From Cincinnati, ‘John’ Goes Nowhere

June 9, 2007, By Tom Shales, Washington Post Staff Writer

(By John P. Johnson – – Hbo Via Associated Press)

“Watching “John From Cincinnati,” an abstruse new drama series premiering tomorrow night on HBO, flashed me back several decades to a New York Film Festival — in particular, to an afternoon screening of a French movie called “Celine and Julie Go Boating.”

After watching Celine and Julie prattle, jabber and putter about for two hours or so, but failing to see even the slightest glimpse of a boat, I put on my coat, slipped back into my loafers and tippy-toed up the aisle toward the beckoning red sign that said “Exit.”

In “John From Cincinnati,” a very small band of characters mill about a tiny beachside surfing community in Southern California and mull about their plights in life and how they could be improved, or something. At least two of the characters are expert surfers, but you never saw surfers do so little surfing in your life. Not until the last 10 minutes of the show do we finally get to see some fancy wave work, and unfortunately very little about the 40 minutes that precede this refreshing footage manages to make any appreciable sense….” [more]