⭐8.3
Description: Hank Moody- a self loathing, narcissistic author struggles to overcome writer’s block while balancing his occasional drug use, alcoholism, and borderline sex addiction all the while trying to get back together with his girlfriend and raise his teenage daughter.
Creator: Tom Kapinos
Stars: David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Evan Handler
Taglines: Hank Moody… No man is more committed to a midlife crisis.
Trivia
- In Australia there was a backlash from conservative groups who opposed the explicit nature of the program. Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt criticised the program in the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun for the pilot’s opening dream scene, in which a nun performs oral sex on Hank Moody in a church.
- White Famous (2017), a TV series that premiered in October 2017 and was co-created by Californication’s creator Tom Kapinos, features some secondary characters first introduced on Californication, such as Stu Beggs (played by Stephen Tobolowsky) and Kali (played by Meagan Good).
- Red Hot Chili Peppers filed a lawsuit on November 19, 2007 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”. Showtime Networks argued that the band did not in fact create the term Californication. They point out that the term appeared in print in Time magazine in 1972, while show producer Tom Kapinos cites the inspiration as coming from a bumper sticker he saw in the ’70s that read “Don’t Californicate Oregon”. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
- The show and the 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 (2005).
- David Duchovny didn’t want to work on television anymore. Exhausted after his experience on The X-Files (1993), he said he agreed to this show because he liked the relationship between his character (Hank Moody) and Becca, played by Madeleine Martin.
- The Australian Christian Lobby’s managing director Jim Wallace 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 Sonja smoke marijuana, have sex, and vomit.
- Season 3 steadily gained viewership, and the show was quickly picked up for a fourth season by Showtime.
- The names of Hank Moody’s books (“South of Heaven”, “Seasons in the Abyss”, and “God Hates Us All”) are all names of albums by the metal band Slayer.