Watching Showtime

You have to love the audacity of Hank. From moment one you see him fighting desperately to ruin his life. Before the credits even roll, he’s picking a fight with the screenwriter who “butchered� his best-seller, and admitting to having slept with his wife. In every room of their house. All while he’s at a reading in a bookstore. And to add insult to injury, Bill’s the one that shows up to pick him up from the police station, and with Becca in the car.

And that’s just the first five minutes of the episode!

To ease the constant pain of losing Karen to such a chode, Hank heads to the bar where he runs into Meredith, the fiesty red-head from the restaurant in the first episode. Although she’s on a date with another guy, Hank saddles up to the table, and in a very out of character move, he apologizes to her for his mistreatment. Asking her out on another date, he cops a horrid fake French accent (why?) when her date returns from the toilet and slithers back to the bar. Of course she leaves her date and begins the flirtation dance with Hank, even playing the “I bet I can peg you� game he played with her on their first encounter. What happens next? Clearly a good romp, complete with a Hank dream of her punching him in the face. Maya’s gotten under his skin a little more than he’d have liked I suppose.

In the am, Hank pulls another unlikely move by asking Meredith out to dinner that same night. Wait, what? The king of screw ‘em the leave ‘em is taking a girl out on a date? Too bad this moment of zen in Hank’s life is interrupted when Meredith lets Maya in as she’s leaving. Maya’s in all her evil glory, letting Hank believe she’s pregnant before stealing one of his unpublished short stories while he’s trying to distract Karen in the other room. Busy morning for Hank! At least he doesn’t have to explain (yet … I’m sure he’ll have to at some point) Maya’s constant presence in his bed and his nightmares.

On their date, Meredith admits the guy she was with the night before is married, and has been throughout their entire five-year affair. Unwilling to admit he’s never going to leave his wife for her, she even cites the dog he bought her, Cat Stevens. Apparently she brought the dog over to his house once, and left suddenly when the wife came home, leaving Cat Stevens behind accidentally. And so he gave the dog to his wife. What’s newfound “Nice Guy Hank� to do but break into the married guy’s house and steal back the dog while he and his wife are having sex?! Hilarious!

While this drama is unfolding, Dani (the assistant to Hank’s agent) sends him a link to her suicide girls photos as an apology after he’s fired her. What’s a married man to do? Of course he pulls it out and gets off to the super “s & m� photos. The next day he tells her to keep her job, and not much after that they get all down and dirty, spanking style. Really? I didn’t need that image in my head.

Upon the two startling realizations that he’s not only dating Meredith and not simply sleeping with her, and that he stole the wrong dog and doesn’t actually have Cat Stevens, Hank heads over to the Karen’s house and they discuss again her getting married and how he wants her to marry him. You gotta give him credit for being persistent, even if it’s probably too little too late. He gives Bill the painting he stole from Cat Stevens’ owners, and then gives the puppy to his daughter, but says it can stay with him. And now Hank is having moment of clarity type thoughts, about how he’s being forced to watch his family move on without him and how he can’t stop it and must instead change his life.

To read about past episodes:

season one, episode one
season one, episode two

Showtime, Californication, David Duchovny, Hank Moody