Favorite Shows: Californication

For the last four years, I have been witness to what basically amounts to an seemingly endless train wreck. It's a show called Californication. The show follows the life & times of one Hank Moody, a New York writer living in Los Angeles. Normally, this type of show is anathema to me, but I'm a big fan of the sarcastic and witty stylings of David Duchovny. And in Hank Moody, Duchovny introduced me to a man who I look to whenever I think my life is the most fucked up thing possible in the universe.

Watching Hank Moody live his life is like watching an ongoing exercise in chaos. He does crazy shit, and while the consequences of that shit is hitting him, his friends do crazy shit and he gets caught up in it with them. And when all that wanes away, random crap hits him, and he deals with that. And it's that aspect that constantly draws me to the show. No matter what happens to Hank, he deals with it. He survives it. Sometimes through his own efforts, sometimes with the help of his friends, but he deals. When I'm seriously fucked, I look at Hank's life & I am given hope. Not only that my life isn't the most fucked up thing around, but that I can handle what my life is throwing at me.

Not only that I can handle it, but that I'm not the only one having issues in and with life, love, and humanity. I'm not the only one stumbling around, tripping over my character flaws, and falling flat on my face. In the end, that's the true appeal of the show. I'm not alone. I'm not the only one living a fucked life. I'm not the only one that is embittered, and cynical. We are many!

And while it may seem that we glory in each other's misery, the truth is we relish the mistakes others make because they are the things that link us together. That sameness that allows for the empathy that cuts through all the differences in race, creed, religion, and gender. The mistakes we make are the threads that tie us together and define that ephemeral concept we call "The Human Condition".