Californication: Season 3
Tuesday, 31 May 2011 02:31
Movies - Blu-ray and DVD Releases
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After two seasons watching sexaddicted, self-loathing, anti-hero writer Hank Moody wallow in his own (often self-inflicted) misery, this third season of Californication is a breath of fresh air. That’s thanks to a genius move by the writers to drop Moody into a campus environment as a figure of authority – the rub being that he’s the last person you want anywhere near nubile young students.
Californication is clearly David Duchovny’s show and Moody might seem like an easy role for him: during 2008 Duchovny checked himself into a rehabilitation facility for sex addiction; life imitating art, or was it merely research? However, his character cannot exist in isolation. Natascha McElhone appears occasionally as Moody’s on and off partner, although their daughter gets sidelined this year.
The comic double act of Charlie (the superb Evan Handler) and Marcy Runkle (spicy Pamela Adlon) is still intact, though, with Charlie having to cater (in more ways than one) to his rapacious boss (Kathleen Turner). The new setting also provides plenty of new characters. Peter Gallagher’s Hank and Karen were thrilled when the ambassador brought out the Ferrero Rocher.
Buttoned-up college Dean, Stacy Koons, sparks off Moody’s, well, moody writer, while the lead character’s romantic conquests include a stripper student, a repressed teaching assistant and even the Dean’s wayward wife (Embeth Davidtz). Singer Rick Springfield also pops up as himself, a casting choice that either pleases or annoys depending on where you stand in relation to the man and his music.
The standout episode is ‘The Apartment’, which sees all the major characters come together (no, not like that) at Moody’s flat in a frenzied farce of slamming doors and flaming beds. It won’t surprise regular viewers that the final episode suggests happiness and contentment have once again escaped Moody’s faltering grasp.
Campus Tour aside (a lame text quiz thing), the 40 minutes of extras on the third disc are the usual ‘Making Of’ material, with one notable exception. There’s six minutes on music, seven minutes on casting, five minutes on Rick Springfield and eight minutes on the other guest actors. That’s all standard stuff, but Adlon’s contributions as “dirty” Marcy are what liven things up.
Her two video diaries offer six minutes of anal beads, vagina torches and swear word replacements, while ‘Marcy’s Pyjama Party’ sees Adlon and four LA divorcees frankly discuss sex and dating. It’s the closest thing to the tone of the show itself: short, scatological, but very funny.
Californication: The Third Season
 42 New from $13.63 18 Used from $13.60 as of 06/19/2013 0:08 MST details Technical Details Add To Baby Registry Add To Wedding Registry Add To Wishlist Tell A Friend All Customer Reviews All Offers | Actor: David Duchovny Actor: Natascha McElhone Actor: Madeleine Martin Actor: Evan Handler Actor: Pamela Adlon AspectRatio: 2.35:1 AudienceRating: Unrated Binding: DVD Brand: Paramount Creator: Tom Kapinos Director: Adam Bernstein EAN: 0097368957244 EANList: Format: AC-3 Format: Color Format: Dolby Format: Dubbed Format: NTSC Format: Subtitled Format: Widescreen IsAdultProduct: 0 IsAutographed: 0 IsEligibleForTradeIn: 1 IsMemorabilia: 0 ItemDimensions: Label: Showtime / Paramount Languages: ListPrice: Manufacturer: Showtime / Paramount Model: STHE895724DVD MPN: PARD895724D NumberOfDiscs: 2 PackageDimensions: PackageQuantity: 1 PartNumber: PARD895724D ProductGroup: DVD ProductTypeName: ABIS_DVD Publisher: Showtime / Paramount RegionCode: 1 ReleaseDate: 2010-11-09 RunningTime: 28 SKU: D57838 Studio: Showtime / Paramount Title: Californication: The Third Season TradeInValue: UPC: 097368957244 UPCList: |
Product Description Sophisticated and unique, this comedy centers on novelist Hank Moody (David Duchovny) who struggles to raise his 13-year-old daughter, while still carrying a torch for his ex-girlfriend. His obsession with truth-telling and self destructive behavior -- drinks drugs and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching to his career. Amazon.com Through two seasons of Californication, "brilliant train wreck" and blocked author Hank Moody (David Duchovny, a previous Golden Globe winner and nominated again for this season) seemed pretty much unstoppable. But by the end of season 3, Hank might finally have to answer for his sins, and Hank keeps devising novel ways to sin, which makes him as infuriating a protagonist who has ever graced a TV series. "You're such a mess and you cause such chaos," one of his lovers tells him in the wake of an affair that has helped wreck a marriage, "but I wouldn't change anything." Say one thing for Hank's women: they are gracious to a fault. This season adds another tumultuous chapter to Hank's saga. After unwittingly pushing a celebrated writer and college professor off the wagon, Hank assumes his position at the university under--get this--Dean Koons (Peter Gallagher), and, predictably, proves to be an impolitic educator. Early on he discourages one idolizing student with near fatal results. As the season progresses, he will also indulge in extracurricular activities with a student and an emotionally vulnerable TA (Diane Farr). The limbo that is his home life is beginning to impact on his sardonic daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin), paving the way for the return of Karen (Natascha McElhone), who suggests the three return to New York. Meanwhile, Charlie and Marcie Runkle (Evan Handler and Pamela Adlon), now separated, are forced by the slumping housing market to share their house while their divorce is pending. Hilarity and much sex ensue. Making memorable impressions this season are Embeth Davidtz as the Dean's conquestable wife, Kathleen Turner as Charlie's foul-mouthed and sexually aggressive new boss, and Rick Springfield as a deranged incarnation of himself, who gets it on with Runkle's girl. Madeline Zima makes a fateful return as Mia, who stole Hank's book back in season 1. Her plan to tell all could shatter Hank's dysfunctional family for good. Extras include a blooper reel and a "Marcie's Pajama Party" segment in which Aldon dishes with LA divorcees, along with two season 4 episodes of The Tudors. --Donald Liebenson | |
Californication : The Complete Second Season
 46 New from $14.59 34 Used from $7.40 1 Collectible from $39.99 as of 06/19/2013 0:08 MST details Technical Details Add To Baby Registry Add To Wedding Registry Add To Wishlist Tell A Friend All Customer Reviews All Offers | Actor: David Duchovny Actor: Natascha McElhone Actor: Madeleine Martin Actor: Evan Handler Actor: Pamela Adlon AspectRatio: 2.35:1 AudienceRating: Unrated Binding: DVD Brand: DUCHOVNY,DAVID Director: David Duchovny Director: Adam Bernstein Director: Bart Freundlich Director: Daniel Ducovny Director: David Von Ancken EAN: 0097368940642 EANList: Format: AC-3 Format: Color Format: Dolby Format: Dubbed Format: NTSC Format: Widescreen IsAdultProduct: 0 IsAutographed: 0 IsEligibleForTradeIn: 1 IsMemorabilia: 0 ItemDimensions: Label: Showtime / Paramount Languages: ListPrice: Manufacturer: Showtime / Paramount Model: STHE894064DVD MPN: PARD894064D NumberOfDiscs: 2 PackageDimensions: PackageQuantity: 1 PartNumber: PARD894064D ProductGroup: DVD ProductTypeName: ABIS_DVD Publisher: Showtime / Paramount RegionCode: 1 ReleaseDate: 2009-08-25 RunningTime: 336 SKU: 8A-K09N-7NC9 Studio: Showtime / Paramount Title: Californication : The Complete Second Season TradeInValue: UPC: 097368940642 UPCList: |
Product Description 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. Amazon.com 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 First Season
 46 New from $10.97 42 Used from $5.27 2 Collectible from $39.99 as of 06/19/2013 0:08 MST details Technical Details Add To Baby Registry Add To Wedding Registry Add To Wishlist Tell A Friend All Customer Reviews All Offers | Actor: David Duchovny Actor: Natascha McElhone Actor: Evan Handler Actor: Madeleine Martin Actor: Madeline Zima AspectRatio: 1.78:1 AudienceRating: Unrated Binding: DVD Brand: CALIFORNICATION Creator: Tom Kapinos Creator: Tom Kapinos Director: John Dahl Director: Stephen Hopkins Director: Ken Whittingham Director: Scott Winant Director: Bart Freundlich EAN: 0097368920941 EANList: Format: AC-3 Format: Color Format: Dolby Format: NTSC IsAdultProduct: 0 IsAutographed: 0 IsEligibleForTradeIn: 1 IsMemorabilia: 0 ItemDimensions: Label: Paramount Languages: ListPrice: Manufacturer: Paramount Model: STHE892094DVD MPN: PAR892094DD NumberOfDiscs: 2 NumberOfItems: 1 PackageDimensions: PackageQuantity: 1 PartNumber: PAR892094DD ProductGroup: DVD ProductTypeName: ABIS_DVD Publisher: Paramount RegionCode: 1 ReleaseDate: 2008-06-17 RunningTime: 340 SKU: 0097368920941_ln Studio: Paramount Title: Californication - The First Season TradeInValue: UPC: 097368920941 UPCList: |
Product Description Sophisticated and unique, this comedy centers on novelist Hank Moody (David Duchovny) who struggles to raise his 13-year-old daughter, while still carrying a torch for his ex-girlfriend. His obsession with truth-telling and self destructive behavior -- drinks drugs and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching to his career. Amazon.com "You can’t always get what you want." The Rolling Stones may have said it best, and it seems to be writer Hank Moody’s theme song. David Duchovny (X Files) was born to play this sly, sarcastic, self-loathing, and--despite all the meaningless sex, booze, and fist fights--kind character. Writer Moody hates the Los Angeles world he lives in; a world that turned his sharp best-seller into a cheesy date movie, where his young daughter and should-have-been wife (Natascha McElhone) are slipping away into the hands of a rich play-it-safe guy, and where everything he truly wants seems just out of his reach. But the man hasn’t lost all hope. "Happy endings may get a bad rap, but they do happen," he assures his daughter. "And when they do, they’re just as true as the unhappy ones." One can’t help but hope Hank finds his happy ending, because it's with his family that his soft side surfaces. Hank takes no shame in trying to woo back his "wife" Karen, even if it is in front of her new fiancé. He knows he’s meant to be with her--plain and simple--and there’s a glint in her eye that always makes you wonder if she’s really thinking the same thing. And his daughter Becca? Well, any guy would melt against this guitar-wielding cutie (played by the adorable Madeleine Martin), but Hank really captures the "I’ll kick a lot of ass for my daughter" mentality that so many dads harbor. He’s also fully prepared to drop a gorgeous woman at a moment’s notice to heed his daughter’s call.The rest of the cast, including Evan Handler (Sex and the City) and Pamela Adlon (Lucky Louie), provide some surprisingly interesting and hilarious side stories. Just when it seems situations in this show can’t get any more ludicrous or disgusting, they most certainly do. That’s the beauty of it. Californication is a dark, coarse, edgy adult comedy. It’s also very real, and quite intelligent. --Jordan Thompson | |
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Preview :
Californication: Season 3
After two seasons watching sexaddicted, self-loathing, anti-hero writer Hank Moody wallow in his own (often self-inflicted) misery, this third season of Californication is a breath of fresh air....
After two seasons watching sexaddicted, self-loathing, anti-hero writer Hank Moody wallow in his own (often self-inflicted) misery, this third season of Californication is a breath of fresh air....
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