Last night brought the season premieres of three “comedies” as premium cable has now come to define the word: without laughs. That’s not true entirely, as all shows are sporadically funny, but they’re also not exclusively concerned with making people hee-haw, instead asking viewers to go on a journey that might be found more in a relationship drama, the kind not getting made anymore (except on NBC’s underrated Parenthood) now that zombies, dwarves, and vampires have hijacked the quality cable networks.
Californication…Showtime’s comedy is now in its sixth season, and who can believe this show hasn’t been cancelled yet? I prefer this show to most of Showtime’s “edgy,” trying-too-hard-to-be-in-your-face comedies, but it also suffers from the same problems of faux-outrageousness and characters talking about sex more than any real human being you’ve ever met in your life. Also, it’s a little preposterous that all these hot women just hop into bed with David Duchovny’s lazy, alcoholic Hank Moody because he’s a writer. [Is it obvious Duchovny produces this show as well?] The premiere found yet one more lame obstacle for Hank and off-again, on-again love Karen not to be together (his guilt over the death of…a crazy ex that tried to kill him with poison and successfully burned down his apartment? huh?) and now it just feels like they’re jerking us around. Hank and Karen aren’t together because the whole show is built around sex and he can’t have sex with new people if they were fully committed, so that won’t happen until the very last season. Speaking of which, it’s probably past time for Californication to start thinking of an end date, although the prospect of Hank going to rehab might spin the show in a new direction…but it probably won’t. Grade for Premiere (and probably the full season…): C-…[And yet, I’ll probably watch every episode of this show until they finally cancel it.]
Girls…HBO’s critical darling is back, and fresh off its win for Best Comedy at the Golden Globes. I liked the first season of Girls, even if I thought the season started running out of steam somewhere towards the end, and I question how far a character-based show can go if Hannah is the only core character we care about. The second season premiere didn’t make me fall in love with needy, self-centered Marnie or one-dimensional Jessa (who’s more like an idea for a character, “the wacky, spontaneous friend,” than a real one) anymore than the first season, but it did set up an interesting role for The New Normal’s Andrew Rannells as Hannah’s new roommate, and Donald Glover as her new love interest. This isn’t really a show that’s built around “big” season premieres or individual episodes, and if the second season premiere was only okay, I don’t necessarily take it as a bad sign. Grade for Season Premiere: B
Enlightened…If there’s one HBO comedy that’s actually been underrated in recent years, it’s Enlightened. For every one critic that shows it appropriate love, there’s another that is turned off by its honest, sometimes-awkward attempt to see a grown w-o-m-a-n (not a Girl) stumbling towards enlightenment. Laura Dern’s Amy Jellico may be annoying, completely oblivious in social settings, and a mess, but she’s also trying to live a better, richer life in a world that doesn’t necessarily reward better people. Enlightenment is about something real, and Amy’s quest to expose the corporation she works at (which has demoted her to a basement of a tech facility that spies on the other employees, or in the corporate speak the show lampoons “monitors productivity,” and——-we learn in this episode——-is about to be scraped altogether to save the company money) will fuel much of season 2. It’s a great start, and a fitting springboard for Enlightened’s sometimes abstract central question “If no one but me cares about a fuller life, how can I live one anyway?” Grade for season premiere: A