KEY POINTS:
Yes, with that title and Duchovny's involvement, the show is a dead sitter for "The Sex Files" headlines. In it the actor formerly known as Agent Mulder plays Hank Moody, a successful novelist with an appetite for drink, drugs and women who is suffering writer's block after his acclaimed book is Hollywood-ised into an awful romantic comedy.
It's been six years since Duchovny ended his nine-season run on The X Files and while he's made a few movies since (we don't remember them either) - and he's also just signed up for a second X Files movie, Californication was the sort of inspiration he needed to get back to work.
"The thing that the X Files afforded me was the luxury of being able to just choose what I wanted to do rather than had to do. I didn't feel I had to do anything until this."
Well, chasing West Coast gals should make a nice change from pursuing little green men. And as his star rises again, here's a guide to the life of Dave, one of the small screen's more enigmatic mumblers ...
1. He ignored evacuation pleas and decided to hang tight in his Malibu home during the Californian wildfires. That's despite the title of his most recent film Things We Lost in the Fire. Funnily enough, one of his earlier movies was called Kalifornia.
2. While he's a jack rabbit on Californication, he only ever had sex once on The X-Files, and that was with a vampire. Does that count as necrophilia?
3. His breakthrough role was as Dennis/Denise, a transvestite DEA agent on Twin Peaks. He also made several guest appearances as himself on showbiz satire The Larry Sanders Show with a storyline which had him trying to seduce Sanders.
4. He damaged his right eye while playing college-level basketball which may account for the squint.
5. It may also explain his willingness to make passes at girls who wear glasses - well, he did date singing librarian look-alike Lisa Loeb for a bit.
6. Duchovny means "spiritual" in Russian, which may account for him being a vegetarian - but then again, he never cooks.
7. He also never wears his wedding ring despite being married to actress Tea Leoni. He claims it's because he's allergic to metal.
8. He has a masters degree, but dropped out of Yale without completing his PhD. He started, but never finished, a thesis on "Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose". He instead headed to Broadway to become a star.
9. He says he can speak French, Latin and Hebrew, but it's hard to tell with the mumbling.
10. He caused a wee ruckus at the Outfest Legacy Awards in Los Angeles last month when he asked for someone to cover his daughter's eyes and ears before introducing a series of clips of gay characters.
11. He says The X-Files was better than the Beatles, which is kinda like saying puppies are better than cricket. But that didn't prevent him from taking out a US$25 million ($32 million) lawsuit against the show's producers and syndicators who he says owed him money. "I never said, 'Hey, The X-Files is making all this money I deserve some of it'. All I was saying is, 'Hey, here is my contract, it looks like I am owed some money'."
12. Duchovny wrote and directed two of the funnier X Files episodes. "The two that I wrote and directed are somewhat lighter in tone. That's just me. I'm as dark as the next guy but I don't equate dark with being deep."
13. And just like in X-Files, he has a younger sister, but if she's ever been abducted, he ain't telling.
Californication begins tonight, TV3, 9.30pm
