Best pilot since Studio 60
August 15th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
I love when the premiere of a show just has good written all over it. You know, not the kind where you feel like it has potential and you’ll give it another shot, but the kind where you can’t wait to see the next episode. Studio 60, maybe The Riches, last forced onto my watchlist so decisively. Last night’s debut of Californication may have trumped those debuts.
Californication is a great marriage of premise and character into a show that is willing to be funny without taking itself lightly. Also, in the hooray-for-boobies category, David Duchovny has found himself a magical project. Excluding a ménage à trois he breaks up, I counted four scenes with Duchovny and a different naked woman. In a half-hour show. That’s good work if you can get it. Better though, it was that most rare of creatures: non-gratuitous nudity. Each occurrence was important to the story, and usually undercut in a fun, character-relevant way.
So color me interested. And here’s hoping that, unlike Studio 60 or The Riches, Californication won’t let me down.
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Posted in Television | 4 Comments »
Aug 16th 2007 at 2:38 pm
I can’t wait to see this! You have totally caught my attention!
Aug 17th 2007 at 6:29 pm
It was an interesting show to watch, but I hope Duchovny’s character goes somewhere, and doesn’t endlessly fornicate his way through an unending writer’s block.
So far, I can’t say it’s more compelling than The Riches, which I thought was a boundless commentary on our American lifestyles, consumerism, family, community, loyalty, and friendship.
Aug 20th 2007 at 3:17 am
I don’t know… endlessly fornicating one’s way through writers block sounds pretty good to me.
Oh. We’re talking about the show…
I agree that The Riches did a fantastic job setting itself up to offer storylines with insight and metaphor. I just felt like it lost focused as it continued.
What excited me about Californication, much like what originally excited me about The Riches was its uniqueness in tone. It promises comedy without compromise to the formula. It’s the new hybrid of the sitcom, like Weeds, Entourage, Curb, The Office. These shows say, hey, the sitcom isn’t dead. It’s just been in a cocoon, and the new butterfly will be intelligent in a way the caterpillar didn’t have to. I say amen.
Aug 30th 2007 at 6:26 pm
I haven’t checked it out yet, but why do I feel that the reviews were so dismissive of it? The pilot is free on Netflix’s Watch Now feature so I’ll see what the fuss is…