I Dream of Californication…

The second series of Californication has just started on Fiver, and judging from the first two episodes, it hasn’t lost its touch.

The drama stars David Duchovny (looking good for someone who’s nearly 50!) as Hank Moody, a troubled writer and sex addict. Part of Hank’s appeal is that, despite his promiscuous lifestyle, he’s trying to be a good father to daughter Becca and is also still hopelessly in love with his babymomma Karen (sorry, thought I’d get with the US lingo). Of course, playing a sex addict must be very hard for Duchovny, so much so he’s taken to method acting *cough cough*. But in all seriousness, he really does play the part convincingly. I don’t ever catch myself thinking “that’s Mulder from The X Files”.

Warning: this paragraph contains spoilers (sort of)! Lots of juicy storylines are coming up in the second series, so it should successfully get over the pressure of being the ‘difficult second album’. It starts with Karen and Hank reconciling, but don’t expect things to run smoothly for them – it never did before so why would it now? So expect the Hank-Karen on/off saga to run and run (much like the Ross-Rachel saga in Friends). Plus, Hank’s agent Charlie goes from sleazy to sleazier and…there’s even a death!

With a third series also greenlit, it looks like Californication fans will have plenty more drama from our loveable rogue to look forward to. Unlike Hank, the creators haven’t suffered from writer’s block!