John from Cincinnati

This is an amazing show. I liked it from the beginning, but I enjoy it more and more with each episode. I can feel the families emotions. I have known families just like this. With multiple generations that share a passion and a talent but for whatever reason something leads one or all of them astray. I have found this show to be like a drug, I can not get enough of it. I liked some of the other HBO series over the years, but if I missed an episode it really did not matter, but today, with this show, it matters. I watch each episode several times, so that I can catch all the little things that I missed. you have to be open, to give it a chance, to try to feel the pain, the joy, and the confusion within each character.

Network: HBO; Genre: Drama, Fantasy; Content Rating: TV-MA (for pervasive graphic language and sexual content); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

An average day in the life of the distant, dysfunctional Yost family starts to get a paranormal twist when a mysterious stranger (Austin Nicols) shows up at the door of Butchie Yost (Brian Von Holt), a washed-up former professional surfer, and insists he should get back in the game. He can only speak by repeating back what is said to him. He can cause father Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood) to levitate. He can send images over the internet with cryptic messages. He can make people disappear and he has something to do with a parrot who relays messages to motel resident Bill Jacks (Ed O'Neill) - among other things. A reporter and what may be a secret organization hot on their trail are also thrown in the mix.

History will probably record "John From Cincinatti" as the show that aired after "The Sopranos" finale sent the country diving for their cable remotes more prominently than it will mention it as another series from famed "Deadwood" scribe David Milch. It has one of the most lively and fun opening title sequences ever to grace the premium channel. So good, in fact that Milch ("Deadwood") actually flashes back to it in the show's pretentiously empty ending montage. But I'm getting a head of myself.

While "John" couldn't be further away from the lawless wild west and Milch's trademark backwards sing-song dialog, it has it's share of frustrations. OK, more than it's share as the show gets increasingly trying with each outburst fueled, narratively empty episode. One of the chief irritations is how crammed it all is. Milch, apparently feeling that the John/Yost storyline wasn't enough crams the periphery with the several guests at a run-down surf-side motel. The HBO/beach bum version of the "quirky colorful characters" you'd see in a "small town" movie.

Milch tries to create a world here, surround us with a diverse ensemble and immerse us in a barren self-absorbed California wasteland that contrasts a tourist nightmare of a motel with it's love of the sand and sun of the beach culture. But Milch populates this world with aggressively annoying characters and pushes HBO's freedom to the breaking point with little to nothing to reveal with each episode and paranormal activities whose connection with each other remains locked in Milch's mind after a 1 season cancellation. It is a show about a love of surfing that will probably annoy surfers. A show about the paranormal that will annoy the sci-fi crowd. Where "Deadwood" had a "Sopranos" serial structure, it still moved. "John" has seemingly no structure, spending the entire first season running in place using the blank-faced, parrot-nature of it's title character as a literal screen writing roadblock to keep the story moving anywhere.

It's hard to feel for the characters in any way when they are either screaming their lungs out in a fit of melodrama (Rebecca De Morney is the chief offender) or doing things no one can relate to for reasons they, themselves, often have no idea why. Here is the thing. I'm all for weird. I love weird and I love original. But you've got to give me weird with something else. Weird and funny ("Flight of the Conchords"), weird with intelligent storytelling ("Lost") or weird with a swing-for-the-fences David Lynch style of visual poetry ("Carnivale"). "John from Cincinnati" is weird for the sake of weird. I might call it original if I had any idea what the hell it was trying to say. But either way, Milch's bizarre "Roswell" by way of "Step into Liquid" story fails to give us anything to hold onto.

"John" is another self-indulgent, pretentiously enigmatic TV treadmill whose sole purpose seems to be to send the audience away bored and befuddled and then demand they come back for more if they want to know how it all "fits together". But Milch, unlike J. J. Abrams or David Chase, has yet to earn that trust. Without that it comes off more like "keep watching if you know what's good for you and maybe we'll throw you a bone in a few years". Something tells me this show could have gone on for 5 years and we'd still be standing in the same spot.

* / 4

HBO's new drama series "John From Cincinnati", is certainly somewhat strange, mysterious, and somewhat hard to catch on to you really wonder just which way the next wave will roll. Yet the stress and miracles and problems of this California surfing family just pulls you as a viewer in and you feel like your part of the clan. It's set in a California beach coast town that borders Mexico and you have the Yost family and the family harbors three generations of surfers. First the legendary Mitch(Bruce Greenwood) then next his drug addicted son Butchie(Brian Van Holt) and then finally the new prodigy that's Butchie's son and Mitch's grandson Shaun(Greyson Fletcher). During it all the boys are held together by Mitch's strong and tough wife Cissy(Rebecca DeMornay) who's always on the lookout and very protective of Shaun, and quick to scold son Butchie as she urges him to change his ways. When a stranger enters by the name of John(Austin Nichols) a guy from Cincinnati strange things start to happen from medical miracles to floating above the ground like in air without standing on the ground! Also Luke Perry is pushing as a sneaking surf promoter who always tries to push his influence on the family. One good bright note away from this dark underworld is family friend Bill a bird talking and pro wrestling watching lover who' a great family friend, and I must say great job of acting from Ed O' Neill he's come a long way nice work he's doing in such a serious drama. David Milch really has the audiences thinking and feeling the pain of this family as one watching you just don't know what's going happen at sea. More and more has to be revealed about this messed up and conflicted family much should be discovered at the bottom of the sea. A good new series that's plenty interesting and mysterious that will have you as the viewer wondering and feeling the power of the strange forces of nature and miracles. Really it's nice to see good work again from veterans like DeMornay and O' Neill too. Really a pretty good pick up for HBO.

It is difficult to say enough good things about this series. The ensemble cast gives new meaning to the term; there hasn't been as wacky and as wonderful a cast since Firefly. There are standouts -- if Rebecca de Mornay and Ed O'Neill are not nominated for Emmys something is very wrong indeed -- but pretty much every one of the actors is spot-on.

Many people will probably comment about the odd paranormal events that start to happen when John arrives on the scene. Many theories will be generated about who John is and what he does to "cause" them. I see things a different way. The magic of this series, and the brilliance of its writing, is that despite the title it really isn't *about* John. John doesn't really cause these extraordinary things to happen to this odd group of people; it's more like his presence allows the odd group of people to realize what is already going on.

There's an old spiritual saying: "Before realization, chop wood and carry water; after realization, chop wood and carry water." Realization isn't about changing anything, it's about noticing what has always already been present. The magic surrounding the extended Yost family has always already been present. You want miracles? It's a miracle that most of them are still alive. But they've been so busy for so long now chopping wood and carrying water that they never realized how much of a miracle their lives were. Around John, they start to realize this.

I live here in SoCal, and this show really represents a side we don't ever see in mainstream media. It is very true-to-life, aside from the supra-natural elements. What I would like to say about the show is this: I don't want another 'Deadwood'. So I was not disappointed in this at all. Where 'Deadwood' had a creeping dread that ANYTHING (usually horrible) could happen at any moment, this show creates a sense that ANYTHING (probably magical) can happen. The characters are all acting out of a sense of earnestness and love, however it is manifested. I love this show and would say that those who don't like it or get it are not it's audience anyway. They can go watch Deadwood or Sopranos on DVD. What we have here is something fresh and great. Watch it.