Wednesday, January 26, 2011

What I’m Watching: Californication

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

There’s something that sets Karen apart from the long-suffering spouses of so many other philandering, unchangeable playboys, and seeing her show some much uncontrolled affection for Hank followed by such untempered fury makes for a fascinating character study. Natasha McElhone is absolutely the perfect person to play this part, and she was wonderful in this installment. This episode also showcases much more of Becca than we’ve seen in a while, and I’m glad that the show will once again be taking an active interest in her personal life. She’s one tough cookie, and it’s no surprise that she ran after the punk girls who tried to steal her earnings, though it’s a shame that she got her guitar and her amp stolen in the process. Her conversation with Hank was especially powerful, and I didn’t expect her to call Karen in and force Hank to admit to her that he wasn’t in fact trying to kill himself. It was a bit peculiar to see the usually effeminate Stephen Tobolowsky as a rather aggressive love (or rather, sex) interest for Marcy, and I enjoyed how he preemptively set Charlie up with a DTF woman so that he wouldn’t be angry at him for trying to sleep with his wife. Pamela Adlon was on her game in this episode in that one magnificent scene, and Evan Handler also did a spectacular job of handling the comedy in the scene where his partner wasn’t quite as into the action as he seemed to be.

No comments: