Californication - OMG

Well I could say that I've seen everything, but that would not be true. If the word prude had a picture under the definition, it would be mine. I admit it. There are plenty of things I would not see, read and most importantly do. Most of those are done with great regularity on the show Californication. At least I assume those are simulated depictions of sex acts.

Why did this show receive a golden globe? Well for one thing once you get past the shock value of the seemingly raw sex, there is a morality tale. Ok so its like a really rauchy soap opera, but perhaps that is what a morality tale needs to be these days. It's an interesting story.

There's a guy Hank Moody who has a heart, in the sense that he is a good man deep inside. His outside persona is that of a creep who uses and discards women because the one he loves got tired of him taking her for granted and tried to move on with her life. That this didn't quite happen is the gist of the tale.
Hank says he loves women. He loves to have carnal knowledge of the women silly enough to allow it. One of the funnier episodes, and that does not happen often, deals with the aftermath of a tryst with a actual sex-worker who has a violent pimp. Oh that was as a result of Hank's reaction the death of his father, the womanizer. Yet he cannot or does not see that he does the same thing.

Maybe Californication is called a comedy because of the absurd things that happen, like the fight over the last box of tampons in a convenience store on the way to the wedding. Don't ask.

Luck would have it that I've seen enough horror movies not to be easily grossed out by the sight of people vomiting on gross art. Seen enough silly capers to suspend disbelief at dog napping and theft. To say that the "hero" is amoral is going too far. He has morals, I think. Perhaps he disapproves of plagiarism but that seems relative. Everything seems relative with him.

He cannot seem to get his life together. And I don't know why I care, but I do.

Why I love the XFiles but Hate IWTB

Let's be clear. I've loved the XFiles series since 1993. I've seen the new movie and five days later I'm still pissed. After looking at some of the verbiage on the net I gather that those fans who are unhappy are thought to be 'blockbuster mesmerized’ blockheads who just don't understand the subtlety of the writing.

I'm sure. The episode "Badlaa" from season eight also known as the 'butt genie' was another brilliant piece of stealth writing too.

Was I expecting super heroes, explosions, aliens? Nope. I'd heard it was to be a stand-alone MOTW. Perhaps someone should have said 'Frankenstein-serial killer lite' set in a kennel with Russian language thrown in for...what? No discernible reason. I understand some Russian so I had something to occupy my time.

As for the characters, well...all of the original actors look great. The two new FBI agents were just fodder and should have been wearing signs saying 'expendable-pay no attention'. Hmmm was Amanda Peet wearing red like the fall guys in the original Star Trek series? Or was she there to collate the anger of the 'shippers' for her interest in Mulder? Oh my goodness like Diana Fowley...Peet’s character had to die!
The reason I'm not a 'shipper' is probably the reason I stopped watching soaps. I disliked the emotional manipulation by a group of people deciding what women wanted to see. The Xfiles attracted me in the beginning. At first there was something novel about two good looking people working together, who were not fawning over each other. Who actually had separate lives beyond chasing paranormal cases. Then there was also the Sherlock Holmes/Dr Watson pairing without the buffoonery. In this case Dr. Watson was a young intelligent professional woman. Well, all that changed. Sigh. Towards the end Scully went chasing around the country after her 'baby's daddy' (how mortifying was that?) and ends by giving her long prayed for child up for adoption. And this child's adoption is alluded to in the movie. Cry me an ocean.

And let us not forget Scully's crises of faith as a doctor. Well that was a leap from pathology to pediatric brain surgery. No wonder she was looking for signs and wonders ( season 7).
I love actors like Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens' (1-4) and Diana Rigg or some of the much older favorites like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Norma Shearer etc. Women who could carry a movie alone. Anderson doesn't measure up, and CC cannot force that.
And what the heck happened to my beloved favorite Mulder? He's been tamed, declawed, defanged and castrated. His best line was something like 'I'm ignoring you." ? Is he living with his girlfriend and driving around in her car? Does he not have a job or is his job clipping magazine articles at home?

So I'm sitting in the theater trying to see my watch face and saying it's got to end soon. The saving grace, if there was one, was Mitch Pileggi and the seemingly tacked on contrived rescue. Maybe that was too subtle for me. But I stayed to the very end...to see the rowboat. Geez Louise. More subtlety....