CaliHirponiacation

Sophomore slumps may sound as they only belong to college kids, but any music or sports fan knows this isn’t the case. A rookie hits the scene and has a great first season, and in their second season their production is far below the now high expectations they have set for themselves. Music works the same way, a great debut is followed up with something sub-par, the fact that par is set after just one release is both unfair and honest. Just ask Hootie, Fionna Apple and any Royals fan (you remember the Hammer and Berrora).

Television works the same way. “Californiacation” was one of the few shows to have a near perfect first season; it was as likely to suffer a drop off this year. I didn’t want to even consider the possibility, but then season two began. I’m not a prude, or easily offended, but in the first few episodes they said “fuck” as often, and as meaningless, as any rapper with a gold album. There was so much meaningless sex and drugs it could have been written by just about any high school senior who spent his nights snorting Ritalin and watching Cinemax. Worst of all, it had stopped sounding personal. They went through the motions, and followed some foolishly designed formula.

Based on how last season ended, I knew it would be hard to strike the same chords. Hank took Karen away from marriage that made about as much sense as Lyle and Julia; they sped away to a happy ending. But there was nothing “happy” about Hank, the only happy endings he could have would have capped off a massage. It was a dud season ending, and it set up season two to flop. Expectedly, it did just that. Until the happy union between the couple that seemed destine to be together, fell apart. There were some bumps, and a little too much time spent with Ashby and Mia (a nasty little something the writers need to banish with a shot of Penicillin) but they brought the show back to its roots.

We’ve seen it time and time before, the television shows where everyone is pulling for the guy to get the girl. Only once he gets the girl, the quality of the show almost always slumps. “Friends” is, of course, the perfect example. The highly underrated, “How I Met Your Mother” is designed to avoid this pitfall, as we know that when Ted finally meets Mrs. Right, that it will be time to call it a wrap.

But we may have a television first, a breakup actually fixing a mistake. Hopefully Showtime can perform the same magic on “Weeds”; as that would be the tri-fecta. We’ve seen “Entourage” and “Californiacation” return to form, so there’s a chance.