John From Cincinatti or I Gave Up Deadwood for THIS?

Well, maybe I was the only guy in the country to stick with it after the first silent end-credits roll in Sopranos history, but I must admit that I am pretty intrigued so far. It's undoubtedly a really weird show, what with the title character's pockets that will give up anything asked and his inability to communicate except by mimicry. I couldn't help but connect him to the Lazarus Parrot that the young kid brought back to life. I don't have a good angle on the levitation yet, though.

the "search function is, if such a thing is possible, WORSE than useless hence I couldn't bump the old thread" shit is really starting to piss me off

anyway, I anticipated eagerly and am not disappointed

search function is, if such a thing is possible, WORSE than useless

Hmm. But maybe this should be kept on the mod board.

that was interesting. i wish it were funnier though. it reminded me of Johnny Suede

Because it TEASES you Ned - like oh, hm, nope, you cannot has your old thread, but here are these random ones. But agreed.

jesus
fucking
christ

gee, it might be too subtle.

also it's funny to read old milch articles quoting henry james & the inrush of the oceanic stuff., etc., and see it literalized so, err, literally.

also everybody on the show is too pretty. i wish there were more brokenfaces like franz. even guzman's sorta pretty in a persistent pugdog way.

The barful of Sopranos watchers in a Wrigleyville bar tonight lit up at the start and said "It's Dylan!" but mostly stopped watching after 10 or so minutes.

Hasn't it been established that ending Deadwood was not Milch's choice?

everybody on the show is too pretty quirky.

fixed

my understanding morbs is that hbo was was all eh yr show isnt that highly watched how abt just 6 more episodes and milch goes fu fine ill just make this surfing show instead then but the fans were all noooooo so hbo says ok jeez make a whole season plz but milch was all nomaybe just 2 2 hour movies

but i have my doubt that thosell ever be made

so i watched this surfing show but not too closely - v funny i think im gonna like it but maybe too quirky

i hope john was right and little sean dies soon, what a horrible actor that kid is

yeah totally - apparently the family is based on a real life family and the kid is actually the kid so...

ha, well i really liked the john character, and the guy with the gun was pretty hilar

Ed O'Neil saying "fruit" = awesome

however, i did not care for butchie yost's junkie apartment set design, the lighting, or the opening melodrama

but it did get good in the second half

i mean smearing crap on a fridge does not a junkie apartment make

Also, Bruce Greenwood = awesome

Also, Rebecca DeMornay getting typecast as a surfer mom (cf. Lords of Dogtown) = awesome

However, junkie crap smear = not so awesome (because it reminds me of my apt)

more like dehornay amirite

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/demornay.jsrpages/pics2/rdlrb.jpg

NEVAR FORGET

ha, gary the diabetic

i wasn't so sure at first, but at about 30 minutes in i was hooked. can see myself losing patience if it doesn't get more comprehensible at some point soon, though.

Ellsworth's back! What's not to love?

First episode is streaming on the HBO site. (First episode of Flight of the Conchords, too.)

this was vaguely cheap and half assed

wtf is this... SHOWTIME?

David Milch sure does like killing them kids.

lmao @ John in public bathroom

bump for greatness

Rebecca DeMornay is ruling

I'm not familiar with the guy who plays John, but he is also ruling.

and welcome back Francis Wolcott, please don't cut up any more hoors with that scalpel

John does rule. i like this show

His name is Austin Nichols, has mostly done a lot of TV bit parts looks like, was Morgan Earp on Deadwood.

I like that Mescaleros theme song, and I've never even been much of a Clash fan. Is that album (Global a Go-Go) any good?

His name is Austin Nichols

!!!!!!!!!

http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/kawachi/cabinet/products2/wildturkey12yo.jpg

i really am loving this show

My name is whatever and I have a lot of love to give, and I hope to give some of it to this show, but the 1st episode played a little too hard-to-get, so I hope the 2nd episode (which I haven't watched yet) is ready for the lovin' I have to give.

i would say the second is even harder to get

nah my mom even told me she liked the second episode better

I didn't dump out this morning. :(

Incomprehensible? Second is harder to get? All the dots are in pairs, and the second ep totally points you in the right direction, and the end is near.

I.e. now that we've gotten a second episode, all the threads are progressing more or less linearly. The first episode, let me amend, was much the same, but quite a lot denser, which made following it more difficult.

I think that the show saves itself from itself because it keeps most of its characters from being freaked by John and his "I don't know Butchie instead"s. No "STOP COPYING MEEEEEE"s from anyone except Al Bundy -- key and urgent you could say.

good use of al bundy and tv on the radio

bad use of parrot

HAWT FILMMAKER:

HAWT FILMMAKER: I like vintage.

HAWT SURFBABE: I'm outta here.

very quotable show, this

So is the parrot Jesus?

Shaun is Jesus, for Christ's sake.

http://www.hbo.com/johnfromcincinnati/inside/index.html?ntrack_para1=feat_sec1_text

Part of me wonders whether it has pulled a Carnivale.

I know a lot of people love it, and I am a fan of it to an extent, but the first season should have taken place in the first 5 or 6 episodes. Everything started to happen in the second, but by then it was too late.

It was a good season [of JfC], and a hell of a finale, but it probably should have moved along quicker (though being a fan of it, I wouldn't really want it to).

I assume it will be cancelled, which kind of hurts more since Milch has said he knows where it is going/would have gone.

also: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200708/20070809.html

watching again now

bill's rant during the period is hilarious

drug casualties
homosexual in a hybrid
look at the breasts on these women

parade, not period

Ugh, it just does not work for me.

i love that fucking joe strummer song now.

yeah i want to hear that CD

cancelled? never even started watching it, won't bother now. wonder if he'll go finish deadwood now

yeah i want to hear that CD

The CD kinda stinks. Not only is that song the best song on it, but the shortened version in the credits is better than the original, in my opinion.

I've resigned myself to never seeing this show again, but it was fun while it lasted. I'm not sure I care what Milch thinks would happen if a skateboard company created a marketing campaign to help hide the secrets a fledgling religious movement. That's just not something I care about. Which sucks, because I loved some of the characters a lot.

i kind of agree. looks like we wont have to anyway:
http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=6f61169c-e1ce-40f3-b7d6-c95ec28a0a76

Used Car Salesguy was John's father, right? I ar slo on uptaek!

At the very least, he seemed to have some sort of connection to John's world.

I'll buy the DVDs. And fuck the Deadwood-only Milch fans who are gloating because they hated this show on that blog post.

http://www.hbo.com/johnfromcincinnati/inside/season1/episode10.html

I never really felt the apocalypticism that John kept mentioning and which is mentioned in that link, and I think that's what muted my enthusiasm in the last handful of episodes. John was too much of a deus (hah) ex Cass's camera, and even with Cissy at her shrillest, I never felt the danger of the impending End which John kept reminding Linc/us of (or of Milch's imminent apocalpyse that "is upon us"), precisely because John was destined to keep the bad (or horrible) from happening to the Yosts.

Owen Aug 14 07, 9:35 AM Report abuse
15.What seperated JFC from other HBO shows was its overwhelming sense of "goodness". Where all the other HBO (and Showtime) show's bathed in the excesses of nihilism, JFC dared to create a world of sweetness and redemption.

I would agree with that in a way. Without intellectualizing it at all, that last episode just made me feel good.

http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2007/08/john-from-cin-2.html

"Each character has the opportunity to generate God by his or her behavior. All of us are the mother and father of God, to the extent we accept the limits of our humanity."

Cool, that's pretty much what I got out of it.

As I kept raving about how good the "JFC" troupe was, particularly Brian Van Holt, Rebecca De Mornay and Ed O'Neill (pictured above with Milch), Milch chimed in with an intriguing tidbit.

"I wrote ("Deadwood's") Al Swearingen for Ed...If he'd had that part the show would still be running." I was dying to ask him to explain what he meant by that, but by this time Milch had that sound in his voice of a man who's ready to end the call, and I didn't want to wear out my welcome.

my mind = BLOWN

Yeah, if JFC proved anything it's that Ed O' Neill still fucking rules.

Yeah, but McShane owned Swearingen.

We'll never know if Ed could have been better! Milch seems to think so.

he had so many solo monologues

canceled!

only saw a few episodes - downloading whole season noow.

maybe deadwood will come back.

:S

No work on Monday, might as well tie one on.

i was totally sitting next to Kai at the pizza shop tonite. i almost bumped into her going for the parmesean and pepper.

Did she dump out?

This show is pretty awesome when viewed with a Leibniz/Deleuze scholar.

OK, this doesn't work at all -- BUT I highly, highly recommend watching the first episode with David Milch's commentary track turned on. The commentary track is what the show should've been.

Yeah, I could hear Milch talk for hours. During the tv writers' strike a couple years back he gave a series of lectures which are just incredible.

I loved this show so much.

It was really unusual, wasn't it? There are a couple things I could have done without though, like the sense that nobody in the series had any real responsibilities and were just addled, so they would lounge around the motel having cryptic meandering conversations. And I thought the final scene featuring Luke Perry unveiling a stunning marketing campaign (which wasn't stunning, I could imagine people saying 'you called us out for this? A stick-figure logo and a photo op?') was pretty weak.

I still think the conceit of the show is genius though.

I felt like it ended up as one perfect little season of TV. If it had continued on for another season, I really had no idea where they could go with it.

The show was really special for me because it really nailed San Diego-ness, and I just love Milch dialogue in pretty much any form, and I love anything about surfing, and I love a big weird mystery. Perfect for me, probably less so for others.

There were some less-than-stellar moments/actors, but I chalked some of that up to trying to gain an audience (Luke Perry/Gosslear, for example).

It's funny because the minute I heard about the Eddie Aikau and fired up that live webcast, I was back in JFC. I don't think I can ever disassociate surfing from that show.

I thought Perry was pretty wooden, but I liked how Milch positioned him as John's eventual spokesman/marketer. His 'conversion' as he slowly grasped that John was Christ was pretty nice.

ok just watched this. pretty fucking stellar.

weird thought re: the idea that shaun is the antichrist, its occurred to me that the stick figure symbol is the diametric opposite of the crucifix

crucifix = arms extended, legs together
stick thing = arms not extended, legs splayed.

eh? idk i just finished it so feel free to ignore me until i get some time to actually think about it a bit

i wish this was on HBO GO

now on HBO GO/On Demand again

just re-screened the whole season, still really holds up.

Owen Aug 14 07, 9:35 AM Report abuse
15.What seperated JFC from other HBO shows was its overwhelming sense of "goodness". Where all the other HBO (and Showtime) show's bathed in the excesses of nihilism, JFC dared to create a world of sweetness and redemption.

I would agree with that in a way. Without intellectualizing it at all, that last episode just made me feel good.

― marmotwolof, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 5:30 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^this is the big takeaway; sweetness and redemption really missing from a lot of golden-era cable dramas

It is there as well in Deadwood and Luck, but yeah, JfC is the one where it's most clear. A mess, but an open, goodhearted one.

enlightened had that sense too imo

I tried to watch Enlightened earlier this year, but it made me squirm in my seat way too much.

Enlightened is one of the best series I've seen in years.

I love Deadwood so much I might have to give Jesus Fucking Christ another shot. That first episode left me severely nonplussed.

william sanderson is a national treasure imo

JFC really takes until the credits roll at the end of ep2 to really click/grab you ime

i loved JFC but in retrospect it does really seem like there were more questions being asked than being answered and they didn't really want to answer any by the end of s1.

totally, but not really in a frustrating way (like True Detective/LOST) imo, more in a peaceful comforting ~contemplating the nature of life and existence, lol who knows~ way

Thought about this show related to the current True Detective season, in that neither one seems right for experiencing as a group (i.e., for "joining the Slate discussion" etc). Both seem better experienced in a solitary way, as opposed to Mad Men, etc. (was going to say Sopranos, but when Sopranos moved inward, the conversation was "When's someone gonna get whacked?").

i'd kill for a webseries or something written/directed by milch starring only luis guzman, dayton callie, paul ben-victor and ed o'neil

they're just so delightful