Californication
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"I'm disgusted with my life and myself, but I'm not unhappy about that." - Hank Moody

CHARACTER
Hank Moody
HankMoody
Gender Male
Date of Birth 60's-70's
First Appearance Pilot
Last Appearance Grace
Occupation Writer
Number of episodes 84
Relatives Al (father)
Becca (daughter) Levon (Son)
Portrayed by David Duchovny

Henry James "Hank" Moody is a famed novelist and a freelance writer. The show revolves around him trying to fix his relationship with his daughter and ex-girlfriend while battling with alcoholism and sex addiction.

Overview

Hank is in the middle of an on-again off-again relationship throughout the duration of the series. He has written several novels, such as South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and most notably, God Hates Us All, which was adapted into a movie called, A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, which admittedly Hank hated, because the Hollywood suits changed the script so much it barely resembled the original book. Although in his early forties, Hank seems to think of himself as, and act like, a man in his twenties. Profits from his books have enabled him to live a relatively comfortable and carefree lifestyle, one of the reasons for his arrested development in certain areas. Despite this, Hank still loves and cares deeply for his teenage daughter Becca, and on-again off-again love interest Karen ( Becca's mother). Still, Hank tends to find himself in trouble more often than not, with his daughter in school, and an abundance of time on his hands. One of Hank's major character flaws (and source of drama on the show), is his tendency to effortlessly attract women to him, bringing with them an assortment of trouble that usually often damages his family life. Being a successful writer, many women feel that they are already connected to Hank through his works, making it that much easier for Hank to respond to their flirtations. With Karen often out of town for her work, Hank tends to give in to these women more often than not, although sometimes he will try to restrain himself. A major effect of his promiscuity is that his daughter is often around to witness it, thus making things between Becca and Hank even more difficult. Despite this, Hank is still motivated by and dedicated to (in a way) his relationship with Karen.

Another major source of trouble for Hank is hanging out with his friends. Whether it's music producer Lew Ashby and a drug-fueled all night sex party, or his best friend/agent Charlie Runkle; trouble is never far from the men. Hank and Charlie always seem to have a great time together, yet at the end of the night/morning, they know that it's been a wild ride. Examples include double-teaming a female boxing instructor, stealing from a bookstore (his own work no less), and getting tattoos while not remembering the previous night.

Despite all of the aformentioned, Hank is a man on a journey to find (and perhaps redeem) himself, a central trait of the character, and theme of the entire series.

Personality

Hank is the ultimate womanizer: he's charming, witty, handsome and, according to his former attorney Abby, "pretty good at math".

It can be assumed that Hank suffers from depression. He often indulges himself in unhealthy activities such as alcohol and drug abuse out of guilt, something that his enemy director Todd Carr would call "wallowing in narcissistic despair". Still, Hank often does the things he does only to numb the pain he's going through at the time, with catastrophic consequences.

Hank is an individualist that often takes pride in his craft. When Karen asked him to go to couple's therapy, he retorted by saying "I'm a writer, I don't get shit out like that!" He has a somewhat elitist attitude when it comes to the eternal debate of movies VS literature. In the pilot he scolded Becca for wanting to see Pirates of the Caribbean merely for the fact that it's based on a theme park ride instead of a book. Being a victim of Hollywood himself, he holds a grudge against the modern film industry, especially when it comes to working with Todd Carr. Ironically this individualism is only overshadowed by his vanity and ego. He often finds it impossible to resist any woman that says "I love your writing" and Hank has said the aforementioned to be his "Four favorite words in the English language".

Hank is a bit of an old school kind of a guy. He has a strong liking for classic rock, especially Warren Zevon; Every time he finishes a book, he indulges himself in "Whiskey, weed and Warren Zevon". He also often complains to Becca about whatever he thinks is wrong with younger generation, modern TV, movies or music. He also has a beef with abbreviations like LOL and managed to anger the woman he was seeing back then, Meredith, for ridiculing people who type like that on public radio.

He's also quite harsh when it comes to criticizing others in general: One of his students in season 3 tried to kill himself after Hank gave him notes on his writing.

Despite all of his flaws, Hank is a loving father and loyal to the fault. While he can easily shrug off most of the things other people, even Charlie, might say to him, he is utterly defenseless against his daughter's critique and is often emotionally crushed by her harsh words. On many levels Becca is actually the only person with the ability to really get to Hank. Not even Karen has an effect of such magnitude on him. Lew Ashby once reminded him of this by saying "At the end of the day, it's all about her.".

As the show progressed, Hank's worst features mellowed down by a wide margin. Especially his relationship with sex seemed to have gotten a lot healthier. He never quite got rid of his charm over women, though.

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