizer, still respected women. He had that whole "Hell-A" rant about how the city corrupts its women. He loved Karen and Becca and often found himself in sexual scenarios where he tried, but failed (his relationship with the adulteress, for example).
But now, he's taking oral sex from drunk grieving widows behind tombstones and his apathy is sort of comical rather than earnest. The show has developed little trademarks for the characters (I can't quote Hank's - it involves profanity) that is turning it more and more into a silly sitcom. It's no wonder that Hank seems to be appealing more to the masses now as a character, since he is essentially turning into a caricature - a sort of idiot manchild that Hank in season one would have railed against. They've basically "Crazy Little Thing Called Love'd" Californication, and viewers of the show will understand what I mean by that.
Also, as much as I love Runkle and how pathetic he is, his relationship with Hank has become more ridiculous than ever. In the early seasons Hank had a brotherly relationship with him, but they were still pretty straightforward with each other. Runkle still acted respectfully around Hank, to preserve his status as an agent, and inquired into his personal life when he thought he had hit rock bottom. (Remember in the pilot episode how he asked Hank whether he was OK, needed help, etc.? Told him to get it together?) Now, Runkle is basically just the butt end of jokes when Hank is around. And he doesn't seem to care much about his friend's spiraling out of control, such as when he brings him pot to his rehab center.
I'm truly shocked that Kapinos is still the one writing this show. It amazes me that the creator of season one would allow the show to devolve like this, let alone be the sole person responsible for it.
