Californication

I feel like the return of Mia was, well, a last minute resort in terms of story development. And I, as a Swede, couldn't engage emotionally due to a different legal system. I simply can't understand the deal about Hank sleeping with Mia. In Sweden the lawful age is 15, not 18 as it is in several US. states. And also, Hank didn't know her age making all the drama rediculous. No intent, then there shouldn't be statutory rape either. The intended climax, when we see Karen's reaction and Hank's fall to the sound of "Rocket Man", fails because of this. Come on, he didn't murder someone - he had consensual intercourse, though with an underage girl, but still unaware of her illegal age. There's, simply put, no drama to it. It's just stupid and I feel that Hank is the actual victim, first getting seduced, then manipulated and threatened on several occations by Mia - and robbed on his first novel he's written in many years. I really hope that's the direction they take on the next season. Hank's not the criminal to be put behind bars, it's Mia.

Californication's season three finale is fairly mediocre, but the ending featuring a magnificently-done video montage to Elton John's "Rocket Man" that needs to be seen to do it justice, as I cannot with simple words. That was one of the best things I have ever seen this show do, proving it is more than just a comedy about a playa'.



That being said, the rest of this installment was forgettable. Why bring back Mia now? Why have Hank Moody snap over her, and not his wife, or his daughter, when Dean Koonz continued to press him about it. Did not buy that unnecessary, bloody outburst.



This episode did provide some closure, as well as open some new doors, so from that standpoint I suppose it was a success, but I can also argue that I found it odd that the season finale was the least funny episode of the year.

Californication has a habit of being understating the drama in situations until the season finales. But this season finale hit home just fine as Mia comes back into town and her manager/boyfriend wants to expose the real story behind her(Hank's) book. This leads to an explosive confrontation between the two and the boyfriend promises to call the cops on him. He tells Karen in a "Rocketman" narrated scene and the police have to physically force him off from trying to comfort her. Now that his biggest secret is out and Karen will most likely never speak to him again and Hank being carted off to jail for assault on manager man or the statutory rape thing remains to be seen. But this ended the game quite even with the plot of Charlie thinking that he and Marcy might get back together and then finds the divorce papers signed was heartbreaking. Can't wait for season 4 and the new direction that will have to be taken. California we hardly knew ya!

It's amazing how a show can go from a 5.5 to a 9.0 in an episode. Writing-wise, you wouldn't think "Comings and Goings" and "Mia Culpa" were part of the same show. Even scenes like Runkle coming downstairs in the morning with a spring in his step only to see Marcy's signed divorce papers was shot and edited nicely, whereas if it happened in an average Season 3 episode it would've felt slapdash. Not that I haven't enjoyed Season 3, I've had a blast with it actually, but I have noticed a slight decline in story-telling to make way for gimmicks. Mia's back. I still think she's limited acting-wise and fails on line delivery on occasion but I didn't mind her, maybe even liked her. She seemed genuine in her last scene with Hank. Collini - IN. Thank God she's back, she was too precious to leave. Maybe the writers heard my cries? I hope she doesn't drop off the face of the show next Season as I've witnessed in the past (Bill and Damien). Hank's dreams were creepy, a real turnaround to the light and comical goings-on this Season, but they symbolized his deteriorating mood in the episode nicely. It was strange and sad seeing Hank like this. I'm guessing this is the direction the show will take next Season. The comeuppance and breakdown of Hank Moody. The writers are really experimenting here.



I think if there's any flaw in the episode it's that Karen's reaction might've been a tad overdramatized for the sake of the last scene. She barely had a reaction when she found out he was sleeping with half of campus, but she ran out into the street screaming when he told her about an accident that happened 3 years ago when she was engaged to someone else at the time. Shout a bit, look disappointed and disgusted then leave, then maybe wipe a tear away, but what happened in the show was OTT. Overall they set up for the next Season nicely and produced possibly the best Finale of the show (what a nice book end to the Season 1 Finale btw).



I'm looking forward to all of the story lines: Becca's possible sex life

Runkle and Marcy's divorce

Runke's possible yearn for children

Runkle and Sue's relationship

Sue's memoirs (LOL)

Karen and Becca's reaction to Hank

and of course Hank's comeuppance and breakdown.



Can't believe I'll have to wait almost a year after watching all three Season's in less than a month ahhhh.

Well, another season of Californication has come and gone, and seeing Hank Moody finally hit rock bottom was a saddening scene. About midway through the episode, you could almost see the gears in Hank's head turning, contemplating whether or not he should keep the secret between him and Karen going on or whether or not he loved her enough to actually risk their relationship and come clean about the whole thing. While I don't find this season to be the best of the show, it certainly had the best finale of the bunch. They really screwed up tying up Charlie and Marcie's storyline, but as far as Mia's reappearance on the show.. man, it really helped lead to seeing Hank at his most vulnerable.


David Duchovney was on his game. He seemed more burnt out than usual, and his usual humor was gone in placement of pure anger and frustration at being caught in this situation with Mia once again. The steps the episode took to reach the point where "Rocket Man" finally started kicking in as he admitted the whole thing to Karen.. superb job.



As I said before, the Charlie and Marcie storyline was just kind of left hanging. We were introduced to a possible storyline involving Sue Callini's memoirs being published, but I sort of hope this is her last appearance.. she was funny while she was around, but there's only so much of a sexed-out-of-her-mind agent I can take that looks like she's had about twenty bouts of plastic surgery. Let's focus more on the awkward and strange relationship between Charlie and Marcie.



Overall, this was a pretty good finale, and in my eyes, the best of the bunch so far. It really leaves us hanging, wondering how Hank is going to rebound from the reveal of what is still by far the most inexcusable thing he's done. Two good Showtime shows aired with finales tonight, and both came through in the end, tying up their respective storylines while leaving us ready for more.

The third season of Californication started as a mellow, no-brainer teaching sexercise that promised conflicts and good looking girls with some booze to numb the general feeling of elusiveness. Even the newly acquired adolescent traits of Hank's daughter Becca was a short lived subplot that could well have lead to an interesting relationship with her new best friend Chelsea, but that just wasn't in the cards, was it. Somewhere in the middle of the season, when the new/old washed out rock star (no, we are not talking about the second season) arrived to burden Charlie Runkle's days with a prospect of loosing his Marcy-pan forever, the general feeling at the end of each episode could only be described with the words: utter chaos. As if the writers in one of their sessions just decided to "go with the flow...wherever the hell it takes them". The episodes kept piling up and it appeared as if nothing had been moving forward. No clear storyline, no clear direction, with a prospect of a similarly mellow yet strangely normal ending. Boy, were we wrong.

Even the tenth episode could not prepare us for the roller coaster that would ensue. The penultimate episode of the series tied all of loose knots, addressed every major and minor issue, put back characters in their places, swept up all the empty bottles and coke from the floors and then applied an air freshener in the form of Karen van der Beek, Hank's significant other, whose touch turned every scandalous thought to a pure harmonious Xanadu and brought enlightenment where complete madness and incoherence lived before. The Moodys were saved, dignified, and could carry on to meet their new life in New York City. But, that also, wasn't in the cards. The last episode was a small Greek tragedy in itself. Playing with symbols and conundrums, hints and subconscious demons, it presented us with a catalyst, an ultimate angel of darkness in the form of Mia - the only real grim reaper that could hurt the endless optimism and boyish charm of Hank Moody. Up until that point, Hank has never been in any real danger - but this was a slow moving train that was bound to hit someday. Hank very well knew that, and so did we. And it did hit. Elton John's Rocket Man was a cruel but somehow decent soundtrack to Hank's own fall into the abyss, as he came clean and confessed to Karen what he had done all those seasons ago. He stared into the abyss and the abyss kept staring at him, until dungeon keepers came to take him away, leaving Karen and Becca crying in the street, hurt and alone. What a season this has been. Somehow, all the plot strings, all the swerves and swaggers finally made sense then and there, in this defining moment of Hank Moody's life. I can only hope that the next one lives up to it, because this divine tragedy has set the bar high. Very high indeed.

The season finale kinda let me think: will there be a fourth season or not? If there will be a fourth season, will there be the same Hank Moody or a modified, settled down version of it?

I just hope that they will not make it "Season 4 - Prison Edition".

Hopefully, the show will continue and, in my personal opinion, without Mia... she's just so annoying!

Of course, the ending left the question: what of Hank's family? Will the ex/future/ex wife still be there or she'll be an episodic appearance, as Hank's conscience?

In any case, the episode did its job: presented a whole new area of future outcomes, left me wanting to see more and offered another taste of Moody-ness.