Season 7
It's officially the last ride down the storied California coast with the incomparable Hank Moody (David Duchovny). For the past six seasons, we've sidled up to the (Mali)bar as trusty wingmen (and women) on all the unforgettable, jaw-dropping sexcapades, threesomes, ménages and comic mis-adventures.
Through countless trysts and turns, we've watched as he tried – largely unsuccessfully - to repress his insatiable inner lothario while stoking the flames of his on/off again relationship with baby-mother Karen (Natascha McElhone).
He was aided and abetted by best buddy/agent Charlie (Evan Handler) and his wife, the irascible Marcy (Pamela Adlon). All this while being an attentive, protective dad to ever-attuned, irrepressible teenage daughter Becca... and trying to hold down a job (novelist, professor, screenwriter, and playwright).
It all began years ago with an innocent misunderstanding – how could Hank have known that the hot brunette one-night-stand was actually Karen's teenage step-daughter? And every red-blooded male has mistaken their girlfriend's private parts in a darkened bedroom for another's at one time, right?
And Hank would have been crazy to turn down the wanton pleas of a desperate housewife (Embeth Davidtz) and a willing grad student (Eva Amurri)... it all came to a screeching halt when Hank was charged with statutory rape, but he was saved from the gallows by his sexy lawyer (Carla Gugino).
A new career turn as a writer for Samurai Apocalypse's (RZA) film Santa Monica Cop ultimately led him to the medicated brilliance of unhinged rock icon Atticus Fetch (Tim Minchin), who hired him to turn the screenplay into a stage play and turned him on to love, hope and a little Faith (Maggie Grace).
When we last saw Hank, he had wisely reconsidered leaving on a jet plane with Atticus to instead hop aboard Krull's (Steve Jones) bike to rekindle the fire with lady love Karen.
But will she be waiting on the other end with baited breath and open arms? Not likely. Their happy ending may be mucked up by the re-appearance of old friend Julia (Heather Graham), whose return on the scene may cause an irreversible rift in the Hank/Karen ballad.
But Hank is preoccupied as Santa Monica Cop has now been developed into a television series of the same name and he's thankfully been hired by old-school producer Rick Rath to join the writer's room to help bang out scripts.
But Hank's always been more of a solo act, so having to play nice and share toys in the sandbox is a wholly unfamiliar feat. This new world, where juvenile infighting abounds and more creative energy is spent on the exactness of lunch orders than clever dialogue, may mark Hank's mental undoing.
The one person banking on Hank's success is his agent-best friend Charlie, whose prowess in the bedroom with newly reconciled wife Marcy hangs on landing that ten percent commission: the Runkles are broke.
But an enticing offer from Marcy's ex-husband and Santa Monica Cop executive producer Stu may put the Runkles back in black...but at what cost?
Whether our favourite fornicating foursome will emerge hand-in-hand on the other side is to be determined. True love (lust?) is being tested at every turn and there's no telling who will ride off into the sunset together or skate solo down the Venice boardwalk.
Will our favourite polyamorous Peter Pan finally pack it in for forever fidelity? Or will the siren song of the next great lay cause perpetual, eternal distraction?
In the meantime, let's pull up a stool at Malibar, order a stiff drink and see how it all unfolds. It's guaranteed to be a 12-episode ride of our lives...
Produced by Showtime, Californication is created and executive produced by Tom Kapinos and executive produced by David Duchovny.