Californication Review -- 1x03, "The Whore of Babylon"

I picked up the Heroes DVDs today, yay! They were only $47.99 at Borders and I'm excited to watch the last half of the season that I didn't get around to watching before NBC took them off its website. I can't review the extras or anything yet because I don't want to be spoiled, but I'll say that: A) I like the stylish design, B) the chapter menus are clunky and there's no scene selection that I can find, which sucks, and C) Peter Petrelli and Officer Matt are my new TV boyfriends.

Anyway, onto last night's Californication...

"But Magnums... wow. Did you have a growth spurt?"

Californication Official Site

In the third episode of Showtime's cute little comedy-that's-not-so-much-comedy-as-soft-core, Hank finds himself in jail after an embarrassing altercation with the director who made his book into the loathed movie -- a scene in which I actually found myself praying that the trend of opening each episode with a ridiculous dream scene was continuing, only to find myself sadly convinced that yes, this was actually happening. (There's a dream bit later, of course, brief and Ally McBeal-esque, which isn't necessarily a good thing.) Hank then proceeds to seduce Meredith, the unfortunate victim of his blind-date etiquette from the pilot, after a (hopefully) heart-felt apology. He even seems to fall for her, and by the end of the episode it's decided that they are "maybe, possibly" dating.

Meredith is an attorney, who's been sleeping with a married man for the past five years. She's quite pissed at Hank when she runs into him, but forgives him far too easily and even seems to be falling for him in return. I like the way her character's being handled: she is smart and beautiful and outwardly acts rather tough, which explains why Hank falls for her... but has low self-esteem and is continually ready to excuse members of the opposite sex for their poor behavior, which explains her liking Hank.

But other than the introduction of a character I can actually root for, in this episode there's a titty-twisting scene that, I'm sorry, exposes a childishness in Hank that goes well beyond unattractive and into the realm of the pathological; there's a wrap-up blog entry by Hank that ditches last week's self-satisfied rant on pubic hair and Hank's prowess in the sack for an overwritten, sappy meditation on fatherhood that's even worse; and there's a really weird side plot with Hank's agent and his hot, masochistic assistant that I don't really care to summarize because it managed to be both extreme and still somehow boring.

Not enough scenes with the daughter, too many ridiculous actions by Hank, not enough jokes. This episode was a definite fall-off for Californication in terms of snappiness and watchability. I've referred to it as "brain candy" but this time it felt kind of like brain poison.

In Summary: I hate dropping shows after I've picked them up, but my goodwill for Californication is slowly eroding.

Related Posts
8/16/07: Californication Review -- 1x01, "Pilot"
8/23/07: Californication Review -- 1x02, "Hell-A Woman"