S4E7: Sometimes, Californication gives us episodes, like “The Recused,” where things get a little messy. The story line gets lost with random characters in random scenes that are extremely boring. In “The Recused,” to be frank, nothing happened. To me, it was a “knee-bender” episode, spoon feeding us plot twists and character development that we could have easily figured out ourselves.
“Oh, you’re recused.” -Hank
We closed last week with Hank and Abby, after episodes of sexual tension, finally hooking up. Good for them! I’m a big fan of Abby and Hank as a couple. Mainly because I think Abby is the exact kind of woman Hank needs — smart, sexy, strong, confident. Plus, they have great chemistry. But we quickly learned that this, smartly, is not the type of situation that Abby wants. She knows that she can’t be Hank’s lawyer, professionally, if they’re sleeping together on the side. So she convinces Hank to come to the office to meet a senior partner of hers who would take over the reigns of the case.
“We can have guilt-free sex now.” -Abby
Abby and Hank get invited to play golf with Abby’s senior partner who wants to get a feel of the case (and turns out, Abby) and even though it was pretty hilarious to see Hank golf, I’m pretty sure the whole point of this golf scene was to just show how Hank doesn’t fit in and give him an opportunity to do something stupid. Now, I may slightly be a hypocrite right now because I love seeing Hank get wild and do ridiculous things, but usually, it’s not just for the sake of doing wild and ridiculous things. He usually has a motive for his antics or it’s at least entertaining. This scene was neither. While the three were at the golf course, of COURSE Hank isn’t good at golf and of COURSE the senior partner is really uptight about it. So, of COURSE Hank provokes the senior partner into tackling him and of COURSE the end result is that Abby will be his lawyer, just without sex. Californication is usually a show that gives us great wild and crazy scenes, but what makes them great is that they are unexpected. For example, earlier in this season, in “Monkey Business,” Hank found himself again involved in an absurd situation, but the end result wasn’t something that we saw coming from a mile away. No, the end result was some dude accidentally killing himself as he masturbated. These were things I did not see coming at all, and that’s why they worked. With “The Recused,” I felt like everything coming was predictable.
“I’m not going to stop trying.” -Ben
“I wouldn’t expect you to. If you did, you wouldn’t deserve her.” -Hank
We ended with Hank meeting up with Ben and Karen at Becca’s band’s gig and, well, this just was dumb. I don’t know why; maybe it’s because I hate the Queens of Dogtown so much, or maybe it’s because I don’t buy this whole Becca-in-an-unbelievably-awesome-band-at-age-17 thing. Regardless, Hank talks with Ben and they agree that Hank was an asshole and they both like Karen. Whoa! Big surprise there! Then Hank does the noble thing and says that Ben doesn’t deserve Karen if he gives up on her. Wow. Way to go, Hank!
I know I’m being a little sarcastic in this recap, but, just, ugh. This episode was so lame. It was full of all the things that Californication usually avoids. This whole episode felt like just a knee-bender, and frankly, might be the black-eye in a pretty-well done and solid season so far.
