August 14, 2007
Gone from Cincinnati
As you probably know, especially if you watched even a fleeting moment of it, David Milch's HBO surfer drama John from Cincinnati was the worst, most exasperating TV series ever aired. Nevertheless, we watched every episode during its three-month run, hoping that at some point a light would come on and reveal a shred of plot hidden somewhere in all that thick Milch scripture. But no. And as the season finale came stubbornly to its baffling close, we were SO ANGRY that we wanted to damage our TV set for allowing it to come into our house. But there is a light at the end of the tube at last. We'd always hoped that John would soon be gone, and now it is. We learn today, via Buddy TV, that the show has been canceled, thank God. And thanking God was, in fact, exactly what Milch had in mind the whole time, as he only now, finally, reveals:
Milch, who believes that the artist is “God's surrogate,” chose to have ordinary characters go through a profound experience of faith in order to make it easier for viewers to understand the complexity of the show's overall message. “The idea [behind John from Cincinnati is] that the universe is a solid system but [also] a series of waves,” Milch explained. “And that man is not an individual creature, but that his essence is carried from seeming individual to seeming individual [and becomes] available to surfers if they aren't loaded and selfish or if they don't become addicted to the behavior of surfing itself. Doesn't often happen.”
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Comments
-- Rachel | August 14, 2007 3:27 PM
A PART OF ME HAS JUST BEEN RIPPED OUT AND EATEN.
THAT SHOW WAS MY FUCKING LIFE.
I don't know what I'll do without it.
-- shoy ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://worldofwonder.net/nav-commenters.gif)
| August 14, 2007 4:07 PM
i had a strange attraction to JFC. i did not enjoy it, yet i could not stop tuning in every Sunday. i felt like if i kept watching, all would be revealed... i kept waiting for a lightbulb moment, an epiphany that would explain everything that i had witnessed, but alas this wasn't meant to be. but i did love Cissy Yost!
-- sebastian junior | August 14, 2007 9:31 PM
i am so glad this show was cancelled. like deadwood.
-- moye | August 15, 2007 6:11 PM
I too was drawn to watch the show, hoping it would get better and more palatable. It always seemed to be trying to be "cool" rather than have any real meaning. It's one of those shows that the die hards will say "you just didn't get it" if you don't like it. Well, I did get it and I still didn't really like it. Especially Cissy Yost whose constant yelling and "ball busting" was getting on my nerves.
-- Mark | August 17, 2007 3:53 PM
I too was drawn to watch the show, hoping it would get better and more palatable. It always seemed to be trying to be "cool" rather than have any real meaning. It's one of those shows that the die hards will say "you just didn't get it" if you don't like it. Well, I did get it and I still didn't really like it. Especially Cissy Yost whose constant yelling and "ball busting" was getting on my nerves.
-- Mark | August 17, 2007 3:55 PM
I too was drawn to watch the show, hoping it would get better and more palatable. It always seemed to be trying to be "cool" rather than have any real meaning. It's one of those shows that the die hards will say "you just didn't get it" if you don't like it. Well, I did get it and I still didn't really like it. Especially Cissy Yost whose constant yelling and "ball busting" was getting on my nerves.
-- Mark | August 17, 2007 3:57 PM
I loved the chracters, the story, the script.
That this show wasn't accepted, is a failure of the average hbo viewer to explore below the surface of their own selves, rather than any meaningful mark against the show itself. The yuppies of hbo viewship didn't have the depth to catch the waves of JFC.
Of course, the message is to the producers of JFC is, 'next time, don't shop an introspective show about a bunch of liberals to a bunch of middle-america's mental-masturbating nobodies.'
The revolutionaries that this show is about are already out doing better things.
-- Zach | August 24, 2007 9:02 PM
I really enjoyed watching this show on demand when I would work nights and miss new episodes. I disagree with you completely and thought that the show was interesting. I guess to each their own.