My Kinda Town
Thoughts on
Another ep I loved, all the while, hating what was happening. I think maybe that's what I love about this show; how it seems to consistently have my emotions going in about five directions at once, and laughing about it all. Hello? How do they do that? Still amazes me how enthralled I can get with every nuance of every scene, the dialogue, the visual, the story, Hank's heart showing in his eyes, on his sleeve, in his words and gestures and brashness and gentlemanliness, even in his dreams. How he can do so wrong and come out looking so-o-o right is just beyond me, but he does it, week-after-week.
This week, we start out with a Hank dream. A very short, but simple one, where again, you see Hank's heart in action. Simple, but effective. Especially when he wakes up and sees where he really is. Sleeping on the couch, alone. Anybody else think about Mulder, or is it just me? I loved the little 'skirt' he was wearing, and I remember when I saw it in the previews, I thought he had on burgundy velvet bellbottoms. 'So 70's rock god of him!' I thought. When he sits on the counter, they look more like bellbottom jeans, the way the blanket or whatever forms to those muscular thighs and falls away from those equally muscular calves :slurp:, and it was a quick glance, at best. But the skirt will do. Speaking of quick glances, I saw you-know-who, so I was okay with the skirt.
I loved the 'Asian' (for lack of a better terminology) accent from Lew, even if I shouldn't. Hank did okay imitating him and Lew's comeback was equally giggle-worthy. Vodka with orange juice for breakfast, yum! Naught! I suppose it's the typical and only way to start the day, if you're a moron, that is, but really. Even Hank ought to know better than that. But since that's possibly the least despicable thing Hank did all day, I'm not sure why I'm complaining.
I think what bothers me more is that Hank would ever find
himself even remotely attracted to a loudmouth phony like Chloe. Why
would a guy like Hank want to engage with an obviously deranged and egotistical
woman like her? Hate fucking, as Lew suggested? He wants something
totally opposite of that which he loves most for that, maybe? I dunno,
personally, I couldn't even stomach watching Chloe's show, as grating and goofy
as she is, and for Hank to want that anywhere near him
in person makes my skin crawl. Now, I know Hank goes for pretty much
anyone that offers or asks, from slutty to sublime, and there aren't many of
them I'd give my approval to, if it was up to me to give him permission. But Chloe? Yack. I'll never understand the appeal, to a guy like
Hank. But whatever puts the rise in his
The Daddy scene was as adorable as ever. Hank thinking it was Wednesday all day was a plausible running theme for the ep, since it helps indicate how going from that hard-fought near abstinence from all things unhealthy (smoke, drink, promiscuous sex) to overload of all three, practically overnight, is affecting him. Thanks, Karen. How thoughtful of you. You'll remember I mentioned last review what turning Hank out into the world can do to him, and I also mentioned how Ashby's mini Playboy mansion scene was the worst possible den of inequity Hank could've picked to nest in.
I'm thinking by this time that we're in for some Slutty!Hank for the rest of the season. Ya think? Complaining? Heck no, but yeesh, it makes it so hard to complete each stEP of the program with viable progress toward my ultimate goal; freedom from an unhealthy addi ...state of mind. I'm not doing that successfully. Oddly enough, I'm getting the impression I'm not supposed to, since it merely seems to get worse every stEP, but nobody said it would be easy. I'm being put to the ultimate test and I love it a little too much. We all have our challenges, and that's mine, Bobriety. Hank's not helping me any.
I'm glad in a motherly way that Karen called Hank on his choice of residence and the vodka breath, mostly because I liked her concern. She knows it'll go in one ear and out the other, but at least he knows she cares enough to scold him about it. He reacted typically, his heart and its injuries on his sleeve and all over that pretty, smiling face and body language. Pretty cool that Karen suggested Hank and the Becca spend some time together, off-schedule. Go, Karen! I loved Becca's, "I'm not a child!' reaction, fighting with her smile.
What I really loved though was the part where Hanky gets all up in Karen's face, like he's going to kiss her, but he doesn't get to! Oooh... unresolved sexual tension, anyone? Either way, it was lovely to watch and made me sort of tingly all over. There's an almost unearthly beauty about them together in that little face-to-face to the point that even if you don't like them together, for whatever reason, you almost can't not like looking at them together. They're very pretty together.
What I dug even more about it was the, "This sucks," thrown into the near-intimate interlude. Go, Hank! Maybe it's just me, but it kinda looked like Karen hurt a little having to let go and walk away, as if it wasn't so easy for her as it was all last season. She would've laughed at him and pranced off last season, but she appeared a little more uneasy about gliding off out of Hank's reach, this time. Much different look on her face, something akin to longing, if I had to put a word to it. The infuriating magic that is Hank again, I guess. Guy's got some mojo. ;-o
"Great minds think alike," indeed. It's like they're both using the same one, sometimes.
Hot Lips, I love. Great name for such a business. Charlie's conversation with the caller was a hoot. You'd think Marcy would branch out into balls, wouldn't ya? Seems like a natural progression to me, and she could probably use the money. But I had to laugh at, 'yeah, the masturbating agent.' The convo with Daisy was sweet, in its own warped way, and I sort of loved the way Marcy insisted Charlie help Daisy. Not that it really surprised me, but somewhere in the back of mind I kept thinking she wouldn't be so amenable, if she wasn't a druggie now. It's that kind of anything goes attitude that is typical to coke addiction, so in a way it was cute and in a way it was disquieting. Marcy was adorable and funny anyway. I know the Runkles will have to soar even lower before they run out of room and have to change directions, so I'm down with it as comedic disarray, for now.
Again, I guess when you're hate fucking, any old place to put it will do. Still, I think Hank would know Chloe spelled trouble with a capital T, the minute he walked into the kitchen, and for him to fall for her overdone shtick so easily and willingly was kind of icky, as a Hank fan. Not enough challenges to her intelligence and character, like the more typical-to-me Hank for me to be comfortable with him proceeding as LEW wanted him to. That prick. I didn't like Lew in this episode much. What an asshole! <g>
I did, however, laugh when Hank grabbed the remote to try turning down the volume, hee, and made the analogy of the tiny TV Chloe as opposed to the life size one. But then she asks for sex, he says yes, without even thinking about it, and off we go to one of the funniest, rawest scenes of the ep, and thus far, IMHO, the raunchiest fake sex I ever saw Hank or Mr. Duchovny engage in on screen. I waver between it looking a little too real for comfort, to crying from envy <g>, to appreciating it for what it was meant to portray, which is hate fucking with a lunatic, an egomaniacal bedroom tigress. One of those, 'holy...' moments that I quickly brushed aside to fall out of my chair laughing at the dialogue, and Hank's reaction to the things Chloe was saying. He looked so comical with chocolate all over his face, and I burst out laughing every time at the way the 'jihad' line is delivered, more than the line itself. Very creative response, I have to admit, and so in theme! Very good, Hank. Go to the head of th... never mind.
Funny as it was, Hank's too romantic to be wasting his charms, utilizing them like a weapon against those off which he feeds, rather than loves, and I lose faith in Hank when he does that. Never lasts long, that loss of faith, because he always makes it up to me later, and besides, I know it's supposed to be funny and it usually is, these one-time things of his, and they always bring him grief and it's a lesson learned kind of situation, or it should be. Only it isn't, and that troubles me a little about a Lonely!Hank.
Now yeah, I realize it's up to Hank to choose his restraint, and he's obviously in that season one frame of mind again, that nothing he can do or say is going to magically make his relationship with Karen all better, so he's given up. He's going to use any resource at his disposal to make him forget he was rejected by the Queen of His Dreams. Again. Giving in to temptation has been more attractive than not since Adam and Eve? Well, there ya go. He's lost yet another battle and his will to fight for perfection.
We've seen Hank do this before; looking for thrills in all the wrong places. Medicating. Most of us do it in one form or another, and Hank has built a high tolerance to his medication, so he tends to need more and more to get off every time. It gets more overblown into more and more risky and ribald behavior every time he's thrown back into that mindset of neediness. He's lonely and in pain, and he thinks it's all he's got to ease it, drink and loose women. It's an age-old remedy for a self-imposed illness that, on a bad day, can actually lead one into even more devastating illness. It's reckless and self-destructive, and I'm glad it seems to kind of comes and go with Hank, this abandon. But it didn't take him long to regress, and it makes me kinda hurt for him or something. It makes a good comedy of errors, I suppose, but I'd like seeing him find a better outlet for his agony, is all.
Lew's never matured beyond adolescence, and is always goading Hank and cheering him on and even 'buying' the ladies Hank wants, and I suppose that makes it even harder for Hank to abstain. Got no reason to anymore, nothing to lose. Sad. I wish he'd try harder to think with other than his lower regions, *before* he already has, sorta. I laugh at Lew, but I hate him for his part in Hank's meltdown, and that's what I see happening. Sure, Hank's choice and he's old enough to know good from bad and right from wrong, but he's given up the fight again. He needs his motivation back.
Living with Lew is like throwing Hank to the lions and tigresses, and where it's really no longer Karen's place to tell Hank what to do or who to hang out with, it was the one thing she said to him that day that I wholeheartedly backed her up on. Ba-a-ad move. But again, it makes for great debauchery and comedy arising from that, so I'm trying to be patient and not get completely burnt out on seeing Hank falling into bed with a wide array of totally strange strangers to bang away his heartache. Got to be a better way, I'm thinking.
But such is our story. And my interest lies in seeing how Hank figures it all out for himself, how long he can keep taking two steps forward and twenty years back, without breaking something irreparable. Livin' like a frat boy again. Feh. If Karen can't live with him, then okay, I guess she can't live with him, but I just hope Hank's constant shenanigans and tendency toward a musical chairs bedroom doesn't destroy whatever chance they might have left to get back together. It can't be helping, at least anybody but Hank for a few minutes at a time, and I hope he gets beyond the self-medicating with the woman of the hour phase soon, gets more interested in writing his book than having his notch(es) in the bedpost for the day. Just seems like to me he's just asking for more trouble with every bedding, but I guess we'll see.
I don't want Hank denying himself companionship or anything, because Karen doesn't deserve that, a monkish!Hank pining away for her day in and day out, and she never really asked Hank to prove himself to her in that way, while they're apart. Agreed, she's always harping on him about his dalliances while they're apart, but she knows as well as he does that 99% of those meant nothing to Hank except a few minutes of comfort and bravado. And well, as previously mentioned, it's an area where Hank excels, and it'd be kind of a shame if he didn't even have that to make him feel worthwhile, wouldn't it? It's all he has to brag about, feel proud of, in his mind, so he uses it more than he ought to.
I've kind of come to think that Karen can handle multiple sex partners for Hank a lot better than she could handle Hank actually getting serious about somebody, which is why I mentioned before how I'd like to see Hank find a serious, if only temporary, love interest, for the sole purpose of getting Karen's attention, bring out the big cat in her. Rawr. I'd love to see her claws come out, if it was for Hank, and not against him, for a change.
But enough of that. We back off the raucous sex to the quieter tone in the restaurant with Daisy and Charlie, working on a plan. I liked the conversation, but I'm naturally wary of Daisy and anything involving porn making, so it's obvious that no matter how determined either of them are, this can't be going anywhere good. But I like the determination anyway, and it's nice to see them both just exuding confidence. Kinda sweet, somehow.
But then it's back to Lew and Hank and his conquest of the evening. More bragging about sex like frat boys. Then the lunatic comes downstairs. Chloe has the honor of dropping the r-word this week. I noticed Charlie used the variation 'fucktard', in the previous scene, but he scores no points for dressing it up hide the source. I have to agree with Chloe that the man's *GORgeous!*, but in no way did I like her Whole Foods idea. What?! No way! Is she insane?! Oh right, she is. I was trying to forget. I'm jealous of her access, as you must know, and I giggled at the reaction to Chloe taking advantage of aforementioned access. Lucky lunatic.
Annoying as she was, I really felt for Chloe, how desperately she clung to her non-existent appeal to these two gentlemen she wasn't done partying with, when both of them seemed to feel she'd outlived her usefulness. Really awkward and demeaning for her, and although I sensed Hank was a bit more willing to accommodate her, I noticed how he seemed more attracted to taking the out Lew offered him.
Chloe put herself there, however, and I think she just overestimated the tolerance she'd be afforded, had the totally wrong idea about how to make herself attractive and welcome. I guess she mistakenly thought that sluttier is better. Louder is essential, or something. Still, you could tell Hank didn't want to hurt Chloe's feelings, exactly, but he appeared determined to back her off, just the same. Didn't blame him a bit.
I guess Charlie has to have his phony antagonist, too, and it comes in the form of Ronny Praeger. Ronny had some great lines, but he's full of himself, like Julian, only he seems more honest, somehow. The scene was a nice progression of Charlie's promise and determination and confidence, so I liked that part. Kind of a meh scene for me, anyway. I'm not that into Charlie and Daisy, it's just that they seem good as a porn making team, and it really does seem like Charlie genuinely has Daisy's best interests at heart. It's not like he's stringing her along for sexual favors or anything, but just that he wants to help her, maybe help his own financial situation in the process. That's not what I expect to happen, but it's a nice thought, at least.
The scene in the car was just almost too painful and annoying to watch. We find out Chloe has an inexplicably loving, but angry husband waiting at home for her, with a tiny little crying infant in tow, no less, and she insists on being whisked away from the scene of the crime. I think what annoyed me even more was that Lew and his bitchy driver, Sam, complied! Hello? Since when does Sam take orders from Chloe?
Lew had so adamantly refused Chloe's every clinging vine offer, told her off, in no uncertain terms, already, and if he was going to physically remove her from the car, why not in front of her home? Why accommodate her flight from reality, just to dump her on the roadside miles on down the road? It was already established she was NOT going to the Troubadour with them, so where were they going to take her? Why not drive to the end of the block, around the corner and dump her? I find out why later, but still...
Charlie and Daisy and Ronny at the movies was ...enlightening, I suppose. Charlie went into agent overdrive, and I chuckled when he started making stuff up to make Daisy seem more perfect for the role, her reaction to that, how he wouldn't let her back down, pulled out Cassavetes references to make his point. Then Ronny confesses the movie's a wash, and it sort of telegraphed where this whole unseemly mess is headed. I had to laugh at 'wall of cocks sequence' and have to admit to pondering the visual just like Charlie was. I must also interject that having Hank join in the filming of that sequence would be indispensable to authenticity.
Back to the nonsensical ride out into the Hollywood Hills, for no good reason, while Chloe continues to make a horrible nuisance of herself, so they can throw her out of the car in the middle of nowhere, high in the hills, with the breathtaking view of the lights of LA to look at. It still doesn't make any sense to me, why they'd put up with Chloe that long, but they do, she goes too far and pisses off Sam, and suddenly she's out of the car, for reasons I, up to that point, couldn't explain.
But then it becomes clear that it's so Hank can show us his heart again, his chivalry in the face of injustice against women. And where I loved that show of gallantry, how it came to be still didn't make sense to me. But Lew's abject cruelty certainly made an appearance, and I'm proud of Hank for finally drawing a line between him and Lew that he won't cross or follow along, just because asshole says so.
"Well, fuck my rusty sheriff's badge." What?! LOL! I swear, I have no idea where she gets the things that come out of her mouth, but Marcy cracks me up. And uh-oh. I think it's pretty obvious where the Runkles are headed; financial ruin, I'd bet on it. My crystal ball says, "Park Le Brea, here they come!" Welcome to the rest of the country, I guess. ;-p
The conversation between Hank and Chloe was so brutally honest and biting, that I had to love the scene, in my own way. I thought it was rather telling that the only personal compliment Hank could think of to give her was how 'tight' she is. Only Hank would be so bawdily bold to think of it as a compliment. Not to mention Hank managed to make another reference to cat-banging in backhandedly complimenting her. I'm beginning to think Hank has a serious aversion to cats. <g> Nah, I get the real analogy of the terminology, so ...cute. We should all be so kittenish where it counts, eh? Good for Chloe. She has one redeeming quality.
Which reminds me how much I miss the dog. At this point, I'm not sure I want to know what happened to poor Yusuf. At the same time, I'd like some closure on the pup. He was really so adorable, and I'd like an explanation for his disappearance. What I'd really love is if he suddenly appeared in an ep, like nothing ever happened. I think I saw him in a Suzuki commercial the other day, so I'm going to pretend he's just out on the road, making some extra cash for the Moody household.
I've heard complaints about Chloe asking Hank about his significant other, when she'd told Hank earlier that Lew had passed on Hank's sad story. We have no idea what Lew told her, but it could've been as simple as, 'he's been through Hell lately and he's looking to forget all his problems for a while,' which wouldn't really tell her anything about Hank's situation or what constitutes Hell. But honestly, I look at Chloe in this ep as two completely different people from her first scene to the last, and I didn't find it all that glaring a snafu, and maybe not one at all.
We first met the unsettlingly desperate-for-attention party girl gone wild Chloe, then we saw her as the accomplished, but sad cooking show host, a housewife and mother, resigned, calm, quiet. Bipolar, much? That was my first reaction. I'm not studied in psychology, but from what I know of the illness, she displayed classic signs. It doesn't surprise me at all that she totally forgot any and all details Lew may have passed on about who Hank was or the trouble he'd seen, because she didn't give a flip who Hank was or what he was going through when she arrived for her adultery of the afternoon.
She wanted to be the Party!Girl, the one who'd do anything, as long as it's fun! She was there to satisfy her overwhelming sexual urges, and who better than Hank and his Whole Foods Delight to quell that ache? She used Hank to a greater degree than he did her, because she made it all about her and getting what she needed. She was still doing it when she asked him the question, claiming she could tell he was trying to bang out some deep, dark ache or anger on her, and if he did it like that every time, he'd be dead by now. Um ...excuse me, but I believe her contribution to the act had a lot to do with the way he banged her so relentlessly, and for her to make the assertion that it was Hank's agony that compelled him to bang her relentlessly is hogwash.
Hank was trying to give her what she was asking for, not banging her like a dead body with no nerve endings or limitations because he had an ache or demon he was trying to expel. I hoped Hank would call her on it, but I still liked the adolescent way he responded, even if it didn't abdicate Hank of the blame for merciless banging she ASKED for and received. I just thought it was silly of her to put it on Hank, but I suppose it ties in with her other childish behavior, placing blame on others, so Hank's response was equally childish in nature.
But by the end, when Hank showed her compassion and basic concern, she flipped poles, realized she'd completely ignored him or his feelings, treated him like a piece of meat, too, and I saw it as her trying to get reacquainted with, show a human interest in someone who'd shown her a kindness, in spite of how she'd used him for stud service up to that point. Hank humanized her, the way he treated her and talked to her and in doing so, humanized himself to her.
I thought it was a very subtle but effective way to show the dichotomy of Chloe, and the heart of Hank. She was two completely different people who didn't actually know each other. Frankly, I liked the way they hinted at sympathizing with her, without really having to like her at all, which I didn't. I breathed a sigh of relief when she finally got in the car and disappeared, but I pitied her a little, like Hank did, before it was over.
At least Hank tried reasoning with the party girl side of her, reminding her how she really didn't want to lower herself to this kind of behavior to feel more accomplished, which I thought was nice. But it was sad anyway. I didn't like Chloe any better when it was over, the scene with the husband was so incredibly weird and uncomfortable, but I felt better about Hank, anyway. Very brave of him to face the angry husband, but I figure he wanted to make sure there would be no violence between the couple.
And yeah, I, too, have to wonder how Hank can feel so deeply about how women like Chloe have become the women of LA, circa 2008, and still be a part of the atrocity himself. He doesn't really prey on these women, but they seem drawn to him like a magnet, for sure, and he rarely has the willpower to say no. I know I already referred to it as thinking with his lower regions, then lamenting that he has later, an illogical but consistent pattern with Hank, impulse and regret, but it does make him seem a might hypocritical, certainly.
But it was almost like he's complaining that if there weren't women like Chloe, he wouldn't be in the lonely place he is, and that really isn't true. If he had the restraint to deny these women, lecture them on the fallacies of life as a menu item, *before* he actually beds them, he might not be so lonely or seem so hypocritical. But Hank's heart stays hidden, long enough to gratify himself and the latest offering, and it only comes out, once the deed is done. It's like the act itself jars him into the realization that it meant nothing to either party, it was senseless and even cold-hearted, in a way, so the guilt seeps in and he makes up for it with chivalry and sensitivity to their plight.
It's kind of backwards and unproductive. A good message, but one that usually comes too late to redeem him of his sins. It's like deliberately sinning, so you'll have a reason to go to confession later, like he can't convey to them how wrong or hurtful or demeaning it is to them, until he's had his jollies with them first, pleased them and fulfilled (and filled full) their every wish, in his mind, and it's not a part of Hank I really admire. He's very generous with requests, aims to please, and the good intentions afterward are lovely, but they ring kind of hollow.
But there lies the vicious circle of regret that is Hank. Hank has a lot to offer, besides his awesome bedside to bed middle manner, but because of the constant flow of lustful and loose LA women constantly within easy reach, he doesn't know it. Somebody slap him and tell him what a thing of beauty he is inside, would ya?
Hank needs an anchor or he tends to just float away into oblivion, and I can only hope he finds that anchor he needs soon. Becca alone is a great reason to change his life for the better, but Hank needs more than that to feel whole, obviously, and I wish, in all that endless searching, he'd find a good anchor so he can rest and find his chi. <g> Hank alternately doesn't try at all or tries too hard, when he really shouldn't have to. To quote possibly my favorite songwriter ever, "You know, the times you impress me the most are the times when you don't try. When you don't even try."
I'm not sure why, but I loved the last scene. My heart ached for Hank, of course, that he had to miss Becca's date angst, and where I thought it was nice of Karen to try and share it with Hank, I hurt all over for him that he wasn't there, kind of like Hank did. I got all lumpy-throated again, feeling bad for Rejected!Hank, missing out on all those small moments in a growing child's life that makes being a parent worth the effort.
I still like that they can talk to each other civilly, and I got a wispy vibe that they might be able to break down the barriers that keep them apart someday. Like they're taking little baby steps to being able to talk to each other like two adults in love and with child about something besides sex, so I found it oddly illuminating, the common little conversation they had.
And yeah, the portrait may have been a bit cheesy, but I loved it anyway, and got little tears in my eyes. Great rendition of Hank, whoever actually painted it. I'm impressed. But more than that, it represents hope, for me. Hope for Karen, hope for Hank, for Becca. It indicates to me Karen's trying very hard to recapture what brought them together, what he's given her, trying to remember what she loved, what she's always loved and always will about Hank, why she loved him and how she could again. She's trying, and I really can't argue or complain about that. Shows promise.
Loved, loved, loved the last song, for real. Totally perfect and it added to that tingly teary-ness that's becoming all too common, by the end of every episode, for me.
All-in-all, I liked the ep. Not my favorite, no, but an interesting up and down interlude like most of the rest, with the Runkles providing the infallible comic relief. Hank's situation seems more personal or serious, for some reason, that he's slowly eroding his own sanity, instead of fighting back, and it all makes me uncomfortable, all of it; the Runkles, the Moodys, the whole ball o' wax. But I think it's meant to, and it's truly a discomfort I can live with.
Seriously. This show fascinates me in one way or another every time, and even when I find fault with the message, I still crave the payoff. They know how to make me want more, and I do. They all have my sincerest, deepest respect and gratitude for another captivating and decadent 6 hours of television this year. Very nice. I look forward to the next seven weeks of payoff bliss.
Next week, people. Be here or be skeered. ;-p Happy Halloween, everyone! Stay safe, do good and keep the haps on the sunny side.
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