‘John From Cincinnati’: The time has finally come ...

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... to ask the big question about this show. No more vague Milchian shenanigans like we saw on Sunday night’s episode, where there was more talking to parakeets, luchadors, a rainstorm in Southern California (as if!) and Shaun’s birth mother showing up, leading to the shrill, paranoid, crazy-lady meltdown of Rebecca De Mornay’s character. All of this may or may not be connected, or important, or interesting. Take a deep breath and clear your mind of all this. Now we must face the ultimate query: HBO ditched ‘Deadwood’ for this?

I’m still getting my mind around ‘John’ -- the decision to air the show, as well as what the heck it’s all about -- and, judging by the conversations I’ve had with folks recently and the Show Tracker comments, many people are in the same boat. (See? Ocean analogy! Anyone can do this!) Is Milch going for an anti-consumerism slant by praising the Zen of riding the waves and just going with the flow? Is he exploring the emotional stuntedness of a family despite their extraordinary physical (and metaphysical) talents? Is it really just about God posing as some monosyllabic kid from the Midwest with immaculately coiffed hair? With no clear answers, the show just isn’t as compelling week-in and week-out as ‘Deadwood’ was. Sure, ‘Deadwood’ was populated with all kinds of grime and scum -- and the good guys and bad guys were often only differentiated by how many layers of grime and scum they had acquired -- but at least viewers could latch on to the characters and how Milch was subverting the Western genre. There ain’t much of a surfer genre to subvert, perhaps not surprisingly, and the characters are just too mystifying in ‘John’ to have any resonance. I’m still intrigued by ‘John,’ against my better judgment. It has to be building up to something, right? Right? Or is it just one big metaphor on religion, where you have to have faith that it’s going to lead somewhere good without any real evidence of the outcome?

Here are a few comments from Show Tracker readers in recent weeks that share my ambivalence. Some people have been righteously crabby, like Webbie on June 19: ‘I love surfing movies and surfing footage, but this show stinks. The acting is unbearable. I can’t believe Milch and HBO pulled the plug on ‘Deadwood’ to give us this piece of ... dead wood. Please please please get this off the air.’ And others have been ticked at HBO’s corporate machinations, such as this comment by Peter from New York on June 13: ‘I found this show utterly boring. So bad that I will not watch more. And to think that ‘Deadwood’ was killed for this? Ah, so a surfer show is art but ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Carnivàle’ were not? It’s just TV, but I’m paying for this rubbish and tired of HBO. Why bother watching, investing my time when they’ll kill a show before its time yet keep the ‘Sopranos’ going beyond its sell-by date?’ On June 18, TSW posted this vituperative gem: ‘Am I the only one that was happy when Shaun Yost broke his neck, in hopes that we’d no longer have to endure his terrible ‘acting’? Sweet Jesus, Milch, kill these real surfers off and put some actors in there. Is it really that hard to fake surfing footage? Or is the surfer-HBO-fan community so large and untapped that you feel it necessary to suck up to them by including their friends in the show?’ Not all viewers have been so snarky. Also on June 19, Syd Lexic came to praise the show, not to bury it: ‘’Deadwood’ didn’t jump right out and grab you by the throat -- well, it did, but more with its violence and obscene language than with its quality -- but eventually developed into a powerful and moving series. Let’s see what happens with ‘John From Cincinnati’ before consigning it to premature burial. After all, if a bird and a surfer can come back to life, why not a TV show?’ And, finally, Brian wrote after last week’s episode: ‘It’s fun seeing actors from ‘Deadwood’ reappearing in JFC for one thing. Hoping that Swearingen shows up for a guest spot at least.’ Not to get all meta-religious about it, but: Amen.

(Photo courtesy HBO)