David Duchovny plays Hank Moody, an author whose life is spinning out of control as he struggles to write more words. He is wrapped up in a world of sex, drugs, and alcohol. He still holds a candle for his ex-girlfriend Karen (Natascha McElhone) which he shares a a twelve year-old daughter, Becca (Madelene Martin). Karen is engaged to Bill, owner of Hell-A magazine which Hanks ends up writing a blog for. To make matter worse, Hank sleeps with Bill's 16 year-old daughter, Mia (Madeline Zima), before knowing who she is and her age. Thus begins more misadventures in hank's life as he tries to find a happy ending.

CALIFORNICATION is a series that Ifell in love with when I saw the pilot episode on the DVD release of THE TUDORS Season 1. David Duchovny makes Hank a likeable asshole who hates himself while being too hard on others. he beats himself up for his own past mistakes while failing to make up for them when it might be too late to change a few things. Evan handler is great as Hank's agent/ frind Charlie who gets into his own misadventures. Mia messes up Hank's life and I hope to see her back for season 2. The happy ending aspect of the season finale is something I wish was handled in season 2 instead. I wanted to see more of Hank dealing with what will he do since the events of most of the finale happened. That ending feels a little too pasted on at the last minute. The actors do the most with their characters while the writing is great and funny. It is the best comedy series I have seen since COUPLING.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
The first disc has an audio commentary for the pilot by series creator Tom Kapinos, Steve Hopkins, and star David Duchovny.

The second disc extras amount to a useless photo gallery and cast bios that don't feature the work the actors have coming out this year (like The X-Files 2 film Duchovny is in). The Ebridge technology feature is nowhere to be seen on the discs and I don't know why the set packaging even mentions it.

FINAL ANALYSIS: CALIFORNICATION is a very adult comedy that deftly mixes comedy with drawn and well-written characters. Can’t wait for season 2.

this DVD review is (c)6-9-2008 David Blackwell