I like to think I'm an ...
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 DeMornay's shrill, over-the-top mess of a character. Then came John's cryptic metaphysical sermon at the hotel cookout. On its surface, it explained nothing. Yet it
may have brilliantly crystallized everything that the series is about. Is John Jesus? Will "his Father's word" somehow erase the years of dysfunction that have crippled the Yost family? Is this show about a truly biblical "second coming"? The last 10 minutes were nearly on the level of a
Twin Peaks or
Sopranos dream sequence on the mysterious and thought-provoking scale. So now I don't know whether I hate this show or love it. Should I have to work this hard just to "get" a show? If I finally bail out, is it because
John is built on a poorly constructed narrative, or am I just giving up because it's too hard? And if I'm blowing off a show that's too smart for me, am I any better than those people who griped for years about all those "boring" episodes of
The Sopranos where "nothing happened”? Have I become the audience that watches
According to Jim and
Two and a Half Men? I know you're no fan of
John, but I'm having an existential TV crisis here. Do I demand HBO green-light Season 2 or do I push for cancellation, hoping that'll bring the
Deadwood movies a step closer to reality? Either way,
John from Cincinnati has accomplished its mission — I'm hopelessly confused.
Answer: What a sad situation, that HBO has so snookered a segment of the discriminating "quality" TV audience with its "we're better than TV" attitude that some viewers begin to doubt their own ability to discern what's good from what's hopelessly pretentious when it comes to this show. As I've noted earlier, I won't be able to catch up with
John until I return from press tour at the end of the month (and I'm not inclined to do so, but I probably will), so I can't comment on the scene described above, except to note that it doesn't surprise me that even a show this annoying and smugly opaque would be capable of the occasional intoxicating flight of fancy. But honestly, don't beat yourself up if you do decide to bail. In this case, it really is just TV. Bad TV. Bad. And life's too short.
