Californicati-On The Nose

Californication used to be one of my favorite comedies on cable. The show, now in it's seventh and final season, follows selfish sex-addict writer Hank Moody, played by David Duchovny, and his drunken antics around California on his odd jobs he gets after a few successful books. I love his agent on the show, Charlie Runkle, played by Evan Handler.

Moody has a daughter with his old flame Karen from when he lived in New York (before the series started). Hank usually meets girls at parties or bars, has sex with them, and then tries to get Karen to take him back. Karen has been married to a guy, and lived with another guy during the series. She usually spends some time with Hank, and right when you think they're going to get back together, Moody screws it up.

It used to be one of my favorite shows, because the writing was fun and fresh. It's been seven seasons of the same plot over and over again. The show jumped the shark the season that Moody (or was it Karen? Both? I don't remember anymore) moved back to New York at the end of the season. The shark-jump came when the next season started time-dashed two or three years later back in California, and nothing changed. There was no reason for the time-dash, and no reason for the show to return.

In its final season, Duchovny seems bored playing Moody; almost yawning the dialogue and his catch phrases ("muthafuckah!"). The over-done, burnt toast, seventh season has Moody learning that he has a 19-year-old-son who tracks him down. The character, Levon, had promise, but has turned into a whiny, annoying wanna-be Hank Moody.

Watching the latest episode, I realized what makes this season so bad (it's not as bad as the final season of Dexter, but I don't think anything ever can be). The writing lacks any subtext this season. Being a screenwriting major, I learned that good writing is full of subtext. If a character wants to have sex with another character, they might say something like "I haven't felt this way about someone since my ex, before they were my ex that is." Something like that. Then when they retire to the bedroom, it's implied that they're going to have sex.

This season actually had Levon pull his pants down to show his penis to a girl he likes. Her reply looking at it was "that's a big dick." Dialogue without subtext is called "on-the-nose." Everything this season has been on-the-nose. Luckily there are only 6 episodes left, and then I never have to see another one.
"Why don't you just quit watching now, Nerd Dad?" I'm glad you asked.

I've seen the whole series from the beginning. I've invested time in the show, and characters, and I want to see what the resolution will look like. I liked it so much that after the season where I thought it wasn't coming back, I started writing a spin-off called Runkle where his agent was the main character. It was just for fun, to work the writing muscle, but I remember how much I loved the show at that time. Now I cringe at the on-the-nose dialogue, and look forward to the credits, because it means one more episode down, and closer to the end.