Californication (Season One): Hell-A Woman

 Well, Hank just drives down a road and has women throwing their phone numbers at him or meets him at a little dinner (though his ex, Karen), wanting to get high and fuck upstairs in one of Bill and Karen's rooms. That's just sort of how it works out for Hank. He can't seem to figure out what to write, sort of stuck in this hell in LA, a city he just hates. He moved out there, sure, but New York is his love, so any real acclimation to the city seems difficult at best. Adding to the complication of not being able to move on from Karen, Hank also tries to recover from the fact that he slept with an underage daughter of the man who wants to marry his real first true love, Bill. Even worse, perhaps, is that Bill owns a website looking to hire Hank; he learns this at the end of the dinner party night when confronted by 16 year old Mia, Bill's daughter, who clearly still wants to fuck him. So Hank has a lot on his mind, for sure.

With all the conversation on "vaginal rejuvenation", size of breasts, statutory rape, Scientology (a divorcee named Sonja is one), nipple rings, how past relationships began, and writer's block, the episode worked best for me when Hank and his daughter Becca have those father-daughter moments together. Despite how mad a daughter can be towards her father, no matter his faults and sexual exploits, their relationship remains a close one. Hank adores his daughter, tries to do right by her, makes sure they pay each other for "profane slips", and always has an ear to listen when she needs one. 

I was knocked back when I realized the actress that played Scientologist Sonja is Paula Marshall, the unfortunate Pinhead victim who was in bad need of a friend in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. She was kind of a goth in that one; she's such a woman in this episode. And I was just not expecting to see almost completely nude. Talk about a weird sex scene. Hank takes a pill (I'm guessing for anxiety?) and drinks a lot of booze, but he's still up for some doggy. But Hank falling off the bed, puking on a painting, while Sonja remains in her position awkwardly; it's quite an unfortunate set of circumstances, especially when the remaining guests and owners of the house rush to the room, and fly open the door to see if something's wrong!