The Yosts are a dysunctional family that contains three generations of surfing royalty. Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood), the patriarch, is a surfing champ whose career was ended by an injury; Butch Yost (Brian Van Holt), Mitch's son, who seemed poised to follow in his father's footsteps until his career was cut short by
drug addiction; and Shaun Yost (Greyson Fletcher), Butch's son, who is known as a surfing prodigy but is hampered from joining contests by his guardian Mitch who doesn't want to see him follow in his or Butch's footsteps. But when the mysterious John (Austin Nichols) shows up their lives are changed by miracles and other occurences that bring them closer together.
David Milch is a god of television. Milch created such powerhouses as Deadwood and NYPD Blue, as well as writing for shows as LA Law, Brooklyn South, and Hill Street Blues. His love for language makes for some of the most colorful scripts you will ever hear committed to the screen as can be attested to by anyone who's watched Deadwood (if you haven't watched it, go check it out today). After Deadwood ended in it's third season, Milch went on to work on John From Cincinnati. Utilizing a lot of the same actors as can be seen in Deadwood, with a few fresh faces that you'll recognize from other TV shows and movies, John From Cincinnati is a very ambitious TV show that appears to only have lasted one season. The big question is: did it deserve more.
I would say so. John From Cincinnati is brilliantly written taking twists and turns not common for TV, making it a very original show. Touching on moments of existentialism, belief in God, drug abuse, redemption, and so on, John From Cincinnati is the type of show I wish would be made more often. The characters are well developed, with their own quirks, hangups, and problems that all feel real and fit the actors perfectly, and the storyline takes twists and turns that you'd never expect. This isn't your typical cliched television show.
The acting is superb, and in many cases I would say that it's some of it's actors best work. Of these, the two standouts in my mind are Ed O'Neill and Brian Van Holt. Ed O'Neill as Bill Jacks, a former cop and friend of the Yosts, plays a man who is still adjusting to life without a badge and without his wife. He gets the meatiest lines of the show, and, in my opinion, gives some of his best acting work apart from his performance as the patriarch in Modern Family. Brian Van Holt has a little more of a wall to climb playing the drug addicted failure of a son who's heard one too man times that he's a loser and needs to get off the drugs, but the way he portrays it makes you feel every tick from messed up to jonesing and beyond. You feel him when he tries to redeem himself and find his way back into a better relationship with his son.
But I have to fault the series for being a bit too impenetrable at times and even a tad bit pretentious. At times the show is too clever and self aware of it, Milch and his writing seem to be trying to send a message, and try to hard to rap the message in an enigma in something of an attempt to show off. I still can't tell you that I know what all of it means, and maybe I will eventually figure it out on future viewings and while the rewatchability factor is a strength of the show, it's also it's weakness.
All in all, I would highly recommend the show. The dialogue is brilliant and just fun to listen to, and the acting is superb. The movie works on various levels from comedy to drama and beyond and is highly entertaining.
January 6, 2010
