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List Price: $42.99 | | Label: Showtime / Paramount
Salesrank: 648
Released: August 25, 2009 |
| Our Price: $18.89 |
| Used Price: $17.98 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Sophisticated and unique, this comedy centers on novelist Hank Moody (David Duchovny) who struggles to raise his teenage daughter with his on-again/off-again girlfriend in Southern California. His obsession with truth-telling and self destructive behavior -- drinks, drugs, and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching to his career.
Description of Californication : The Complete Second Season:
When we last left transplanted New Yorker and "debauched moralist" Hank Moody (David Duchovny), he was reunited with his ex-girlfriend and runaway bride Karen (Natascha McElhone) and his beloved daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin). Sounds like the makings of a happy-ever-after ending, but Hank's life is no fairy tale. Or maybe it is. Though a total screw-up, he remains irresistible to a bevy of women who throw themselves at him, from the nurse participating in his vasectomy to an A-list prostitute ("You really got under my skin, Hank Moody"). The new Hank is determined to make grown-up and responsible decisions, but before the dust has settled on the season opener, he once again finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong woman, albeit accidentally. No wonder Karen needs time to mull over his marriage proposal. Californication takes as jaundiced a view of Southern California hedonism as did the classic 1975 film Shampoo.
In season 2, fast-laner Lew Ashby (Callum Keith Rennie), a legendary music producer, recruits Hank to be his biographer. Hank's agent Charlie Runkle (Evan Handler) is fired from his agency and takes a fledgling female porn star under his wing. Charlie's wife Marcy (Pamela Adlon) becomes a coke fiend. Seventeen-year-old Mia (Madeline Zima) becomes a critics' darling when Hank's manuscript, which she stole in season 1, is published. Sonja (Paula Marshall) the Scientologist is pregnant and Hank may be the father. Duchovny's laid-back charm imbues Hank with what one character calls "infuriating magic." As the precocious Becca tells her mother, "You have to love him for who he is, not his potential." For all its explicit language and graphic sex, Californication is a compelling character study of a seriously flawed man-child. To quote a review of Mia/Hank's book, "It isn't about sex, but loneliness. It's hauntingly hopelessly romantic in the best sense of the word." Big ups! --Donald Liebenson
Californication : The Complete Second Season Reviews:
Californication DVD Season 2 
2009-11-05 - Californication is a highly entertaining, often raunchy series that is well-acted & cleverly scripted. I really enjoy the use of music on the soundtrack of this show as it greatly enhances its themes and atmosphere.
Just as Good as Season One
2009-10-28 - I watched the entire season yesterday in between reading a Dostoevsky novel, and I absolutely loved it. I accidentally came upon this show about a month ago when I got the entire first season for $2 at a used DVD store, and it instantly had me hooked. Yesterday I rented the second season and was not disappointed.
This season managed to be both hilarious and very sad. There were a couple of times during the season in which it was difficult to keep my eyes dry (such as during Hank's letter to Karen when they first got together, and of course Lew's over-dose right at the moment that he was to reunite with the one that got away). It was a great season with emotional depth and laugh-out-loud black humor. My only regret is that I don't have Showtime, and as such cannot watch the third season.
This series depicts what's wrong with the country 
2009-10-01 - The series showcases a bunch of self-centered degenerates who never seem to take responsibilty for their actions - which, of course, explains how our current affirmative action president was elected. The various characters depict coke fiends, borderline pediofiles and a man who takes zero responsibilty for his unborn child while engaging in drunk driving and doing drugs all while being a glib imbecile. In short it shows what's wrong with the country in general and Southern California in particular. It does have some funny moments.
Fingers crossed for Season 3
2009-09-28 - The only thing that kept me from giving the second season 4 stars was the writing for the supporting cast, namely Charlie and Marcy. For me, it felt like there was 2 shows...Hank's storyline, which I thought was excellent; and then the Charlie/Marcy show. I'm buying the DVD for the former, could do without the second.
I'm still totally sold on the series namely due to Duchovny. I thought the character development of Hank over the season was excellent (favorite episode was "In Utero"), and am anticipating what season 3 will be like Hank going back to school and taking care of Becca full-time. These are the two that have sold me on the series. I think their scenes together are stellar, and Hank remains flawed but likeable despite his poor choices. I even enjoyed rascal Lew Ashby and the potential for that character.
But where it fell apart for me was Charlie and Marcy. While it's downright criminal that Dani/Mia got away with "her book", I thought Charlie was a total idiot. He deserved to get canned from his job and his life just went down the hole after that. Marcy's storyline was just kind of sad, but I'm hopeful for her recovery in the next season. I hope the writers can get these two back on track, even if apart, watching the trainwreck of their lives is not funny, but more pitiful and sad. They made Hank look like he had his life together, which is saying a lot!
MUST BUY
2009-09-16 - Hank and Charlie Runkle in Season two.
A MUST have for any real TV series aficionado!
TV does not come any funnier than this
ORDER NOW!
