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I've been a big fan of Milch's earlier work, and I tried for several episodes to get into John from Cincinnati, but there's a thin line between quirky and tedious, and John crossed it for me way too many times. The biggest problem is the John character himself, whose repeated catch phrases are so obnoxiously "precious" it feels like being nudged hard in the ribs over and over again by someone saying "look at how quirky this is" until you start wishing the log lady from "Twin Peaks" would show up and club John to death with her log.
Whatever, the show has its fans, and I hope y'all are able to keep the show alive for more than one season, because I have a feeling you're looking at yet another in an increasingly long line of recent shows where HBO pulls out and leaves fans in the lurch (so best to be ready to concoct your own stories about what everything means on the show and what happens in the end).
If anything, the HBO show John from Cincinnati most reminds me of is not Carnivale nor Deadwood, but K-Street (anyone remember that? Don't all raise your hands at once, now). Like JFC, K-Street similarly had a high pedigree, coming from folks like Steven Soderbergh; it was ambitious and-- increasingly as the show went on-- it attempted to be self-consciously quirky (wait, now who the hell was Elliot Gould supposed to be? etc.). Like JFC, it mixed non-actors with respected acting vets. Problem was, it was a muddle from episode one, and even a lot of viewers who wanted to like the show gave up on it after one too many confusing plot points and botched comedic scenes. After its first season, HBO quietly put K-Street to sleep.
Coincidentally, at least one of K-Street's actors, John Slattery, is now on AMC's "Mad Men," so, buck up, t.v. fans, there's hope after all, in that at least once actors are salvaged from the wreck of a failed show, they can wind up in something much better. Maybe after JFC gets cancelled, Ed O'Neill can finally get the darker, complex role we all know he's a good enough to play, instead of one where he's way-too-whimsically befuddled and talking to a bird.
