But never mind the clichés, because Duchovny makes his character worth watching, as he swaggers from bad predicament to bad predicament, pretending not to care about his life anymore. Long bottled-up on TV as Mulder on "The X-Files," Duchovny is finally free to get his decadence on, as well as his wry side, which fans of "The Larry Sanders Show" may remember fondly.
Duchovny, one of the show's executive producers, really throws himself into the character of Hank, who is so dissolute and childish but also stubbornly adult in his inability to glaze over the truth. Duchovny manages to make Hank almost heroic at moments -- a bitter cynic whose inappropriate honesty marks him as an outsider in a town that thrives on pretty lies.
Showtime is billing "Californication" as a comedy, but it's more like a dark character study with laughs. It's a "Shampoo"-like portrait of a man in free fall, with no heroes, living through the last chapter of the Bush era. In the premiere, Hank sleeps with beautiful women, but he doesn't feel during these encounters; he goes through the motions, perpetually drunk or hung over. The episode closes fittingly to the strains of a cover version of Elton John's "Rocket Man," with the astronaut "burning out his fuse up here alone." Hank thinks he just needs ex-wife Karen (Natascha McElhone) back, but we know better. His numbness is chronic, a cozy hiding place in the sky for a man who may never make it back to Earth.
