Goodbye Hill family, later John, hello Californication

24 August 07, TV TALK By: Nadum Fernand at The Triangle Online, Section: Arts & Entertainment

It’s Official. ‘John From Cincinnati’ Canceled

As was first reported by The Triangle, John From Cincinnati has been canceled.

HBO made it official one day after the finale aired and announced a development deal that will keep David Milch with HBO until 2008.

Is David Milch Destroying HBO?

Not two days after John From Cincinnati was officially canned, David Milch is working on a new project. This time around the show will be a more traditional fare — early 1970’s story about a Vietnam vet who comes home and joins the NYPD.

But once again, Milch has shown his propensity for mentally checking out of a series while it’s on the air. It happened with Deadwood and it’s happened again with John. Milch made a bad program, HBO canceled it and Milch didn’t blink twice because he had lost interest anyway.

Despite the fact that John’s fate was sealed two weeks ago, the notion that a show’s creator would start working on his next project two days after the cancellation is made public is insane.

It doesn’t happen. I understand the fundamental right to work in a capitalist society, but honestly… Two days? Seriously? And HBO thinks it’s prudent to sign the man through 2008? At this point, he has to be costing them more subscribers than he’s bringing in.

John had a very loyal (if small and crazy) fan base. But unlike other cult hits-Arrested Development, Firefly, Jericho, Veronica Mars, Carnivale, et cetera – show runner doesn’t care.

Deadwood was Milch’s fault, but at this point, does it really matter? The show is gone. The two movies are never going to happen. Whether the fan base blames HBO or Milch, Milch isn’t running a subscriber based cable network.

And it’s happened again with John. Regardless of who’s to blame (there is enough to go around), yet another Milch production has left HBO with nothing but a wave of angry subscribers. Some subscribers are angry because a series they loved is canceled and some because HBO aired such a gibberish show in the first place… [more]