John from Cincinnati: The Complete Series

Review By: Brian DePasquale
BrianDePasquale @TheCinemaSource.com

Art is most frustrating when it’s value is trapped in the mind of the artist who created it. The genius of John from Cincinnati, a short lived HBO series that was cancelled after its first and only season, is lost somewhere in the thoughts of writer and creator David Milch. The voice behind successful shows NYPD Blue and HBO’s own Deadwood echoes from the gnarly waves of Imperial Beach, California, but it’s rarely loud enough for the viewer to hear it’s words. While ambition is evident within all ten episodes of the show, the purity of that invention is buried under a muck of confusion. Even its most ardent supporters willfully admit they have no idea what the show is about.

John from Cincinnati tells the story of the troubled Yost family, a group of gifted surfers that extends across three generations. The eldest is grandfather Mitch (played by Bruce Greenwood) who no longer competes because of a hurt knee. His son, Butchie Yost (Brian Van Holt) is a heroin-addicted surf star that fell from stardom after being signed by Stinkweed Surf Products scout and manager Linc Stark (Luke Perry). Stark is currently trying to sign the third Yost link, Butchie’s son Shaun, to a professional surfing deal despite resistance from Mitch.

The family has a ton of problems. Mitch and his wife Cissy (Rebecca De Mornay) raised their grandson after Shaun’s porn star mother left him on their doorstep shortly after birth. Butchie’s fight with drugs proves too powerful for him to have any chance of being a good father. He is also haunted by a traumatic childhood occurrence in which Cissy taught him how to masturbate, an Oedipal psychodrama that leaves both characters emotionally fragile. Things are complicated even further when a mysterious character named John Monad (Deadwood’s Austin Nichols) shows up at Imperial Beach and starts spouting apocalyptic phrases like “The end is near” and “Shaun will soon be gone”.

The majority of the show’s ten episodes revolve around trying to figure out who John is and what he is trying to say. The rest of the time is spent highlighting side characters or progressing the plot of the family soap opera. Unfortunately, nothing gels. Ed O’Neill is given an awkward role as a retired cop and recent widower. Despite getting top billing, Bruce Greenwood is absent through nearly half of the show’s episodes. In fact, nearly all of the performances are either uneven or unaffecting and some, such as the one given by Rebecca De Mornay, border on the horrendous. Her role as grandmother largely revolves around freaking out at awkward moments and scenes that offer us a glimmer of hope toward something special are often destroyed by her presence. This is not her fault. The decision to give her the ...