What I’m Watching: Californication

Californication: Season 3, Episode 4 “Zoso” (B+)

It’s incredible how Hank manages to seduce even more women every single episode. His repeated conversations in this episode with both Felicia and Jill where he started with “you’re not preggers, are you?” were pretty hilarious, as were their different responses (“we just kissed” and “I thought you said you got a vasectomy”). Embeth Davidtz and Diane Farr are wonderfully charming actresses who are able to project confidence while still falling for the rather subdued charms of one Hank Moody. Throwing tease Jackie into the mix makes it up for debate which of these three women is actually the most dangerous jailbait. I imagine that once Dean Koons finds out about Felicia’s indiscretion with Hank, he’ll go absolutely insane with rage and take it out on the promiscuous professor. Regardless of what ultimately happens, the final scene of this episode was fantastic: all three women, hardly interested in the subject material, coming in to his classroom with their legs suggestively crossed, and his scribbled expletive response on the whiteboard. It’s so strange, though normative by this point on this show, that the lives of the adults and children are so interchangeably linked that Felicia can come over to take Becca shopping and think about kissing Hank with her daughter (and his) in the next room. Hank’s loving conversations with Karen continue to be wonderful, and hopefully the lovely Natasha McElhone will come visit California one of these days. Charlie and Marcy’s relationship is becoming even more depraved than usual, but at least they’re sleeping together again and hopefully rebuilding that home they just can’t seem to sell.