July 30th, 2007
by Sunil Setty
I’ve been watching HBO’s John from Cincinnati show since it first aired a month or so ago, and I have to admit, after about 8 episodes/days (I’ve lost track) I still don’t know WTF is going on. Maybe I’m just not cut out for a show that presents itself as one big mystical, mysterious, philosophical cocktail. Just not my drink, perhaps.
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Bring back the Sopranos. Where’s Deadwood? Maybe I should switch to those campy Bollywood musicals my parents love?
I’ve spoken to a few friends who have also been watching or have watched the JFC and they too exhibit the similar feelings of frustration, confusion and the need to “dump out” over the show’s lack of direction and movement.
But I still like it, and will continue to watch it. The show is creative and the writing pretty edgy, chocked with plenty of profanity, David Milch style.
Some of the characters are great. Luis Guzman’s hotel staffer, Ramon, is a hoot, though he hardly gets any words, and the two gangsters, Freddy and Palaka (something like that), are a riot. I also like Mitch, aka Papa Yost who levitated in the first ep, but he’s been absent the last two episodes after having it out with wife/super bitch, Cissy. Bill the ex-cop, played by Al Bundy, cracks me up, especially when he addresses John as “I got my eye on you” (Yeah, I’m easy on laughs!) like he did last night.
So just what’s going on with the show? Great question, and if you are trying to jump in now near season’s end, don’t bother. Nothing will make sense. Then again maybe you should, you’ll feel no different them some of us viewers.
My guess if first off, John is really not from Cincinnati. He’s an otherworldly entity or more likely, he’s a messenger (who can’t seem to translate his messages) from God or maybe even from Satan - there’s no definitive evidence either way, or even if he’s a messenger at all for that matter, what the heck do I know?
For whatever reason, John Monad has invaded Imperial Beach, a surf town in California just north of the Mexican border. I think John is there to put the dysfunctional Yost family back together. The head of the Yost family, Mitch, was a pro surfer, who messed up his knee, younger son Butchie also had a thing for the waves but drugs got in the way of a pro career. Butchie went out with a porn star, Tina (maybe they married, I can’t be sure), out of which came Shaun, who seems to be at center of the story and of every episode.
Shaun is a teen surfing phenom (he’s not an actor but a real-life surfer), who had his neck snapped in a horrendous surfing accident about four episodes ago. But to shock of everyone at the hospital and his family, Shaun miraculously recovered and walked out the emergency room that day unscathed. Since his recovery Butchie’s ex, Tina, has returned to town, much to the disgust of Shaun’s grandma, Cissy, who wants to off her for leaving Shaun just after his birth.
Enter 90210’s Luke Perry, as the surf rep, Linc, who wants to sign Shaun, a gay guy, Barry, who won the lottery and is looking to transform the hotel where Butchie lives into a “Lyceum”, and then throw in Kai, a spiky-haired surfer chick who works at the Yost surf shop and Cass, a wanna-be something (producer? Porn star?).
There are also a couple lawyers, a trippy doctor, the two gangsters and how can I forget, John himself, who basically only speaks random phrases that he’s heard before interwoven with his message, and you got a lot of interesting, if not entertaining characters in a real head scratcher of a plot - If you can even call it a plot.
Basically, all the characters have problems, the question is how the heck John fits in and what his role is in the mix.
And things seem to get even weirder anytime John closes his eyes. He mysteriously appears in front the characters, barking out choppy sentences (his Father’s message?) at them.
“The zeroes and ones make the Word in Cass’s camera. In the Word on the wall that hears my-Father-in-Cass’s-camera, the good one Mitch catches doesn’t wipe Cissy out. In the-Word-that-hears-my-Father, Cissy shows Butchie something else. In-my-Father’s-Word, Cissy shows Butchie in Shaun. In-my-Father’s-Word, Tina raises Shaun at lunch. In Cass’s-camera, Butchie lays the court out for Barry, and Mister Rollins watches, and he doesn’t come on Barry’s face. In Cass’s-camera, Butchie knows Kai kept the faith. In-my-Father’s-Word, the Wave lifts them up.”
Yes, that along with much more spewed out of John’s mouth during a 10-minute sermon from an earlier episode. That’s 10 minutes of my life I’d like to get back!
John’s rants have since been much shorter, thankfully. In the last two episodes he’s been going on and on and now sending video emails about how “Shaun will be gone soon.” So does that mean he’ll be dead for real this time? Off to surf the globe? Maybe move in with porn star mom? Nah…This time, though, I think I finally might just know what John is talking about.
Shaun, John and the rest of this assortment of oddball characters will really be gone soon because this show’s likely getting canned. So maybe “the end is near” as John has prophesized. That is unless the show starts making some amount of sense.
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