JFC

HBO is not picking up David Milch's John From Cincinnati for a second season. No surprise, since audiences found it confusing and annoying. Still, I wouldn't have minded more, even if I had no idea what's going on.

The channel must have had high hopes for the series, since they premiered it right after the Sopranos finale. But the show was too bizarre, even for HBO.

The plot is about the entrance of John Monad, a strange being who seems to have magical powers but can't communicate normally, into the surf community of Imperial Beach.

The biggest problem to me was not how hard to follow the show was, but that the Yost family--central characters, three generations of surfers--were not interesting at all. In fact, I felt bad for Rebecca De Mornay, playing the nasty matriarch, who for ten episodes had to screech out every line.

But John I liked, and a few other character were developing in interesting ways. Would the show have gotten better? I don't know Butchie instead.