“Californication” season two

“Californication”

Season 2 premieres Sept. 28th on Showtime

Avast there, mateys. There be spoilers here. Properly warned ye be, says I.

When last we left Hank Moody and his band of Californicators, Karen, Hank, and their daughter Becca sped away from the scene of Karen and Bill’s wedding. Hank’s agent seemed well on his way to reuniting with his estranged wife, and the sultry yet statutory Mia had been given her father Bill’s blessing to publish her book… a book actually written by and stolen from Hank.

Double entendres aside, season two of “Californication” explores the answer to the question: What comes after “the happy ending?” In Hank Moody’s case, the answer is: more of the same.

Hank’s attempts to grow-up include: wearing the nicotine patch, to curtail his smoking habit; getting a vasectomy, to be able to have condom-free yet risk-free sex with Karen; wanting to relocate the family to New York City, to get away from the insanity of California; and adapting to a couples lifestyle, for the benefit of his whole family. The best laid plans of mice and Hank are more or less shot to hell by the end of the first episode of the new season.

The late, great Douglas Adams once wrote, “We have normality… Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.” It quickly becomes apparent that embarking upon a “normal” life with Karen and Becca does nothing to reduce the number of problems in Hank’s life. His daughter is violently opposed to the idea of leaving California. Karen still isn’t sure if Hank can handle a mature relationship. And despite their past, Hank still feels obligated to look after Mia… to the extent he can. A night on the town with Charlie and Marcie leads to a party in a swanky hillside home where drugs, alcohol, and misunderstandings are around every corner. As if a night of old friends and new faces wasn’t enough of a recipe for disaster, just wait until Hank has a late night encounter with a police officer.

The fun of “Californication” is rooting for Hank to succeed. The comedy of “Californication” is knowing he never will. The second season builds upon the first. The show is really what daytime soap operas dream of being. It is a mixture of complex, dysfunctional characters engaged in comedic and dramatic entanglements, writ large for the pay-TV audience. The language is raw, the setting is beatific, and every so often, somebody’s breast is exposed.

Quote of the day: “Looks like there’s a new pope.”