Californication (TV series)

	Californication
Genre	Comedy-drama
Created by	Tom Kapinos
Starring	David Duchovny; Natascha McElhone; Madeleine Martin; Madeline Zima; Evan Handler; Pamela Adlon
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	24 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Duchovny; Tom Kapinos; Stephen Hopkins
Location(s)	California
Running time	Approximately 28 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	Showtime
Original run	August 13, 2007 – present
External links
	Official website

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Californication is a Showtime TV series production created by Tom Kapinos, starring David Duchovny as Hank Moody: a troubled novelist whose move to California and his writer's block complicate the relationships with his ex-girlfriend Karen (Natascha McElhone) and daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin).

[edit] Production

The show was renewed for a second season on September 7, 2007.^[1] The season 1 finale, titled "The Last Waltz", originally aired on Showtime on October 29, 2007. Season 2 began filming in April 2008,^[2] and was underway as of June 2008.^[3] The premiere episode of season 2 aired September 28, 2008. The first season was released on DVD in the US on June 17, 2008. Showtime has decided to renew Californication for a third season, scheduled to premiere in late 2009.^[4]

[edit] List of episodes

Main article: List of Californication episodes

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

Hank Moody (David Duchovny)
Karen van der Beek (Natascha McElhone) - Hank's ex-girlfriend
Rebecca "Becca" Moody (Madeleine Martin) - Hank & Karen's 12 year old daughter
Charlie Runkle (Evan Handler) - Hank's agent
Marcy Runkle (Pamela Adlon) - Charlie's wife
Mia Lewis (Madeline Zima) - Bill Lewis' 16 year old daughter

[edit] Recurring characters

Dani California (Rachel Miner) - Charlie's former assistant
Daisy (Carla Gallo) - Charlie's porn star client
Lew Ashby (Callum Keith Rennie) - Hank's record producer friend
Sonja (Paula Marshall) - Karen's friend and Hank's one night stand
Bill Lewis (Damian Young) - Karen's ex-fiancee
Surfer Girl (Michelle Lombardo) - Hank's friend
Trixie (Judy Greer) - prostitute

[edit] Premise

The series revolves around Hank Moody, a charming writer and novelist plagued with personal demons. He blames his years-long case of writer's block on a variety of reasons, ranging from the hedonism of Los Angeles, to his on-again, off-again relationship with his girlfriend Karen. Hank constantly deals with the fallout of his sex addiction, while trying to show his family that he can be a good, caring person.

[edit] First season

The first season takes place in the months leading up to Karen's planned marriage to Bill, a Los Angeles publisher. Hank is wallowing deep in self-loathing following the release of "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a sub-par yet popular movie adaptation to his most recent novel, "God Hates Us All." After picking up a younger woman in a bookstore, he finds out she is actually Bill's 16-year-old daughter, Mia. Hank spends most of his time boozing and not writing. Mia continues to haunt Hank during his visits to his family, using the threat of statutory rape to steal stories for her creative writing class. The death of his father triggers a bender and an eventual sexual encounter with Karen. After the funeral, Hank stays in New York to finish a manuscript for a new novella. However, when Hank returns to LA, the original copy is lost when his car is stolen. But Mia has retained her own copy, and chooses to pass the work off as her own. On Karen and Bill's wedding day, Hank chooses to accept the way things are. But as he leaves the reception with his daughter Becca, Karen runs out and jumps into the car, riding into a new life together.

[edit] Second Season

The newly reunited couple of Hank and Karen is seeming to work out, their house is on the market and Becca seems happy again. Hank gets a vasectomy and attends a party invited by Sonja, a woman Hank had a sexual encounter with in the first season. A mistake and a fight with an obnoxious police officer lands Hank in jail, where he meets Lew Ashby, world-famous record producer. He commissions Hank to write his biography.

Charlie loses his job due to jacking off in his office several different times, and becomes the paternal figure and agent of a porn star named Daisy. Charlie decides to get into the porn industry and finances the porn movie "Vaginatown", starring Daisy. Marcy goes into rehab for her cocaine addiction and Charlie starts an affair with Daisy. Hank proposes to Karen on the night that they discover that Hank could be the father of Sonja's child. Karen says no after hearing the news about Sonja's baby, and Hank decides that they can no longer be together.

Hank moves in with Ashby, who starts a romance with Mia (much to Hank's dismay). Becca finds a boyfriend named Damien. Mia's book becomes a hit and Ashby holds a party in its honor, where Damien cheats on Becca and Charlie decides to divorce Marcy to get together with Daisy. After the party Hank sees that Ashby's old girlfriend (The one that got away) has finally showed up to see Lew and when Hank goes upstairs to get him, he dies of an overdose of heroin which he had mistaken for cocaine.

Hank finishes Ashby's biography. Charlie ends up working in a BMW dealership in the Valley. Sonja's baby is born and turns out to be black, making it clear that Hank cannot be the father. Hank and Karen are slowly starting to get together again. Karen then gets offered a job in New York and Hank is happy to go back to New York with her, but when Damien apologises to Becca and the two get back together again, Hank decides it would be wrong to take Becca out of Los Angeles. He decides to stay, while Karen starts her job in New York. The season closes with Karen's plane leaving for New York and Hank and Becca walking on the Venice boardwalk.

[edit] Critical reaction

Main article: List of Californication awards and nominations

The critical reaction for Californication has been generally favorable, with a rating of 70 on Metacritic.^[5] However there has been a backlash from conservative groups who oppose the explicit nature of the program. Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt criticized the program in the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun, in regards to the pilot's opening dream scene in which a nun performs oral sex on Hank Moody.^[6] The Australian Christian Lobby’s managing director Jim Wallace also called for a boycott, not only of Network Ten, but all advertisers who advertise during the show, in response to a scene in which Hank and a woman (played by Paula Marshall) smoke marijuana, have sex and subsequently both vomit.^[7] When Network Ten premiered Season 2 on October 5 2008, the Christian fundamentalist group Salt Shakers led an e-mail campaign against advertisers, requesting they withdraw their advertisements. This resulted in 49 companies withdrawing their advertising, including the show's main sponsor, Just Car Insurance.

The show premiered on Thursday, November 8, 2007 in New Zealand amidst controversy due to issues raised by the conservative lobby group Family First, who objected to the content of the show. The group called for families to boycott any company advertising during the episode which it described as "drug, sex and vomit-laden."^[8]^[9]^[10]

The show and lead actor David Duchovny were both nominated for Golden Globes in 2007; Duchovny won the lead actor award, but the award for best TV series in this category went to Extras.^[11]

[edit] DVD release

Season One of Californication was released on DVD in the UK on June 16, 2008. The bonus features in the UK release included an audio commentary of the pilot episode, as well as interviews with the cast and director. The Season One DVD set was also released in the US on June 17, 2008, Australia on June 19, 2008 (the box set in Australia also included a black g-string with "Californication" printed on the front), and France earlier than other countries on July 10, 2008.

[edit] Lawsuit

The Red Hot Chili Peppers filed a lawsuit on November 19, 2007 ^[12] against Showtime Networks over the name of the series, which is also the name of the band's 1999 album and hit single. They state in the lawsuit that the series "constitutes a false designation of origin, and has caused and continues to cause a likelihood of confusion, mistake, and deception as to source, sponsorship, affiliation, and/or connection in the minds of the public"^[13]. Pointing to Dani California, a character that appears in both the series and three songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (including Californication) as well as confusion when shopping for the their album and that of the series soundtrack, the band members are seeking unspecified damages. They are also requesting that a new name be found for the TV show.^[14] Showtime Networks is expected to argue that the band did not in fact create the term Californication (a portmanteau of California and fornication). They claim that the term first appeared in print in Time Magazine in 1972, in an article called The Great Wild Californicated West ^[15].

Kim Walker, head of intellectual property at Pinsent Masons, points out that the band should have registered Californication as a trademark. Instead, the only application for such was filed in April, 2007 in the US, by Showtime. The mark has not yet been registered. Walker further notes:

"Successful songs, albums and movies can become brands in themselves. What's really surprising is how few songs and albums are properly protected," said Walker. "The Chili Peppers could almost certainly have registered a trade mark for 'Californication', notwithstanding Time's article. They made the word famous, but it doesn't automatically follow that they can stop its use in a TV show." "If they had registered the title as a trade mark covering entertainment services, I very much doubt we'd have seen a lawsuit. The TV show would have been called something else," he said. "As it is, the band faces an uphill struggle.^[16]"

The matter remains unresolved.

[edit] Viewership

The second season finale of Californication drew 615,000 viewers, with a combined total of 937,000 for the evening. ^[17]

[edit] Air times worldwide

Country	Date of Premiere	Season 2 Premiere	Channel
USA	August 13, 2007, 9pm	September 28, 2008, 9pm	Showtime
Argentina	January 27, 2009, 11:45pm		Canal 13
Australia	August 27, 2007, 9:30pm	October 5, 2008 10:10pm	Network Ten
Austria	September 5, 2008, 10pm		ORF 1
Belgium	September 1, 2008, 10:00pm		2BE
Brazil			Warner Channel
Bulgaria	June 15, 2008, 11:00pm		AXN HBO
Canada	August 13, 2007, 9pm	September 28, 2008, 9pm	The Movie Network/Movie Central
Chile	May 13, 2008, 10:45pm		TVN
Croatia	January 5, 2009, 23:45pm		HRT
Czech Republic Hungary Romania Serbia Slovakia			HBO
Denmark	January 2, 2008, 9:20pm	February 10, 2009, 10:50pm	TV 2
Estonia	June 26, 2008, 10:00pm		TV3
Finland	March 17, 2008, 10:00pm	January 12, 2009, 10:00pm	Nelonen
France	March 14, 2008, 11:20pm		M6
Germany	May 14, 2008, 9:50pm September 29, 2008, 10:15pm		AXN RTL II
Ireland			TV3
Israel	May 4, 2008, 10pm	January 7, 2009, 10:00pm	HOT3
Italy	March 6, 2008, 10:40pm September 9, 2008, 00:10am		Jimmy Italia 1
Latvia	March 31, 2008, 10pm		TV6
Lithuania	March 17, 2008, 10:00pm	February 23, 2009, 10:00pm	TV3
Netherlands	November 12, 2007, 22:30pm	October 20, 2008, 22:30pm	Comedy Central
New Zealand	September 22, 2007, 9:30pm	February 5, 2009 9:30pm	TV3
Norway			TV2
Panama	September 12, 2008, 10:30pm		TVMax
Poland	November 6, 2007 June 2008 Fall 2008		HBO Universal Channel Comedy Central Polska & TVN
Portugal	April 14, 2008, 11:10pm		RTP 2 & FX
Russia	January 2008 August 11, 2008, 00:20		DTV Channel One Russia
Slovenia	September 29, 2008, 11:05pm		POP TV
South Africa	January 20, 2009, 9:30pm		M-Net
South Korea	June 19, 2008, 00:00am		OCN
Spain	June 12, 2008, 00:15am		Cuatro
Sweden	January 10, 2008, 10:35pm	January 12, 2009, 10:40pm	TV4
Switzerland	July 10, 2008, 10:35pm April 7, 2008, 10:25pm		SF zwei (German & English) TSR 1 (French & English)
Turkey			ComedyMax
UK	October 11, 2007, 10:30pm		Five