Californication

Californication (2007) 

Yes, David Duchovny is decent, Natascha McElhone is decent, the direction is decent, the script is within what the series wants to be, and is very well written. But in order to enjoy something like this, you have to have some connection with its characters, and I haven't had such an unpleasant feeling while watching Californication in a long time. I like imperfect characters and I can tolerate a fair amount of cynicism, vulgarity, or deviations from film characters. I enjoy movies by Guy Ritchie or The Simpsons. I really liked the series Huff, which is somewhat similar, but Californication crossed the imaginary line of acceptability and where it clearly aims to entertain, it rather evokes sadness or disgust in me. It's about people who obviously don't know how to live and will never learn. It creates an impression of a hopeless community of people who believe that life can somehow be stumbled through, who are not familiar with the word responsibility, and who have clearly never encountered real problems in their lives. As is typical for American productions, the series takes place in an environment of the upper middle class, which has no existential worries and sees the world as one long carnival. It could have been a critical exploration of modern consumer society if it weren't for the obvious aim to entertain and deliver one-liners. Californication is not as dumb as it may seem at first glance, but it is far from being as clever as many of its fans think. Its main weapon and draw for viewers is cynicism and sexism, but in such a dosage that it evokes a defensive reaction in me. Luckily, real life doesn't work like that, or maybe only at swinger parties. Californication does have something to offer, but I don't understand its world and I would probably look forward to a quarterly math exam more than a new episode of this. Overall impression: 45%. (21/03/2010)