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CALIFORNICATION Sends Herc Fleeing For The State Line!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
Pining away for HBO’s old nudity-happy shitcom “Dream On”?
Showtime has hired “Dawson’s Creek” vet Tom Kapinos to script the poorly written “Californication,” which depicts numerous naked women jumping nakedly into bed with a rich, successful middle-aged naked writer Hank Moody (David Duchovny).
Moody, obnoxious and supremely self-absorbed, struggles with ennui and writer’s block because his ex left him and his best-selling novel was apparently adapted into a feel-good romantic comedy starring Tom Cruise and “Dawson’s Creek” alumna Katie Holmes.
Audiences might struggle with the fact that everyone in Moody’s orbit thinks he’s a lot funnier and a lot more charming than his jokes and behavior suggest.
A slightly smaller problem is all the plot elements in “Californication” feel recycled from smarter, better-crafted projects – everything from “The Graduate” to “Kramer Vs. Kramer” to “The Big Chill” to “Rescue Me” to “Uncle Buck.” (There’s also a gag about a girl who likes to punch her partner in the face during sex that I swear I’ve seen before but can’t quite place.)
Some who find “Desperate Housewives” titillatingly scandalous (and I know you are legion) may be taken aback by the show’s measured pay-cable doses of vulgar language, but I suspect those who frequent “South Park” and “The Howard Stern Show” may find “Californication’s” dialogue as tepid as it is shopworn.
Chili Pepper fans may be interested to learn that “Californication” -- like “Dazed and Confused” and “My Own Private Idaho” before it -- does NOT utilize the song its title borrows.
Given the script’s inadequacies, it’s a helpful to have all the distracting Showtime-ready nudity – though of course quantity does not always equal quality. If “Californication” wants viewers to keep sticking around after the much superior “Weeds,” producers should consider hiring cuter nude actresses -- as cute, perhaps, as “L Word’s” nakedness-prone Mia Kirshner.
But what matters Herc’s opinion?
The New York Times says:
… “Californication” is supposed to be a dark comedy about love and sex in Los Angeles, but it is not nearly dark or funny enough — less “Shampoo” than “Rogaine.” Mr. Duchovny is not the problem; this former star of “The X-Files” somehow manages to inject some humor and occasional flashes of roguish charm into a boring script and thankless part. … tries to poke fun at the hypocrisy and delusions of Hollywood, but it doesn’t have enough wit or sense of place to be very convincing. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
Over at Showtime, there is good news and bad: "Weeds" is back, but it has brought "Californication" with it. … Drugs are done, breasts are bared, explicit references to sex organs and their grooming are made (even by the 13-year-old daughter), and you can practically hear everyone involved singing to themselves, "We love ca-ble, we love ca-ble." None of which would be objectionable if it had meaning or reason. But it doesn't. The only cliche more tired than Los Angeles as a spiritual void is the tortured writer. … makes us want to set fire to our hair and run screaming into the street. …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… If "Weeds" is the tale of an unlikely drug dealer, the story of Hank Moody is one we've seen too many times before. … David Duchovny does a deft job in the lead role of Hank, "Californication" adds little to this shopworn tale. Hank is one of those self-pitying bleaters who doesn't see his own hypocrisy: He berates and curses the suits of the entertainment industry for their reliance on cliches, though the fact is, his entire life is a cliche. …
The Boston Herald gives it a “D” and says:
… It’s just so precious. … Duchovny, who also serves as executive producer, plays almost every scene with a smirk. Still, he’s better than McElhone, who openly grins through most of her moments with this egotistical manchild. … Here’s a word to describe ‘Californication”: X-cruciating.…
The Boston Globe says:
… Hank is the cliché of an ex-husband who pushed his wife away and now longs for her. He's the cliché of a man in a midlife crisis, jumping from woman to woman to prove his vigor. And he's the cliché of a writer busy Googling himself because he has writer's block. In "Californication," Hank is as familiar as a palm tree on Rodeo Drive. But never mind the clichés, because Duchovny makes his character worth watching, as he swaggers from bad predicament to bad predicament, pretending not to care about his life anymore.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… Duchovny had a series on Showtime called the "Red Shoe Diaries" and it redefined the mythology of soft-core porn on a pay cable channel. A lot has changed since those days. But Duchovny is back on Showtime, in a series that could conceivably be billed as soft-core porn but is more clearly defined as one of the better new shows on television - albeit with a lot of naked women. Gone is the pretentious voice-over stuff and the Zalman King titillation. In it's place? Bitterness, drinking, self-loathing and one of the most caustically lovable losers television has seen in a while. …
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram give it two stars (out of five) and says:
Everything that's wrong with Showtime's new comedic drama series debuting Monday after Weeds is summed up in its title: Californication. The combo of abundant if predictable cable-TV sex, calculated outrage (it opens with a nun in a dream sequence doing something nuns shouldn't be doing), the L.A. entertainment industry as a backdrop and the supposed hipness that comes from lifting the name of a Red Hot Chili Peppers album probably sounded like a sure winner in the initial pitch meeting. But, like its moniker, Californication is just unoriginal, uninspired and, worst of all, unfunny. …
TV Guide says:
… compellingly caustic …
USA Today give it three and a half stars (out of four) and says:
… How lucky for Californication that it found David Duchovny, who makes the unlikeliest twists believable and the most heinous behavior forgivable. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… "Californication" can be unabashedly self-centered, judgmental and off-putting, but it is redeemed by occasional hilarious moments, an appealing father-daughter relationship and Duchovny's skillful creation of a charismatic boor. …
Variety says:
… the premiere is watchable but not fully arousing, often feeling as clenched, dour and indecisive as its brooding protagonist. … At first blush, anyway, "Californication" isn't necessarily a bad place to be, but unless the series finds viable avenues to pursue beyond wallowing in Hank's self-pity, it'll be Showtime subscribers before long who wind up feeling screwed.
10:30 p.m. Monday. Showtime.
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D'oh!
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Different strokes, I guess.
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Thanks for the Angel box set info, though.
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Im through with HBO and will prob check this out. At least it has boobs.
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I'd still prefer a hit and miss weekly horror show to this anyday. I hope Lion's Gate finds a home for MOH quickly....maybe the Chill Channel will pick it up.
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I found the pilot to be fairly entertaining. David Duchovny is a hoot!
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I think I'd call Masters of Horror a hit-miss-miss-miss-hit-miss-miss-miss show.
:p -
Wasn't he was supposed to get it weeks ago, according to some interview. What's the verdict? Oh.... and maybe this show sucks, but don't be dissin' Dream On! Brian Benben ruled.
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I'll skip it.
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I actually thought Californication was one of the best pilots this season, along with "Pushing Daisies", "Damages" and "Conchords", and MUCH better than the mediocre "Reaper" or the aimless "John from Cincinati". Then again I think "The Shield" is one of the best shows on TV right now, so what do I know.
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Lazy copouts. And did Dream On suck? It's been YEARS for me, but I remember thinking it was really funny. Of course I grew up thinking Family Ties was good . . .
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Because between that and The House of D, only one good thing can be said about David Duchovny. Mulder.
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she's a fox.
but i agree, the reviews make this sound shit. It's particularly lame to ref a Chilli Peppers song in the title of your show and then not use it. -
USA Today loved this show and so did Newsweek but everyone else hates it. I understand that opinions vary, but yikes. Do networks pay off people to get good reviews or are some people star-struck? I just don't get it.
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There just aren't enough cross-dressing FBI agents on television these days.
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It's probably named after the term - play on words - slang that the song was named after. Anyway, I enjoyed it enough to keep watching. I won't run out and buy the DVD, but I will definitely watch again.
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I think I'm going to cancel showtime till TAL returns.
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Best thing Duchovny has done since Larry Sanders. This is true trash TV and a guilty pleasure.
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Best X-files episode ever.
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i am sure i have seen the punching in the face too and now i cant get it out of my head till i remember where it came from..
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If they do, then they should consider paying someone else besides the reviewer at USA Today. Actually, I think a more likely explanation is that the reviewer at USA Today is an idiot. That happens sometimes.
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It didn't compare to Larry Sanders, but even without the breasts of the week, it could sometimes be very funny. It was definitely uneven. I liked the other gimmick on the show of him flashing back to theings he watched on TV, especially after I realized I do that more than occasionally. Particularly, with Simpsons episodes.
What's funny about a guy screwing a 16 year old? That's just hot. -
Brian Benben DID rule, but only because he was puttin' it to Madeleine Stowe. Yow!
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Duchovny's career has come full circle from his days on RED SHOE DIARIES...
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Curb is back in Sept. and Curb is better than anything that's ever been on Showtime.
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Thus there must be no rapid-fire pop-culture references, no skinny chicks doing spin-kicks, no tepid paranormal romance borrowed from the worst of Kim Harrison's novels, and no cute in-crowd slang.
In short, it wasn't written, directed, produced, or dedicated to Joss Whedon, so it sucks, right?
That also means I might actually like it. So far, there's very little that Herc loves that I don't hate, and vice-versa. It's like fighting over TV shows with my kid sister... And I don't even have a kid sister. -
Irreverent, sexy, sufficiently fucked-up, clever, sardonic.
And it has a time-to-tits of 3:10, beating Rome pretty handily in that regard. -
The trouble with modern television is that, because so much of it is based in either California or New York, at least 95% of the shows take place in one of these two states. Personally, I tend to give new shows more of a chance if the setting is someplace OTHER than the west coast or the New York area.
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People outside the United States must think the USA is comprised of New York City, California, Texas, Washington DC, Detroit, and Southern Florida.
Oh... And New Orleans when it's not under water. -
Maybe with so much television production moving north to Canada, more shows will start to take place in The Great White North.
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. . . had the Chilli Peppers not named that crappy song and album "Californication," this crappy show would have a different name.
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I liked Dream On. There is nothing wrong with naked girls unless your gay. Whatever happened to the actor on Dream On.
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I noticed something about Duchovny, he really loves fucking. He used to appear on Red Shoe Diaries (a soft porn show), his character Fox Mulder was addicted to porn, and now his character Hank Moody fucks every girl he sees (even a 16-year old).
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the day after the finale of Curb. I expect to renew it for season 2 of Flight of the Concords, so I'm guessing they'll cancel that, especially if it ends on a clifhanger.
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This can never be a bad thing. Not nearly enough bare breasts on TV these days; probably has to do with all the Republicans in Washington (they're afraid of them). VIVA LA MAMMERIES!
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You can watch the pilot on Netflix, and as I did I knew the critics would hate it. I think it was a fun little piece of TV, sure it borrows all over the place, and suffers from being yet another show about a really cool witty writer who gets laid and always gets the last line (how do writers come up with these characters?), however Duchovny nails the part and the opening alone (especially the going to hell line) makes it worth your time. I doubt the show can sustain its weight long enough for multiple seasons, but I certainly want to see more of the Hank character giving out sex advice to an angry boyfriend as he almost runs him over...
In other words, if you naturally find yourself agreeing with Herc, and like the shows Herc always goes crazy for, then avoid this like the plague, but otherwise give it a shot, it's fun... -
Duchovny is pretty good in it.The face-punching-during-sex scene was pretty hot and funny as was Madeline Zima. Pretty cute.
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maybe, according to Herc's review, too much. there's some funny shit in this pilot.
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All these hot chicks going at it with each other. Something about it makes it better than watching lesbian porn as I find it boring. But for some reason, this show is just hot stuff. I guess because it feels real and there's stuff left to the imagination as opposed to chicks strapping on 12 inch dicks.
But hey, naked chicks on TV is aweosome. We need more shows like that. -
Herc : loves "Angel", "Buffy" :: Me : hates "Angel", "Buffy"
So if Herc hated this, does that mean I'll love it? Maybe I'll rent the DVDs when it comes out. I enjoy Duchovney and bare breats, but not played-out cliches such as dead-pan, witty, womanizing writers . Everything I've read about this show leaves me conflicted. -
There seems to be a 50% chance I will either like this or hate it.
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And has overestimated the maturity of the boobs that inhabit this site.
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Showtime has been doing me good lately. Of course Weeds, Dexter and Bullshit are good, but I've also been getting into the Tudors and Brotherhood as well. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard Brotherhood mentioned here and I'd say it's on par with the Wire in terms of tone and quality (big time Wire fans may disagree). And Annabeth Gish nakedness is always good.
Dream On was the original HBO show for me. I still remember losing my shit over the time Eddie found out he just slept with his sister. One of the top five funniest moments on TV for me (at the time). That show started HBO's success with original shows and I feel like this is the year when Showtime truly took that torch away. Good for them. Here's hoping they can keep it up.
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but duchovny was good, and the actress playing the 16-year-old was cute, despite a fucked-up-bad-dentistry-weird-looking teeth-but-her-tits-are-perfect look to her. i'll give it a few more tries before i bail completely.
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Yeah that pretty much sums of David Duchovny.
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There were rumors that Duchovny himself used to be/is a sex addict.
The show wasn't anything spectacular but it was better than DD's last like 5 movies. So i'll watch cause I like him. -
Hoo boy, what a mess this sounds.
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Perhaps you missed the part where Dems won the 2006 majority. Dumbass. Go back to DailyKos.
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The truth is in there! :)
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i'll keep watching for now
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Remember when MadTV laid into GG, and Herc threw a hissy fit?? Good times! > Paging Matthew Albie... I wonder if Double D will write and direct a few eppies himself... Those episodes that he wrote and directed for The X-files were pretty solid. Herc, take a break from Wheddon-watch and post something on Bret Easton Ellis's "The Canyons." Oh, yeah, will be checking this show out.
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This thing didn't reproduce my quote.
Anyway, Herc's description of Hank Moody, sounds a awful lot like Matt Perry's character on a now defunct show. that is all -sorry for the double post. -
I thought the pilot was okay. It has promise and made me laugh a few times. I think it's weird it's getting so much critical flak. Does anyone really expect a show to hit all cylinders out of the box? Let up a little. By the way, Madeline Zima, who plays the 16 year old, in reality turns 22 next month. Hopefully more of Ms. Zima's carnal naked body will appear in future episodes.
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...over Herc's negative review if: a) David "The Truth Is Out There" Duchovny wasn't playing the main character b) there wasn't a shameless amount of unfettered jubblies in the pilot Hatred for Herc's love for Joss Whedon notwithstanding, I'm sure there are plenty of TV shows that Herc pans that we can all safely agree are horrible. What's different here? I can't imagine anyone watching the pilot and penciling this show into their weekly schedule afterwards, unless it just so happens to coincide with your "alone" time.
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this was a great pilot. the fuck is herc talkin about? mulder was perfect in his role, the dialogue was witty, some laugh out loud funny. plus the character has a lil evil streak to him as well thats missing in the hero role nowadays. a true to life evil streak. a straight up asshole. and the girls are hot! how could anyone hate on that episode? and isnt herc the same fucker who told us all to continue to watch john in cincinnati? what a fuckin train wreck THAT turned out to be. no more advice from herc. please, stop pretending you know whats good, umkay? u have been wrong so much bush wants to hire you.
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john from cinncinati. whatever. same shit. fuck that stupid ass show.
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Plain and simple, if you showed the EXACT same thing to Herc...yet just put on their "produced by Joss Whedon" he would have loved this show. Same exact show he watched, yet with Joss Whedon in the credits, and he would have exploded all over himself. I mean if Herc had just "thought" it was by Whedon, he would have liked it no matter if it was just a test pattern for 40 minutes.
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You can't really say that though, because Joss Whedon never would have made a show like this (and by "this" I don't necessarily mean "bad").
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I'm not saying that he would. I'm just saying, take the SAME exact show. Same show that was shown, and just ad "Produced by Joss Whedon" and then tell Herc, "yeah, Joss produced this", he would have loved it. That's almost a guarantee. I'm not saying that Whedon would have done this or whatever. Just Herc's perceptions and his loving anything that he does or will do. I mean, I'm sure he has pre-written glowing reviews for whatever Whedon has coming up in the future, and all he has to do is fill-in-the-blanks. But hey, good times right?
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...I see what you're saying, sort of. I guess the only way to know for sure would be to "punk" Herc by swapping out somebody's credit with Joss Whedon or a Whedon Alum. But I'm not getting defensive over Joss Whedon so much as I'm saying, like... the supposition that Herc would enjoy a show just like this if Joss Whedon had made it or he thought Joss Whedon had made it is... he's never been involved with a show like this, so it's hard to tell what specifically Herc is attracted to and whether the name alone would be enough to sell it for him. I don't know. It made more sense when I didn't have to put it into words, dammit!
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The Pilot was funny
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This show was very funny. some great lines in this. cant wait for next week.
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I thought it was fucking great. "Hey K-Fed, the little man in the boat...he's up here buddy" Maybe after reading this I had low expectations. But all in all, i thought this was funnier then the season premiere of weeds.
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That Herc has hyped a lot of bullshit on Coax. "Wanna find out where you can see the final 3 episodes of Drive?" Uh, no. So it seems kind of odd/ funny that he's taking out the red pen for a pilot that's actually good. Californication is offbeat and funny. The somewhat sloppy assembly may actually be intentional, as it suits the character of the show. Whoanecron, nice use of sarcasm; *very* subtle.
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this is the first time he quotes the press echo in a way to make it look that most of the critics share his opinion. But thats not true. Californication is getting very good 74 % at metacritics.
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/californication
and it fucking deserves it. The Pilot shows the potential to become the second best dramedy after Weeds. -
http://tinyurl.com/yvwe8w
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it was built around Duchovny, and that's a good thing.
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Man, that show actually kicked ass! When do the last three episodes air?
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When tits stop being interesting, seriously, your show sucks hairy dog balls.
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So I'll see it on dvd LOL.
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Finally had a chance to look at Californication on bittorrent, and it's even worse than the critics said. Most of Showtime's porn is better written. I get that Duchovny's film career didn't work out, but was this really the best job he could get in TV?
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The character is such a loser and the witty cynicism sold me. "I'll hide under your clit. He'll never find me there." The way he tore up that former valley girl at the restaurant. The meeting with the school principle. And who couldn't enjoy the scene at the theater?I'm just not seeing the Dream On comparison, but since when is Herc right about anything? Talk about cherry picked reviews from other sources too. I've read plenty of reviews elsewhere that were positive. And why pan McElhone? She deserves more work than she gets.
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The hot 16 year old (played by a 22 year old) face-puncher with perfect tits? Used to play the little girl on "the Nanny." You pedophiles.
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Aug 15, 2007 11:46:54 AM CDT
Yeah, you can kind of tell the guy wrote for Dawsons
by darth girlfriend
Same pretentious dialogue and horseshit situations. No wonder all the big critics hated it. I can't say I agree with Herc on everything, but I do on most stuff, and I definitely agree with him here. And Immortal Fish, that "hide under your clit" joke is about 500 years old. I think it was used like four times on the Flav roast that ran the same night.
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Yes, Herc and the better critics nailed this one. So sad to see Mulder reduced to spouting lines from a second-tier "Creek" writer. Even all that nudity (and yeah, it's not as hot as L-Word nudity) can't trick me into slogging though a second episode of this crap. Hopefully X-Files 2 is better.
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The Coen Bros. would tell you "Californication" is swill.
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mach5jack, I wrote "a bit of" not "a clone of." Sorry if you can't see just a piece of him there, but opinions are subjective beasts you know.darth girlfriend, most (if not all) jokes are heard by someone for the first time at some point. Perhaps I'm rawng (and you'll doubtless correct me) but in comedy, timing is everything as Henny Youngman once said. Perhaps it was not the content, but the delivery that humored me. And again, humor, like opinions, is a subjective beast. After all, you certainly must be a bastion of knowing good humor, given that you instead viewed the "Flavor Flav" roast where this tired line was repeated not once, but as many as four times. How overusing a tired joke qualifies as higher comedy I'll never know, back that brings me full circle to subjectivity again...
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...it's hardly the best thing on tv, but the pilot, and especially Duchovny, were fun, and I personally like the abrasive/cynical edge that Duchovny's character has. As for Herc's opinion, he's entitled to it, but seriously, he has the worst taste of anyone I've never met, so I'd never personally pay much heed to it, or to his regular trick of stacking the chosen reviews so that they reflect his own opinions whenever possible.
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