O Estranho de Cincinnati

Go ahead - those of you who love the show will automatically give me a "not helpful" rating and attempt to make my comment look like it was written by a second grader. Here is the truth, my truth anyway. This is a challenging show to watch. It took me four episodes to determine if I would be back for a fifth but I am and I will continue. It's building up to something that is slowly giving birth to the idea that we are going to witness something incredible. I just wish not every single character was so odd. There's no doubt in my mind that there's going to be some big redemption factor coming up. This is one weird show; I don't mind it being deep and mysterious but there is something about it that makes me uneasy - maybe that's good. All I can say is I hope it has a payoff that I'm "not expecting".

I am fascinated by this show. I have tried a number of times explaining to people what it is about, and I find it difficult. If I had to sum it up in one word I would say "redemption". This whole family is so screwed up and John seems to be there to help them heal, but in the most bizarre way! This has now become THE show that my husband and I have to watch each week. My only complaint is about the language. I realize that it is part of the character development, but I think I would still watch without every other word being an F-bomb. I hope the show catches on and people watch, but I fear a lot of people won't get it or will think is it too much work because it does require some thought. That's what I like about it, though.

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

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.