63 replies to this topic

[TWoP Mars]

From Sho.com:

After receiving encouragement from all sides, Hank starts his blogging gig at Hell-A Magazine. Plus, under the guise of inviting Hank to family dinner at her and Bill's (Damian Young) house, Karen sets up Hank with her friend Sonja (Paula Marshall). At dinner, Becca reveals how Hank met Karen.

[Angelfirenze]

This show is too short. And am I the only one who really can't stand Bill's daughter, whatever the hell her name is? The so-called 'good kid' who's overshadowing the sane one. That and the chick Karen tried to set him up with. Some friend, that one.

I continue to enjoy Becca's presence, though, and that scene with her and Hank in her bedroom was awesome.

And another question: do women just hunt him down as a self-test? Like, if Hank Moody will screw me then my self-esteem will shoot up several hundred points.

Edited by Angelfirenze, Aug 20, 2007 @ 10:11 PM.

[indianhoop]

Wow...this show is approaching the "so bad it's good" level WAY too quickly.

I like the "snarky Hank" we've seen at the dinner table in the last 2 eps but EVERYTHING else feels/reads/sounds so cliched...yeah,btw, I so see McElhone's character as a downtown "no noise" hipster bassist in 1980's NYC.

[puppetmittens]

The character of Hank is wearing thinner than the one ply toilet paper I use to wipe my "pooper" (Hank's new favorite word). I think the writers of this show hate women with the way they are constantly looking to men for reassurement their breasts are beautiful enough or their vaginal lips aren't flopping around. Also hate the wise and precocious daughter, do kids really talk like that? To the folks in charge drop the 16 year old lusting after Hank storyline it's skeevy to show even if the girl is all grown up. I've given the show 2 chances but it's skating on thin ice with me.

[Angelfirenze]

Also hate the wise and precocious daughter, do kids really talk like that?

Some kids do, yeah. The majority don't, but that doesn't mean she's unrealistic. I wonder more about her wardrobe and hair than I do about her vocabulary. Maybe I talked like her when I was her age, I don't know. I don't know if the way I've talked has ever changed. But I like Becca, nonetheless. The older one's name is Megan, I think? Is she psychotic or just manipulative? Either way, I kept wanting to throw things at the screen tonight. Possibly a knife. She calls Hank old, but feels him up under the table?

And again with the friend from Hell...

Edited by Angelfirenze, Aug 20, 2007 @ 10:41 PM.

[Bulldog]

Does Hank own any clothes besides the black t-shirts?

I've given the show two tries. I think I'm done.

[valsinger]

My husband and I both believe this show is the epitome of a male middle-aged fantasy. It does, however, have a singularly appropriate title.

[Raja]

I liked the episode. Course they already had me just because Paula Marshall appeared. How can she possibly be 43? She looks at least a decade younger.

That sex scene was just so wrong and funny. I know it's juvenile to laugh at people throwing up... but I did.

As someone said above the father-daughter scene in the bedroom I liked. I also kinda liked the making her pay for saying a bad word thing. Shows they set boundaries for her and are looking after her.

I actually do like her and how she is portrayed. She's smart, a bit of an outcast. I assume not terribly popular. She's bright but not in that hollywood "wise beyond their years" type of way. While perhaps the fact she isn't running around wild and is relatively timid makes it seem like she's the well-behaved "adult".. that is really an illusion they believe at their own peril. Or to use an example from the show... "My daughter is sixteen and she is an angel. Clearly I'm doing something right."

I took the pornstar thing completely differently from everyone else. I saw it tied with the scenes where he saw his wife in the car. The important thing was not her showing him her breasts but the baby crying. It inverses the typical male fantasy. What he really wants isn't to be with a random knockout pornstar. What he wants despite the lifestyle he is living is domesticity. To live a life married with his child and the mother of that child. That the pornstar would ignore her own child crying just pointed out how he really didn't want to be the person who does that.

Was nice to see Rachel Miner. I assume Hank will eventually get with her (could swear I saw her in one of the previews). Not a fan of piercings. However I did find this line funny.

"She's got a nose ring. Know what that means?" "She likes it in the nose?"

There better not be any nasal sex on this show! :)

[Angelfirenze]

I took the pornstar thing completely differently from everyone else. I saw it tied with the scenes where he saw his wife in the car. The important thing was not her showing him her breasts but the baby crying. It inverses the typical male fantasy. What he really wants isn't to be with a random knockout pornstar. What he wants despite the lifestyle he is living is domesticity. To live a life married with his child and the mother of that child. That the pornstar would ignore her own child crying just pointed out how he really didn't want to be the person who does that.

I loved that part. The fact that Hank couldn't ignore this woman's daughter like she seemed to be was a lovely thing. I think that if he was with the right person (*avoiding shipping this early in the game*), and 'got [his] shit together' like Becca wanted, he would be very happy. Possibly...I don't know...write again? Maybe the premise of the show could revolve around what it takes to get him back to his setting of homeostasis.

He seems to care more about the needs of others than himself. There's something he says in the premiere that reflects this for me and it's quoted in the commercials and, possibly, the new credits. [i]"I kind of think of myself as a 'whatever makes you happy kind of guy'."

Edited by Angelfirenze, Aug 27, 2007 @ 9:48 PM.

[Snowden]

If Hank's relationship with his daughter weren't screwing her up for the next thirty years, I'd think it would be the most beautiful thing on television.

I also love the face that Hank's wife holds the screen every bit as well as he does. She makes it conceivable that losing a woman like that could stunt a man for the rest of his life.

[bayareabrad]

I'm warming up to this show a little bit after a rocky first episode. They had only two gratuitous ssex scenes, down from four last week. It is a wee bit ridiculous how every woman seems to go nuts every time they are around Mulder and want to jump in the sack with him. I'm not much worse looking than him and around the same age and that ain't happening for me!! The daughter's character is becoming quite interesting to me. Loved when she talked about her shirt that said "Jesus is a c-word" on the back!! She could go punk or goth but either way it should be interesting. And no, kids that age don't talk that way. Ask the average kid on the street to define "nihilist" for you.

[Lloyd White]

I have to put my vote on this show before it gets too negative in here. I really like this show, from the promo's to the actual episodes, nothing but gold. But that's my type of humor, vulgar, offensive, racial. Maybe this show was made for me. It's like they are making fun of that hollywood/cali culture freaks like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan exist in, which happens to be a subject I'm interested in. Hank pondering the pedo origins of shaved pubes is something I've discussed before.

Yeah, the show is very self indulgent...but if Tony Soprano and Vick Mackey can get some on occasion, then "mulder" would be swimming in it in comparison. I like Duchovney so I hope this show takes off...it's smart, funny, and edgy (ie it's actually interesting unlike most comedies).

Edited by Lloyd White, Aug 21, 2007 @ 5:50 AM.

[Nemicorn]

I really hate to swim against the tide, but the truth is, there is more truth in this show than most would dare imagine. I lived in LA, and can tell you that in some form or another, have met every character I have seen so far on this show. From the precocious pre-teen trying like hell to not have to be the sage to a screwed up parent to the promiscuous writer trying to find and define some value in his life through a stream of sexual encounters to the Lolita-esque teenager, realizing her power over men and exploiting them for her own amusement and the hounds of mass media trying to get their slice of the next trend by defining an hostility towards something and the "adult entertainment" actress, who thinks everyone must recognize her on the street but is still insecure about her body.

LA (and American culture as a whole) has a problem with the way it beats women's self-esteem into the ground. The women in LA are looking to Hank to either be a tool of their own revenge against men, a statement of their power as they seek to regain control, or a band aid on their self-esteem. What Hank doesn't realize is that this behaviour on his part in no way makes his getting back together with his ex any more likely, indeed, I am sure she is drifting further and further from him with every incident.

And, having ended up on a blind date with a Scientologist once, and finding out only after having made a smart remark about that group, I left strangely connected to Hank last night.

[kingcityguru]

Maybe it is just me, but this show rings "true" to me. And by true I don't mean realistci (what, is this guy Wilt Chamberlaine?) I mean that these type of people exist and these conversations do occur (even the vaginal lips one, which I have had ... really!) -- though perhaps not with this concentration.

Did not like this episode as much as the pilot though I will watch again next week. I would like to see more father/daughter interaction and less of the slutty 16 year old -- ok, you can show me her breasts one more time but that is it (the age of consent in Canada is 14 (really, it is 14! Crazy, huh?).

[blankslate]

I think the show will flesh out over the weeks. It still may be a one shot deal but I think its moving towards something. A lot of the lines were garbled, and I had to listen to the trailer to make out what was actually said at times. I found it interesting that he is being played by ex, ex's bf and ex's bf's daughter. So far Megan has dropped bombs on him in each episode, and the trailer seems to indicate he has some more awakenings in store next week.

I do find it interesting, that he pulls girls with a tore up porsche, it must be the "I dont care if you f yourself or me. So which do you want to?" attitude (that and it is his show).

[Angelfirenze]

a tore up porsche

I REALLY want him to get that headlight fixed. Shouldn't he have been pulled over at once for it by now?

Dude, the top of the page. *exalts*

Edited by Angelfirenze, Aug 21, 2007 @ 11:34 AM.

[Cosmocrush]

I thought the damage on the porsche was great continuity from last week when the cuckholded husband hit the car with a bat or something.

I'm liking the show, last night better than the pilot even. As Nemicorn posted, these characters really exist in L.A. but I think you have to be an outsider to appreciate the outrageousness of it. And as an adult woman myself I loved Hank's observations on what L.A. is doing to women and his appreciation of Sonja's (Paula Marshall's) natural body.

I think Becca's relationship with her dad is great. And while the average kid on the street cannot define "nihilist" the only child of a novelist probably could.

The older one's name is Megan, I think?

It's Mia. ;)

Edited by Cosmocrush, Aug 21, 2007 @ 3:02 PM.

[Postkantian]

I get the feeling that the point of the show is how California fucks everyone over, women included (maybe especially).

I still think the show is a male wank though - if anyone has any pictures of the writer/creator Tom Kapinos , please post them. If he's fat and bald, I'm done with this show.

We've all heard the story that writers are low on the totem pole and always being fucked over - so this show comes across as a revenge male fantasy to me.

[excaliber21]

I liked the first episode enough to watch this one to see where they were going to take it, but only made it about halfway through before turning it off and erasing it. Yeah, I get it. I used to live in SoCal too, and have met various and sundry kinds of people there. And I found a lot of them to be just about as one-dimensional and self-obsessed as the people in this show. Doesn't mean I found their lives anything but boring and monotonous. Like this show.

The daughter is 12. No, that's not how 12-year olds talk, unless they're spouting lines written by middle-aged men who think they have a handle on how 12-year olds talk. Goth is long over, too. The girl would have bleached-blond hair with pink streaks, maybe, if she felt like she had something to protest against.

I'm really tired of scenes where a female puts her hand in the lap of her male dining companion and no one around seems to know what's going on. People at a dining table in close quarters can certainly see where everyone's arm is, and if one's is tilted away from the body enough to put their hand in an adjacent lap, it is perfectly obvious. Especially if he then grabs it and tries to wrestle it into submission.

At first I thought the writers of this show were consciously emulating "Rescue Me," where the middle-aged male protagonist is successful in bedding every woman in is path, but then I realized, no, it's just a typical middle-aged man's fantasy played out for the small screen. At least David Duchovny is not as repulsive as Denis Leary. But it really doesn't make it any more believable. Or interesting. I think the funniest moment in the pilot was when the first one-night stand's boyfriend sees him and yells "Are you fucking kidding me? The guy's 60!"

[McGuilty]

I like this show just fine even though Mia creeps me out sometimes. The story between her and Hank plays out like Lolita except this is the updated version. I'm sure it won't be long until their little secret gets out in the open. I wonder if Hank's 12-year-old daughter is modeled after Emily The Strange, they look exactly the same. I don't have a problem with her speech pattern, some people do talk like that, yes, even 12-year-olds and I give it a pass since she's the daughter of a novelist. I've met a kid like Becca before and it's frightening how well spoken she is compared to other kids of the same age. I'll take a well spoken kid over a potty mouth brat any day. Count me in as one of the people who thought the bonding moment in the bedroom was sweet although I could do without the scene that followed.

Hate Bill already. His "angel" is anything but that. Not crazy about Karen bringing in the blind date but the Scientology remark did make me laugh. Awkward.

Maybe it's just me but the more repulsive and fucked up the characters are, the more I like them. Maybe that's the reason why I like House and Rescue Me.

Edited by McGuilty, Aug 21, 2007 @ 1:42 PM.

[mad maverick]

McGuilty, spot on. The daughter does look like Emily the Strange!

I liked this episode more than the pilot so at least it's got me sticking around for the next one. I enjoyed the scenes between Hank and his daughter most of all. I felt for her when she was relating the story of how Hank and Karen met and her (and Hank's) obvious yearning for them to get back together again. Mia is a bit creepy but I guess you can't say she's boring. I kind of want to see Bill get a rude shock about her. I hope we have women calling Hank on his shit soon or at least women not desperate to get into bed with him the second they meet; an endless stream of that would put me off the show.

Does anyone know the name of the song they played at the end of the episode when Hank is sitting in his car? Thanks.

[Angelfirenze]

McGuilty, I didn't even realize it but you're right. She looks exactly like Emily. And I agreed with everything else you said, especially regarding her vocabulary. Just because she's twelve doesn't mean she can't figure out how to speak well. It might not even be that her father's a novelist, but that she's naturally that intelligent. It's not common, obviously, but there are kids in the world that smart. They're getting shafted by their school systems every day. In fact, TIME magazine has a cover story about it this week. If she were homeschooled for the first few years of her education, it's highly conceivable that she'd be years ahead of the rest of her perceived grade and/or age group.

I really feel bad about what might happen next week regarding Lolita/Mia, there. I really can't stand her. Probably because I cannot understand what the hell she thinks she has to gain and how she would come up with an idea like that. And pointing out that her father owns Hell A. magazine?

This sounds like a plant to me. Some kind of plan to massively and figuratively screw Hank over and if anybody's behind it, I think it's the putz, himself. No one likes him and he knows it, so he uses his daughter to get back at the most obvious example of that. Which is sick. If that's the case, after next week, I want that sick bastard in jail.

Edited by Angelfirenze, Aug 21, 2007 @ 3:35 PM.

[love's bitch]

I laugh at the notion that blogging for LA Magazine would make Hank any money. They would probably pay him $100 an entry, if that.

[beebs]

That was better than the pilot. I find the daughter odd... and also..

I like this show just fine even though Mia creeps me out sometimes.

I agree with this. What is she on?

Hank's still an arsehole. But, he did make me laugh. I found that last sex scene with the Scientologist funny. The show is still a bit shaky though.

Enough of the naked ladies. We get it! You're the new HBO! Naked ladies! Is it the Duchovny effect? Women just disrobe around him?

[dshban]

I amused myself with the fact that I recognised two people from this episode (the pornstar, Brooke Banner, and the British girl in the bar from Hell-A magazine was on Studio 60).

[McGuilty]

British girl in the bar from Hell-A magazine was on Studio 60.

She was also on Ugly Betty as the anchor for Fashion TV.

ETA: Just searched imdb, I think her name is Lucy Davis although she's not credited for Californication.

Edited by McGuilty, Aug 21, 2007 @ 9:43 PM.

[Omar G]

I don't think that was Lucy Davis, also of The Office. I thought that at first, but when they did close-ups, I was pretty sure it wasn't her.

[Hegel88]

I'll give it one more chance but so far Hank is just too big of an asshole to be interesting or amusing. I really can't see why anyone would put up with him even his daughter. And I don't really care for anyone else in the show either.

[Cosmocrush]

I don't think that was Lucy Davis, also of The Office. I thought that at first, but when they did close-ups, I was pretty sure it wasn't her.

I waited for the credits because I thought I recognized her from Studio 60 but didn't remember her name. It was Lucy Davis. She looked great.

Edited by Cosmocrush, Aug 22, 2007 @ 7:21 AM.