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I have tried so hard with JFC, but the past two episodes have just done me in, and the final blow was precisely at the point mentioned in this review, where John gives his monologue thingamajiggie - it was sooo Twin Peaks, but in a Fire Walk With Me kind of way. What was with that random dead guy that John carried out to listen in, anyway? I was waiting for some Lazarus reference or something, but he was just ... there ... and then he wasn't. Look, I'm all for mystical. I'm all for spiritual. I've a damn BA in Religious Studies for heaven's sake. But this stuff is just coming off flat to me. It seems like a gimmick so far, and the show relies on it way too much at this point.
There was one episode where I really felt something click together, and the odd dialogue started to work with the characters and the story and even the supernatural elements to create something akin to the sense of community tension that I felt in practically every episode of Deadwood (hell, in the opening credits of Deadwood). It was when they were rescuing Sean from the hospital, and the subsequent community camp-out in front of his house developed. There you had a supernatural intervention that left the entire community reeling and responding and interacting in a new way as a result. The characters started to seem more interesting because of it, rather than less. But then we have Mitch sitting at the beach with Cass, still believing his grandson is braindead, spouting about real surfing vs. competitive surfing. I'm a So Cal girl, I know plenty of surfers whose dedication borders on the obsessive, but please. Nothing else to talk about at that moment, Mitch? And he seemed genuinely enthralled with what he was saying there, too, not just spouting on in order to stave off sorrow. No no, this was serious surf talk he was engaging in. Sean seemed more like a pretext for his thoughts about surfing than the other way around.
And speaking of So Cal, I'm hard pressed to think of any way one could justify having such an almost exclusively white cast of characters in a community that is predominantly non white. I mean, other than the random "illegals" who were inexplicitly scurrying along the beach in the background of the opening episode, or the white-looking guy with the Mexican accent who accosted John. Other than the hotel manager, who has, what, one scene per episode, the whole show is lilly white as far as the eye can see. That's not the California I know, that's for damn sure.
And I was terrifically shocked to see the actress playing Trixie in that one scene, given that Cissy is clearly Trixie reincarnated and with a slightly better job.
I find myself only able to watch about ten minutes at a time of this show before I get so bored or so irritated that I have to stop and come back to it. At this point it's just a stop along the way to Flight of the Conchords on my Sunday night.
