Television series

Californication

A washed-up, still-brilliant novelist can't stop sabotaging the one relationship that matters while sleeping his way through Los Angeles. It's raunchy, quick-witted and shamelessly indulgent on the surface, but underneath the swagger is a genuinely sad show about a man who keeps choosing chaos over the family he claims to want. Best watched by people who like their comfort viewing with a hangover attached.

TVMaze rating7.9

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Weeds2005

A suburban widow turns pot dealer to keep her family afloat, and the show has the same trick as Californication: gorgeous sunlit surfaces hiding genuinely reckless choices, played for laughs until it isn't.

But It sprawls badly in the later seasons, chasing increasingly implausible plots long after the central joke has been made.

Weeds poster

Rescue Me2004no page yet

Denis Leary as a firefighter drowning in booze, grief and infidelity — funnier and angrier than it has any right to be, with the same push-pull between charm and wreckage that Hank Moody runs on.

But Its humour leans macho and dated in places, and the tonal whiplash between comedy and trauma can feel abrupt.

Nurse Jackie2009

Edie Falco is magnetic as a pill-addicted ER nurse who lies fluently to everyone she loves, and the show never lets her charisma excuse what she's actually doing to people.

But It's a colder, more clinical watch than Californication — less romp, more slow-motion moral collapse.

Nurse Jackie poster

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Something you would not have found on your own.

BoJack Horseman2014

Same charming, self-loathing man cycling through the same self-sabotage — just filtered through animation, which lets it go further into despair than live-action ever could.

An animated, talking-horse sitcom star sabotages every good thing in his life exactly like Hank Moody does, but the show is willing to sit in the wreckage far longer and refuses him the easy redemption arc.

But It's a much darker, sadder watch than its cartoon exterior suggests, and the humour thins as the seasons go on.

BoJack Horseman poster
More like this (8)

Entourage2004

Same LA hedonism, same wish-fulfillment engine of money, sex and industry access, minus the heartbreak — a breezier, shallower cousin if you just want the fun without the fallout.

But There's little of the emotional wreckage that gives Californication its weight; this is mostly just guys being rich and horny.

Entourage poster

Hung2009no page yet

A broke, divorced high school coach turns to sex work in a recession-hit Detroit, trading LA gloss for financial desperation but keeping the same charming-fool-making-terrible-choices core.

But It never quite decided what kind of show it wanted to be, and it shows in an uneven three-season run.

Shameless2011

The Gallagher family runs on the same fuel as the Moodys — addiction, chaos, and love that keeps surviving despite everyone's worst instincts — just transplanted to working-class Chicago.

But Eleven seasons is a big ask, and quality drops noticeably once the show outgrows its original premise.

Shameless poster

House of Lies2012no page yet

Don Cheadle's slick management consultant lives fast, lies constantly and can't stop wrecking his relationships — a slicker, more cynical spin on the same self-destructive-charmer template.

But It's colder and more calculating than Californication, with less genuine warmth underneath the bad behaviour.

Bored to Death2009no page yet

A broke, stoned Brooklyn novelist moonlights as an unlicensed detective — gentler and goofier than Hank Moody's world, but it shares the same fond, funny portrait of a writer avoiding his actual work.

But It's slighter and lower-stakes than Californication; don't expect much emotional gut-punch.

The Affair2014

Also a writer, also infidelity, also Long Island glamour curdling into wreckage — but told from dual perspectives and played almost entirely straight, for people who want the heartbreak without the jokes.

But It's a much heavier, slower show with none of Californication's comic relief valve.

The Affair poster

Bukowski: Born Into This2003no page yet

Hank Moody is fiction's cleaned-up, better-looking version of Bukowski; this shows you the real template, minus the show's forgiving lens.

A documentary portrait of Charles Bukowski, the drunk, brawling, brilliant writer Hank Moody is quite openly modeled on — interviews, archive footage and the real mess behind the literary bad-boy myth.

But It's a genuine documentary with no plot momentum, and Bukowski himself is often unpleasant company on screen.

Days of Wine and Roses1963

Strip away every laugh line and stylish LA sunset from Californication and this 1962 drama is what's left underneath — the same story, told sixty years earlier and completely straight.

Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick play a couple whose marriage is destroyed by drink, decades before Californication existed, with none of the swagger — just the plain, unglamorous cost of addiction on love.

But It's bleak, black-and-white and entirely without jokes; anyone hoping for Hank Moody's wit will find only grief here.

Days of Wine and Roses poster

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Recommended by

Two and a Half Men, Entourage