John from Cincinnati

From watching the first couple of episodes I wasn't sure what to make of this new series. It was a world that we've seen before, sort of. I mean, we've seen shows about beach communities(Flipper,Baywatch). We've seen shows about strange and wondrous beings among normal human beings(My Favorite Martian, Mork and Mindy and even THE FLINTSTONES w/The Great Gazoo). What distinguishes this story from those other shows is that even though the the situations are vaguely familiar David Milch slows things down and opens up the world to more than the standard situation conflicts that we're accustomed to. When a character can levitate when he's never levitated before is something you would see on 60's TV. But usually that is the only thing weird going on. You don't spend time on a telepathic parrot or a couple of immaculate conceptions. On top of that a lot of hard drug abuse, incest, communication with the afterlife and porn stars. Now with all that going on is Milch's signature writing style that forces the audience to pretty much pay undivided attention to what the characters are saying and what they are doing while they are speaking. Basically, this is another show too smart for its own good. I would have liked a second season. We don't get enough Rebecca DeMornay as it is.

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.

Terrific plot foundation, in the Hitchcock tradition, barely watchable at 1st, but the characters are interesting and compelling, But it tweaks you a couple different levels, grows on your like athlete's foot, by the end the 1st episode sold, complete with the expectation and anticipation of the next episode. Could be a very special show.

Best the characters are well developed, and wildly diversity. a few very strange people, but yet the ring true, in other words, strange enough to be real people.

Not a gift show to watch, reguires most of your attention, in this day of scattered and short attention spans, the show may be too much trouble for people to work. By the way, the opening theme must be added to the pod, any idea who they are. ???

HBO cancel this show, I cancel my HBO

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

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".