John From Cincinatti: Wha?
June 10, 2007 by Katherine Coble
Oooh boy. Yeah.
I sure can see why David Milch picked this show over Deadwood. ‘Cause I know I sure enjoyed watching a bunch of surf bums standing around yelling at each other. I liked it much more than the guts-ball chess game of building a new society. And I know that I’d rather watch Ed Bundy play a retired cop than watch Lovejoy run a nascent mob out of a brothel. Yeah. Really.
Seriously…what was this mess? There were tiny glimmers of story floating in the miasma of Milchian chatty dross, but not enough to make me want to run out and buy the DVD to watch over and over again. Before we go any further, let me explain some things to David Milch (and anyone else who wants to write for TV):
- You may remember the days of your addiction fondly. The rest of us don’t find junkies all that entertaining. So don’t waste valuable minutes of TV time forcing us to watch desperate guys shoot up. (Exception: The Wire. Y’all writin’ for The Wire know how to work that story line into something that means something other than “junkies are modern cowboys.”)
- The swearing worked in Deadwood because it matched the coarseness of the men and the time and the terrain. Shows set in the Modern Day don’t benefit as much from the prosaic overuse of M——F——. I’m not a prude. I’m just bored with it already.
- Try to have at least one good guy to root for.
- Try to have at least one really bad guy to root
foragainst. - The rest of us out here in Viewerland aren’t as enamoured with you as all the young pups who sit around in awe and watch you work. We just expect you to crank out stories which entertain us, amuse us and occasionally make us think. We’re motivated by the stories you provide–not your cult of personality. That means we are entertained, amused and driven to think by the stories, not by the fact that YOU wrote them. So put some freakin’ effort into it, already.
- Rebecca De Mornay can’t act her way out of a mound of whipped cream.
Who knows? Maybe I’m just bitter because Milch left the tales of Deadwood untold in order to helm this goofpile. Maybe after giving it another two or three episodes I’ll be apologising profusely and genuflecting at the Temple of Wordsmith Milch. Time will tell. Unfortunately the hour and five minutes of time I sunk into this show so far has told me “rent Deadwood Season Three when it drops on Tuesday”.
I had the same reaction.
I also have a feeling I won’t be the only person canceling HBO, today.
If he sticks with the personal interactions and drops the surreal/SF/magical realism stuff, I’ll stick with it. I kind of like the game of watching John pick up new physical and verbal phrases and add them to his vocabulary; it makes a nice rhythm. But I can’t find myself caring much about who or what he is.
After watching the Sopranos and David Chase’s big “F U Audience!” ending, I wasn’t in a particularly good mood. So starting a new series wasn’t a great idea. I watched JFC and was bored at first, then puzzled. The ending picked me up a bit, but I left saying Huh?
Then, something happened in the days following the premier. I started thinking about all the little details. I decided to watch it again and Whoa! So much better the second time around.
I think this series will end up making a lot of critics eat their words.
I liked the show. I don’t think its going to be as good as Deadwood, but I’m going to give it a chance. I wrote about some of it on my blog:
http://www.johnfromcincinnatiblog.com
John From Cinci Fan
I loved Deadwood and I already love JFC. I like the trippy stuff, it’s well done. I have high hopes. I think it’s gonna be great. It makes me happy.
Wow, I can see why your writing reviews and David Milch is writing TV shows. Two episodes and I’m hooked. I love been taken places I’ve never been before and I love the anticipation of not already knowing what is going to happen next. I’m with BK, its a show that keeps creeping back into your mind, bits at a time. I’m just sorry I aready erased the first episode from my PVR>
I’ve lived/surfed/guarded in IB all my life and it’s neither as good nor as bad as the show depicts it. Around here we have a saying: IB is OK.
This show blows Deadwood “out of the water”. Deadwood kept me interested so far as to how far a western town developing could take me. Ho hum.
John From Cincinnati, unlike this blog owner’s initial perception, as so many nuances and angles, and character freakouts, that it’s unlike ANYTHING on TV now or ever before.
I predict all those with the attention span of a gnat will whine about the loss of Deadwood and not “get” the whole weirdness of JFC. And if you’re looking for the hero, look at the calm Zen of Shaun Yost.
See God, Datta.
I got my eyes on YOU!
[...] they keep coming here to leave comments on my blog entry. Unfortunately those comments are largely inane. (”This show blows Deadwood “out of the [...]
“Largely inane.” As inane as issuing a command for television screenwriters to “give us what we want,” I suppose? As inane as television critics who presume to speak for the masses? Shut the fuck up, Katherine.
Katherine is dead on with her review. John from Cincinnati just downright sucks. I miss rooting for “bad guy” Al Swearengen, and I miss the depth of all the characters in Deadwood. I’m not interested in JFC, I don’t understand it, and I don’t want to understand it. It is downright ludicrous, and boring at that. Plus, I’m tired of seeing all these Deadwood characters recycled–it just reminds me of what was lost in favor of this garbage.
Yes, yes, I agree with Katherine. John from Cincinatti is contrived and self-conscious, for no apparent good reason. It never gets to the point of anything. For example, how many weeks will Rebecca/Cissy stomp around angrily, while puffing on her cigarette like a 13 yr. old? Is her acting really that one-dimensional or is it the writing or the directing? The show had promise because it’s intriguing and different. It hints that there is something great and interesting about to transpire. However, after a few weeks, I’m tempted to puff on a cigarette, kick in the t.v., and say a few F words right back to Cissy when she’s having a hissy fit. Nevertheless, there’s something interesting and almost addicting about the show. Maybe because it is like life at times: rambling, ridiculous, and non-sensical. But unlike the show, real life actually has more than one dimension.
It never got better, and now, thankfully, it is gone.