I’m loving John from Cincinnati.Ken Tucker and I might be alone on this one. Many on our staff don’t approve.
I wonder if I’m drawn to it because of my Cali roots and the constant reminders it provides me of surf, sand and the word "dude." Or could it be that it’s just a damn well written show with some great characters. My favorite character is family friend to the Yosts, Bill Jacks, played by the erstwhile Al Bundy, Ed O’Neill, who Michael Slezak previously claimed "overacts". Psh-ya! How can one not overact a neurotic character who converses with his pet birds and suffers from what I presume must be OCD. His performance is right on, I say! Care to rebut, Slezak?
Last night’s episode was pretty wacky, I’ll admit. Turns out Cissy Yost, who ran off her husband, is a totally insane-trigger-happy-crazy-lady, and Shaun’s mom, Tina Blake, is now a famous porn star. And, what? The little surfer boy Shaunie smokes weed! Who knew? Someone should inform that boy smoking out of an aluminum can causes Alzheimer’s!
(By the way, PopWatchers, did you know the show is loosely based on thereal life surfer-family, the Fletchers? So there is a good reason theyselected that really bad actor to play Shaun Yost. According to Slate,real-life surfer Greyson Fletcher (pictured), the third generation ofsurfers in his family, is actually playing himself. The boy’s gotundeniable skills on the water. But maybe he should take a few actinglessons along with fellow surfer-turned-actor Keala Kennelly. Just an idea.)
Even with all the wackiness, last night’s show still provided mewith some quality couch potato time. For the first time in the series,I was actually moved by Kai’s character. Normally, Keala Kennelly, whoplays Kai, drives me B-A-N-A-N-A-S with her bad acting, but last night,I really appreciated her understated performance. She didn’t have awhole lot of lines, but her body language spoke tenfold when reactingto Butchie’s ex, Tina, coming back into town. And the way she calmlyhandled Cissy’s breakdown by taking the gun away and opening the doorto let Butchie and Tina see Shaun as he slept was honorable and reallyallowed me to feel for her character. At the end of the ep, I actuallyfeared Kai was thinking of offing herself with Cissy’s gun. Presumably,that was exactly what David Milch wanted us to feel and think.
Meanwhile, away from the Yosts’ baby’s mama drama, John was spendingtime with Cass, Link’s ex-employee. I have no idea what’s really goingon there, but I’m sure we will find out much more on the next episode.And that’s what makes a show good, right? The constant curiosity. Themystery. The unknowing. In my eyes, that’s what sets JFC apart from all the other shows on the tele these days. I anticipate the next episode.
Do you guys agree or are Ken Tucker and I still completely alone on this?
P.S. The music — Muse, TV on the Radio, etc. — is great on thisshow! Thanks for pointing that out in the comment board of Slezak’spost.
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Love this show! It is as wacky as Twin Peaks!
Like the previous poster, I do like this show because it reminds me of twin peaks in a lot of ways. I’m also intrigued to find out what will happen. I’m watching the show half in enjoyment, half in an attempt to find out who the hell is John Monad.
Also, Ed O’Neill does overact, but it’s appropriate given the character. He can’t really bring an understated demeanor to such a certifiable loon. I could imagine anyone else except for Ed Bundy playing that role anyway.
I hope that John from Cincinnati stays around for a while. I think that it’s a show that has gotten better as it has stayed on. I hope that people come back and give it a chance as there has been no real groundshaking moment yet in the show. A lot of things have happened sure, but nothing monumental yet.
I love Milch, and I will keep watching… buuuuuutttt — there eventually has to be some kind of payoff. The solipsistic meandering needs to arrive at a point.
I really want to like this show, but I just can’t get there. I keep saying…one more episode…but nothing is happening! Cissy took overreacting to the extreme and John (thankfully not in it as much last night) is just grating with his parroting. With that, I’ll give it….one more episode. Put Big Love on Sundays at 9! It deserves it. The past two weeks have been great with some superb acting and humor.
I really want to like this show, but I just can’t get there. I keep saying…one more episode…but nothing is happening! Cissy took overreacting to the extreme and John (thankfully not in it as much last night) is just grating with his parroting. With that, I’ll give it….one more episode. Put Big Love on Sundays at 9! It deserves it. The past two weeks have been great with some superb acting and humor.
Some characters here from Deadwood! The drug dealer from Hawaii, the Doctor, the lawyer who visited the Doctor about why a kid written up as brain dead left the hospital 2 hours later. Wonder who’s next.
I think Ed O’Neill is doing a fantastic job.
The show itself– the jury is still out with me. I can’t stop watching. I find the John character very interesting. However I do get annoyed sometimes… Milch has an annoying tendency to waste screentime in what seem to pretentious ways. The show is over at the :50 mark and not later like other shows have. This seems to be a show that’ll cliffhang us and then drag the story out for several years without being satisfying along the way. “I waited a YEAR for the new season and you’re wasting all this time you could use to fully flesh out the story because youre launching a new storyline that doesn’t even seem to relate to what’s been going on???”
Re: Cissy’s behavior.
Any of you ever been unfortunate enough to LIVE with a woman like Cissy? Meet them at their front door as a stranger and they will have this friendly “Oh everythings so wonderful” face.
LIVE with her behind closed doors however and you really begin to know what having anger dumped on you for every ‘wrong’ move you make, and that is pure hell.
They are every bit as neurotic as Rebecca De Mornay is showing us through Cissy. Very good acting… Surprised me because usually I hate it when Rebecca De Mornay acts… but in this case there could be no one better for this particular character.
Not to say that people like Cissy are the embodiment of evil as they are human, but I’m sure some of you who have had to live with a Cissy know how freaking hard it is to live with someone like that.
My favorite episode of John From Cincinnatti so far is the one where half the characters screamed the entire episode, while the others spoke in a lazy monotone. Oh, and there was surfing. Anybody else like that one?
Right on about the music – especially in the first three episodes. I still get chills thinking about the Kasabian tune at the end of the premiere. The series seems to have taken a turn for the worse in the past two weeks, but I still have hope. More surfing and Zippy, please!
I’m getting caught up in this show even though I have no real idea where it’s going. It’s kind of enjoyable not to know where it’s going.
Boy, after the first couple of episodes of “John” I got bored with this show and stopped watching. Too many characters I couldn’t connect with and therefore didn’t care what happened to them.
I so wanted to enjoy this show, but I just can’t watch it anymore. I cannot stand John and his weird, preachy Tourette’s. I do love Ed O Neil very much and his character is the bright spot of this otherwise too incoherent show. Makes me pine for Deadwood.
Quick prediction; in stores next Spring, John From Cincinnati: The Entire Series.
I absolutely love this show ed o’neill is my fave. i like shaunie too, very cute and bitchie and of course john.
Are. You. Friggin. Kidding?
I love, love, love me some quality television. And so I tune in each week thinking, “This has GOT to get better”. But it doesn’t. If the acting’s not terribly wooden (Kai, Shaun, Mitch, and, this week, Butchie’s babymomma) it’s a shreiking mess (Cissy, Butchie, or, in his other mode, Mitch). The dialogue is completely nonsensical at times, and, at others, inaudible. The whole thing just stinks of pretension and artifice to me. Far more effective as a piece of stylized TV is HBO’s true gem on Sunday night–”Flight of the Conchords”. It has all of the warmth, generosity, creativity, and economy of storytelling that “John” seems to lack.
Oh my god, I’m so glad that there is a write up for this show. I need a place to vent about this show! My partner and I have watched the all episodes up until yesterday, he’s on a business trip. I didn’t watch it because we swore that last week was going to be the last time we watched it. But it’s Monday night and I’m going to watch it! There has to be some payoff at the end?
I hate everything about the show – especially the lotto winner – but I’m sickly drawn to it. It’s like a bad dream you wake up from that you just have to replay in your mind in order to remember how horrible it was!
Every time I watch I feel like Towelie from South Park: “I don’t know what the hell’s goin’ on.”
There are at least six characters that I have no idea why they’re around: The Hawaiian, the guy whose hand he broke, Joe (OK, he had a little purpose last week) and the three guys at the hotel. I’m waiting for something to make this worth watching, and I get the feeling that I’m gonna give up before it happens.
I think it was probably a little unfair towards this show for HBO to give it the old Sopranos slot on Sunday night, and like right after the finale to boot. It’s impossible after so many years of looking forward to hanging with Tony, Paulie and the gang to make the adjustment to watching a family of surfers talk about “the good old waves” Nothing against surfing, I’m sure it’s a lot of fun and a great way to get an all over tan, but surfers aren’t exactly what you’d call interesting people. I did like the penguin movie though, hopefully Big Z will make a cameo and put some life into this borefest.
Fantastic show. Ed O’Neil should be nominated for an Emmy.
I thought I was the only one who thought the acting was horrible on this show. Shaunie and Kai underact and Cissy and Butchie overact; although I do think that for his particular character, Ed O’Neill is good. I also wanted to love this show and am only hanging waiting for the payoff. But pretentious, non-sensical writing, poor acting, characters it’s very hard to care about and a story that seems to be going nowhere, are making the wait excruciating. The surfing and the music are good though.
I love JFC. I loved Deadwood, and I am tempted to go back and watch NYPD Blue because I am so obsessed with David Milch. Milch is a storyteller, and I will sit in front of the campfire and listen and long as HBO will let me.
I like this show the first time it was on and called Twin Peaks.
I love this show. I’ve loved it since the very first episode. Ed O’Neill’s character is my fave, too.
You are not alone. I am obsessed with this show right now. It is really different. I’ll admit the first episode didn’t really do anything for me, but after the 2nd ep I was hooked.
I have to admit that I love the show now, but it took some time. I kinda like the Cissy character and that she is so pissed off all the time! She cracks me up. I don’t get the John character. I hope to get a clue on that one soon.
I kinda like it. I wouldnt be recording it if this was the fall and I had other options, but for now it’s enough.
dont get too attached to this show- its gonna get cancelled… I cant say I enjoy this show- i watch every epsidode but it just doesnt stick… nobody is likable, everyone is screaming or babbling nonsense- characters appear for no reason whatsoever and worse, i just dont care… so why do i watch- cause im a t.v. junkie and its hard for me to let go.
Sorry. I just cannot forgive Milch for abandoning his brilliant older child (Deadwood) to conceive this spoiled, indulged child. That’s something you just don’t get over easily.
The only reason I’m still watching is because of the good will David Milch built up from “Deadwood”, but my patience is wearing thin. The plot makes little or no sense and I really don’t like or care about any of the characters. So I’m taking it on a week to week basis and could drop it any time.
This show is painfully slow and nonsensical. Last week’s episode put me to sleep so I think I’m done. I woke up for Entourage and Flight of the Conchords. FOTC is worth catching. It’s like a more linear Mr. Show.
And Big Love keeps getting better.