Though we probably no longer tune in for the drama, Californication is still entertaining. Regardless, it was that breather we needed, a diversion from the tired storyline of Hank and Karen that has been fed to us in different ways through six seasons, some more satisfying than others. It maybe wasn’t as believable, given Faith’s history of roaming from tour bus to tour bus, or substantial, with Hank giving her up fairly easily, as it should have been. She was the only woman in the show’s run to give Hank a real shot at a life beyond Karen. We’ve been conditioned that way.įaith wasn’t as much the problem with season six as was she the attempt to be the solution. Even when Lew Ashby returns to offer the honest truths of a fantasy afterlife, we knew what road the show would go down 28 minutes later. He lays it on the line in the final episode, claiming that in many ways Faith is perfect for him. We’ve been trained to understand the psyche of Hank Moody. The years of Hank knowing exactly what he wanted only to mess it up and make him want it more took its toll on us. If it was Kapinos’ intent to make us feel as though they could find happiness together, then he did Duchovny and his incredible acting a disservice by putting him in a role in which he was unable to deliver. There was no denying that Hank and Faith had a sizzling relationship, but I’m still not sure I ever bought into the idea that they could end up together as was implied throughout the season. Even when we got an episode detailing her past, it felt unsatisfying. Early on it was obvious that Faith lacked depth. įaith had plenty of flaws for a character that was more or less the focal point of the majority of the episodes this season. I’ll try and weed out the bias as best I can, since my knees clearly buckled at the very sight of Faith. She was charming, she played hard-to-get, she held Hank’s attention for more than an evening and most importantly she was everything that Karen was, is, and could be. Show creator and writer Tom Kapinos delivered us former Lost star Maggie Grace as Faith. Hank rotting away in rehab was maybe necessary for saving his life but it wasn’t going to help revive his writing career. This is where the opportunity for fun entered. So as the opening minutes of the season six finale settle in, the always-brash Lew Ashby is in Hank’s dream to pose the question that the show has toyed around with all season: “What if the one you think is really the one is not the one?”Įarly in season six we found out that Hank needed something to rip him out of the funk that his psychotic ex-girlfriend Carrie created. In all but one season of Californication, the finale ends with a resolution or a cliffhanger to Hank and Karen’s relationship. Before I digress too far from the point, Lew Ashby returns to give Hank some much needed perspective on his chapter of the tale of two women. I would go as far as to say that Duchovny and Rennie have the best on-screen chemistry of any two characters in the series, if you couldn’t tell by their bromance when the bad boys were teaming up in the second season to make Californication a keeper. Lew Ashby (played by Callum Keith Rennie) is the bartender and his continued posthumous presence on the show further proves that he should have never been killed off. In the season’s final episode “ I’ll Lay My Monsters Down”, Hank is having a drink in Hell again. Either way, Season Six wanted to give us some answers to the bigger picture of the series, albeit they did it more slowly than we are used to. Yet just as history tends to repeat itself, Californication gets caught up in a cycle of letting relationships crumble and heal, or maybe the correct cliché is ‘bend but not break’. Season six brought a little life to California after a heavy season five left us wondering if the show had made its peace and was ready to provide the closure it desperately wanted to find. They even threw us some Marilyn Manson for the hell of it. When you have to follow up a season loaded with plot twists, unsettling jealousy, and numerous complicated relationships changes as Season Five did, it is ok to have a little fun. It was the tall glass of beer that couldn’t be downed fast enough at the end of a long day. It was the guy in the cubicle next to you who took a sick day after the boss ripped him to shreds the day before. In many ways, S eason Six was a breather for Californication. As the brisk summer air rolls in and the sun focused its rays on painting my body a darker shade of white guy, Californication enters its hibernation, a hiatus until a seventh season that will undoubtedly take the show in a new direction. The beaches will open soon, bonfires will be lit, and long days and nights will be spent out on the road in pursuit of the getaways that break up the cold monotony that winter winds tend to blow in our faces.
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