John From Cincinnati: Planet Waves: David Milch and Kem Nunn’s damaged but revered surfing family

June 6, 2007, By ROBERT ABELE, LAWeekly.com

One of these is not like the others: Fletcher, Van Holt and Nichols emerge. (Photo by John P. Johnson)

“One of the peculiarities of TV-series criticism – especially the kind intended to anticipate the debut of a show – is its goal of assessing something inherently incomplete. Book critics aren’t given only the first four chapters of a new novel, and they don’t stop at page 140 and start typing away (or if they did, they wouldn’t admit it). Film reviewers can’t exit the theater halfway through a film, as much as they might like to. Same with theater critics. But if you’re writing about a single episode of a new TV show – maybe two or three if you’re lucky – you’re essentially weighing in on something that is in all likelihood still in production, a pulsating, evolving thing in the minds of its creators, and aiming for a life of perhaps many, many years, and possibly different artistic directions. The artists are still stirring the pot, in other words, and as a critic in the prelaunch phase it can sometimes feel like you only get to judge the ingredients.

Granted, this is not a circumstance that perplexes the brain if you are dealing with another insipid procedural or machine-pressed sitcom designed for quick recognition, or the comfort of the known. But this conundrum is definitely what I kept coming back to as I watched the first three episodes of John From Cincinnati….” [more]