Sex, Drugs & 'Californication'

Californication
David Duchovny plays swinger Hank Moody on Showtime’s druggy comedy "Californication"

Season 6 of Californication started with Hank (David Duchovny) on a bender after an old girlfriend died in Season 5. An intervention led to his stay at a swanky retreat in Malibu, where his agent Charlie (Evan Handler) handed him a dime bag of marijuana. "Aren't you supposed to be supporting my sobriety?" Hank asked. "Weed don't count," Charlie replied.

Thus began the sixth season of Showtime's Californication - one that focused around the life of coke-sniffing rock star Atticus Finch (Tim Minchin) and Hank's relationship with Faith (Maggie Grace), a groupie he met hanging around Atticus.

In another pot sub-plot, Hank's ex, Karen (Nastascha McElhone), went to a job interview stoned and got the job anyway as an assistant to Atticus. And Stu (Stephen Toblowski) wooed Marcy (Pamela Adlon) with cash and a brick of weed.

Episode 7 starred Marilyn Manson as his drug-addled self and friend of Atticus'. "I'd be honored, if you did some narcotics with me," he told Hank. Manson then promptly snorted a line. (He returned in the final episode.)

An unabashed drug user and drinker, Hank nonetheless wanted to protect his daughter Becca (Madeline Martin) when she met Manson. Later in the episode (named after Manson's song, "The Dope Show"), Becca and Hank had it out.

Becca: "I don't see what the big deal is. You drank all the time."

Hank: "Not all the time."

Becca: "You smoked pot."*

Hank: "When it's around. It's not like I have one of those magic marijuana cards or anything."

Becca: "Do you use cocaine?

Hank: "I have experimented with the drug you call cocaine a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. My misspent youth.

Becca: "That's a lie."

Hank: "Sometimes it's important to lie to children."

In the end, Hank was still too hung up on Karen to commit to the lovely Faith. As she rode off in Atticus' tour bus, you just knew he'd made a huge mistake. Perhaps, Hank's too old for the rock & roll lifestyle and Faith's too young for him. This sets up Season 7 as yet another in which Hank will attempt to win back Karen's cold heart.

Californication will return in 2014.

Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.