Cultural Lesson: Milch was better off Deadwood

26 December 2007, Adam McDowell, National Post

“To all but a small and very patient coterie of fans, John From Cincinnati was unwatchable. The mixture of the California surf setting, a protagonist who speaks in riddles and what might have been Christian allegory tried viewers’ patience. By the end of nine episodes, few cared what was signified by John’s referring to Cass Kai as Mother of God. As Rob Mc-Kenzie, the National Post’s former TV critic put it, “If David Milch wrote a series in which he were parodying himself, how could you tell?”

Maybe we just weren’t ready for it. But whatever John’s artistic merits, it was a ratings failure, and became the first HBO show in a generation to be cancelled after one season. HBO is digging into Milch’s well yet again; a gritty cop drama set in the early 1970s is in the works. It’s familiar territory for the creator of NYPD Blue, but whether they pan out with another Deadwood is up to Milch’s muse…” [more]