Made sense that in the last moments of HBO's misbegotten John from Cincinnati, Ed O’Neill was finally reunited with his AWOL avian friend Zippy. If ever there was a show that was for the birds, it was this birdbrained mishmash of half-baked, foulmouthed, anti-dramatic allegorical nonsense.Over the last week, I attempted to catch up with last month’s episodes, hoping against hope that I’d at last see what I was supposed to be seeing in this smugly opaque world of cryptic utterances from annoyingly mannered characters. (And I thought, maybe like other HBO series, in particular the superior Wire, this could be one of those shows that plays better if you watch several hours back-to-back.) The result: torture. I made it maybe halfway through each hour before zoning out in a state of utter boredom and contempt. Forget confusion — that part of the equation left the station long ago. I was merely hoping to be entertained a little. In vain, as it turned out.At least the ...
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Well, there goes the first season. And just when I thought that John was Jesus, the writers went ahead and threw in a bunch of hints to make me think he might actually be an alien. "You're all going to be toast," he told Linc. "We're coming 9/11/14." Could it just be a coincidence that their arrival is scheduled take place on the anniversary of the attacks on America? Then again, could those numbers actually represent the bible passage 9:11-14 that describes salvation through the Lord? There are just so many ways this could go!I'm interested in finding out more about this Cincinnati place that John took Shaunie to, and why Shaunie couldn't recall much of his visit other than the fact that they, whoever they are, want to sponsor him. And even if they are aliens or simply the all-powerful celestial beings that occupy heaven, what exactly do they find so useful about the Yost family? If their true goal is to redeem mankind, then perhaps these alien gods are of the mind-set that the Yos...
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OK, so Shaun, John and Zippy disappeared, although Shaun's doppelgänger still found time to scare the living hell out of Barry at the hotel bar. Are his visions of Shaun simply dreams, as he tells Dr. Smith later in the episode, or is that just wishful thinking on his part? Seems to me they could be more accurately categorized as "visions." Well, I'd actually be more likely to go with psychotic episodes brought on by trauma, but in this show, with this subject matter, I think "visions" works just fine.I liked the scene when Butchie and Kai shared their thoughts on John, who they both agreed is on some kind of autopilot and simply parrots what he hears from other people because he is programmed to mimic emotions. As they discussed, it would certainly explain why he repeats such idiotic phrasings as "A+ for fume control." What do they think, though, that the guy is some kind of robot? I guess that could be interesting. I certainly wouldn't have been expecting that.The stick figur...
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It's been 24 years since she gave Tom Cruise an El of a time in Risky Business, and Rebecca DeMornay is still one hot ticket. As Cissy Yost, the way-damaged surf-family matriarch on HBO's John from Cincinnati (Sundays at 9 pm/ET), DeMornay has been tearing up the scenery while proving that some sex symbols never go out of style.
TV Guide: What is going on with this show? DeMornay: [Laughs] It's like a Rorschach puzzle being formulated inside the locked doors of [series creator] David Milch's mind. Everything is hidden behind those doors — even from the actors.
TV Guide: You find out as the scripts come in? DeMornay:
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Question: I like to think I'm an educated TV viewer. I live for smart shows like The Wire, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and The Shield. Shows that don't spoon-feed you plot but rather force you to pay attention and think. But after the latest episode of John from Cincinnati, I am at a complete loss. This show is either an epic-level disaster or pure genius, and I have no idea which it is. For the first five episodes, I felt like one of the characters in the show — I was annoyed and unhappy, I had no idea what was going on and yet I inexplicably kept coming back week after week. Only a massive talent on the level of David Milch could make a show this incomprehensible, right? But I can't deny that I was hugely intrigued by Sunday's episode when, after five weeks of parrot dialogue and seemingly pointless meandering, John finally started to play his cards. First, his shocking confrontation with Cissy (revealing that she may have molested her son) started to make some sense of Rebecca ...
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