Californication: The Sixth Season

The 2013 sixth season of the long-running Showtime series finds David Duchovny's Hank Moody waking up in a hospital after barely surviving a drug overdose that was secretly administered to him by an ex-girlfriend. And that is the most sedate thing to occur in this 12-episode set, which is mostly anchored around efforts by a rocker named Atticus Fetch (Tim Minchin) to turn Hank's novel into a Broadway rock opera. Hank does a brief rehab spell, falling (not surprisingly) for the most beautiful woman in the facility, and he later continues to mismanage his relationship with daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin) and lover Karen (Natascha McElhone). Meanwhile, Hank's agent, Charlie (Evan Handler), pretends to be gay in order to sign an up-and-coming gay actor as part of a deal to remake the 1980 film Cruising. The challenge of maintaining freshness is no mean feat, and the creative forces behind Californication have been losing that battle for at least the past two seasons. The plotting is convoluted, the subplot of Charlie pretending to be gay (his ruse is exposed when he cannot perform oral sex on his male client) is borderline offensive, and the main cast seem to be on autopilot (although guest appearances by Rob Lowe and Marilyn Manson offer some amusement). Not a necessary purchase. (P. Hall)