5 Reasons Californication Is Really Hank Moody's Imagination

3. Stereotypes Of L.A.

If there's one thing that is true about Californication, it is this: the show has a love-hate relationship with the city of L.A. Nearly everyone living in L.A. in the show fits a stereotype. Whether it's the pretentious artist, the psycho/ self-obsessed rapper, the lonely housewife or the desperate model, L.A. is a wasteland of paper thin characters that feed into Hank's worst personality features. It works for the show because it helps us understand the affect the nature of the city has had on Hank and his career. Meanwhile, anytime New York City is shown in the series we see Hank as mostly calm and usually happy as well as his career being on the right track (he's written two books there on the show). The stark contrast between these cities and the stereotypical nature of L.A. in Californication can again be explained by author's point of view which comes across stronger in novels as opposed to scriptwriting. Hank's life is portrayed as falling apart the second the Hollywood machine and California sun tempt him and this is the way the man would write his novels. He would play up the stereotypes and create a very easy to see contrast between L.A. and New York City. The point of view of his "Californication" novels would easily explain this obvious theme.