Californication "Mia Culpa"

Outside of the occasional gem like The Apartment and Rick Springfield's guest spot this was a very weak season of Californication. It was never a great show, but was entertaining enough to make up for it's obvious flaws. This season churned out a lot of formulaic episodes that would have been good season one episodes, but were bad season 3 episodes. This was epitomized in Dog Town I remember seeing Hank and Runkle pretend to be gay and thought "Well at least they aren't going to start another fight" seconds later I was biting my tongue. Before watching this episode I was prepared to give up on the show, however the finale convinced me to stick around a little while longer.

The pilot of Californication set a wheel in motion (Hank sleeping with Mia) that they never satisfactorily resolved and frankly I thought it would never get resolved. Ultimately this show is about Hank and Karen's relationship and the best way to progress their relationship and properly resolve Mia's arc was by having Karen find out the truth. They teased this in the season 1 finale, but it didn't go anywhere. In Mia Culpa they gave a full reveal and it worked really well. Duchovony usually succeeds because he is so endearing while being such an asshole, however this episode let him show off his dramatic chops as well. Hank standing in the doorway preparing himself to tell Karen about Mia wouldn't have been as heartbreaking if a lesser actor was playing Hank Moody. It was a really strong choice to not show the dialogue, since it would be irrelevant and trite. Showing their actions underneath Elton John's Rocketman made the scene much more powerful.

My only complaint about the final scene were the lyrics Rocketman describing what was happening on screen specifically

"Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids

In fact it's cold as hell"

While cutting to Becca was almost cringe worthy. Music and score serve a very useful purpose in film or television, but using them as exposition is almost always lazy pandering.

Californication is not a morality tale, but throughout the whole series the viewer has wondered if Hank's action would have consequences. Ironically Hank sleeping with Mia ranks pretty low among the selfish misogynistic things he has done, but he will get punished the most for them in what looks like (crosses fingers) a very interesting fourth season.

Stray thoughts

- Hopefully that will be the last we see of Sue Collini a one note character whose one joke isn't even that funny.

- Unfortunately that will not be the last we see of Becca who is a terrible actress. Her telling Hank about how she lost her virginity should have packed a much bigger punch than it did, but it was ruined by her terrible acting.

- Dream sequences can be amazing when well done (see Kevin Finnerty episodes in The Sopranos), but they are frequently used to hit illustrate subtext that should be self-evident and regrettably that is how they were used in Mia Culpa.

- The tongue in cheek line about Hank delivered about having trouble sleeping should not have made the final script.