I just watched the premiere episode of John From Cincinnati on HBO. I have been looking forward to this show ever since I heard it was from the creators of Deadwood. I mean it sucks that they stopped working on Deadwood to make it but you had to figure it was for good reason.

Last week some reviews starting coming out from critics who had seen a few episodes and they were very bad. I tried and tried to avoid reading them but it is hard to not take in that negative energy.

Here’s a taste of what television critics had to say about John from Cincinnati:

“A gigantic mess.” - Tim Goodman, SFGate

“Shows like John from Cincinnati are why the good Lord made remote-control clickers.” - Tom Shales, The Washington Post

“The premiere episode is almost willfully strange and unlikable.” - Alessandra Stanley, NY Times

“Watching HBO’s surfing drama John from Cincinnati is like sitting through a bad play at a tiny experimental theater. The dialogue is loud pretentious nonsense signifying nothing but the creative dangers of mimicking Sam Shepard, Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett.” - Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe

“I was beyond bored.” - Ed Martin, The Huffington Post

So now that I have seen it here is my take.

It kind of felt like the first time you watched Pulp Fiction not knowing anything about the movie or the characters. It is 10 minutes in and you are incredibly lost. Okay I will stop comparing it to one of the best movies ever but that is the feeling I have at the end of the first show. I am intrigued but feeling lost.

The characters are not interesting yet and there is a lot of unexplained story lines right off the bat. I won’t go into it since you may want to watch it for yourself so if you want a detailed review check out this one at tvsquad.

I like Bruce Greenwood and Ed O’Neil as actors so I look forward to where their characters go but I have to say I don’t think I can take too much of Rebecca De Mornay. She has gotten under my skin in just about everything she has ever done so that is a downer for me.

I am going to keep watching and hope that at some point it all clicks and I just go wow that is a good show. Yes it is not Deadwood but did anyone honestly think it would be?

I have to admit I think it would be cool to see Al Swearengen catch a wave or two.

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