Californication: The Final Season

This Showtime original series spent seven years playing with the stereotype of the brilliant artist who defies all sense of social propriety and personal responsibility in a self-absorbed bender that the show passes off as creative rebellion. Acclaimed New York novelist Hank Moody (David Duchovny) moved to Los Angeles and slipped into a life of sex, drugs, and self-destructive choices when he was left by the love of his life, Karen (Natascha McElhone). The final season tries to give Hank an opportunity at redemption: introducing a grown son that he never knew about (from a romance before he met Karen), and getting him a job on the writing staff of a bad TV cop show. Meanwhile, Hank and Karen's best friends, Charlie and Marcy (Evan Handler and Pamela Adlon), are back together and struggling with their complicated sex lives. Michael Imperioli guest stars as Rick Rath, the TV executive who hires Hank; Oliver Cooper is Hank's needy, immature, socially awkward son, Levon; and Heather Graham is Levon's devoted, still-single mother, Julia. Duchovny's cheeky charm still makes the show watchable, but especially here at the end the series offers little value as either social satire or a portrait of artists in a commercial culture. Compiling all 12 episodes from the 2014 seventh and last season, this is optional, at best. (S. Axmaker)