I've had the misfortune the last couple weeks to catch a few episodes of HBO's latest series John From Cincinatti. Filling in the old Soprano's time slot might make some people think it's a show of equal talent and creativity. I feel bad for those who did.
I've enjoyed a lot of HBO's shows (The Sopranos, Big Love, Entourage, Six Feet Under, Oz) but none have ever stunk like this new one. What annoys me the most, is that they've pushed a higher quality show (Big Love) to a less convenient time slot to air this piece of crap in hopes of getting viewers.
In a nutshell, this show is about a mentally retarded stranger who searches out a washed up family of "legendary" surfers, who have an assortment of crazy neighbors, and makes unbelievable events occur all to the amazement of everybody. Itf gets even better. After 5 minutes of watching you realize this show is all about how clever the creator David Milch is supposed to be. Everybody's dialogue is either a bunch of nonsensical phrases said with a mysterious eerie tone, or lots of mumbling and griping to themselves (or animals). The retarded stranger (John) just parrots the last think said to him, usually at odd times in the plot. This mess of confusion is so the viewers can enjoy the deep philisophical meaning of each spoken word, and how they pertain to some bigger picture. The following quote can give you an idea on what to expect.
"Can you hear the dead man singing in room 24?"
What's great is that the show needs to have a detailed analysis of each episode on their homepage to help make heads or tails of it. And of course to gloat on how awesome their writing is.
John's extraordinary speech at the end of the episode is bound to trigger much discussion. I'm not in a position to enter that fray, but I can say this: all but a couple of John's statements will make sense to anyone who follows the show, listens closely and think it through.
And they have to force philisophy onto the viewer with their subtle names such as Monad or actuially have characters talk about the spirituality of surfing, the deeper awareness it brings and how its not fair that some won't surf where others can't see them and appreciate what it stands for.
It's also unfortunate that they decided to use some real surfers as main characters. Its a shame that none can act, and they have so far decided to shoot a total of 2 minutes of surf footage in six 1 hour episodes. Great casting there. If any of the characters were likeable this could work too, but most are drugged out losers with little sense of morality. Some retard wanders into their neighborhood, and the first thing they do is take his credit card and spend lots on surf equipment, booze and drugs, dragging him around town and they don't even consider trying to find out where he is from. The rest are gullible idiots. A suppsoed doctor diagnoses the kid with a damaged spine and says he might never recover. When the kid does (from a bird kissing his head), the first thing the doctor considers isn't that a mistake was made on earlier tests, or that they should examine him thoroughly but that a miracle was just witnessed. I don't want this guy operating on me.
I will say the only good thing I've seen from this show has been a line from the retard where he repeats something along the lines of:
"I boned her and broke her jaw. I get a combat bonus."
HBO should be focusing on Big Love right now since its the only thing worth keeping the channel above worth watching.