Chandra West as Tina Blake on JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Seven.
© HBO
Mania Grade: B
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay, Ed O'Neil, Luis Guzman
Created By: David Milch
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay, Ed O'Neil, Luis Guzman
Created By: David Milch
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Seven
By: Stephen LackeyReview Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2007
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I have to ask it again here; when does the ambiguity go too far? This series has asked tons of questions and set up plenty of vague and surreal situations but so far very little has been explained. They’re going to have to get on with explaining things soon because John’s “parrot talk” will only be amusing for so long.
This episode focuses on the warning from John that “Shaun will be gone soon”. Eventually all the important players found their way to the hotel where Bill and Freddy decide to get serious about interrogating John. Things got the most intense after the computer geek shows up with a video sent through Butchie’s website of John warning that “Shaun will be gone soon” with a backdrop of a stick figure. Bill sits down with John and demands to know what this cryptic message means and where Shaun is. Even after a couple of slaps (John gets slapped around quite a bit this week) John is still as cryptic as ever. John actually takes things a step further when he stabs himself several times. Bill pulls John’s shirt away revealing that the stab wounds disappeared almost immediately after John stabs himself with only a little blood left. Bill realizes that he’s not going to have any luck with John so he taps out and Freddy goes into the hotel room with Bill. Just then the truth about Shaun’s whereabouts is revealed, he’s been at Sea World with his porn star mother. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief and Palaka just stops Freddy from killing John. The question is could Freddy have actually killed him? I don’t think so, not based on what we saw when Bill was in the room. It’s obvious to me that “Shaun will be gone soon” isn’t tied to a trip to Sea World. The preview for next week validates that feeling that we aren’t done with Shaun being gone yet. I wouldn’t mind if he did go in some way because it might ground some of the drama a bit and well the kid is just a terrible actor.
Outside of the main event at the hotel some other less important but more stable things did happen in the episode. First thing is Cissy has finally had her fill of Mitch and his disappearing act so she trashes his little shrine and dumps his clothes at the hotel. Cissy’s on a roll this week because she rips Kai a new again and signs Shaun with the devil (maybe). Speaking of Kai something weird happens with her. She gets sick of being attacked by Cissy and decides to quit her job. What’s weird are the where and the how of her resignation. Rather than going to Cissy and quitting she goes to the internet café that I never realized had any connection to Cissy’s surf shop and drops off her keys and quits. That whole scene just doesn’t make any sense to me. Other than that Barry has decided to turn a run down bar into a theater. He gets insulted and then has a vision of Shaun in the bar. It didn’t seem to mean much.
More From Mania
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Nine
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Five
(Tuesday, July 17, 2007)
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Four
(Tuesday, July 10, 2007)
JJ Abrams’ Next Big Thing
(Sunday, July 8, 2007)
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Three
(Tuesday, July 3, 2007)
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day Two
(Tuesday, June 19, 2007)
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI: His Visit: Day One
(Tuesday, June 12, 2007)
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Most TV watchers don’t like open-ended questions. They don’t seem to mind the question “Who?” Especially when it’s used in a Who-Done-It. The huge popularity of a show like “Columbo” demonstrates that viewers don’t even mind the question “How?” “Lost” has shown that even the questions, “Where?” and “When?” are okay. But so far, any TV show based on the question, “Why?” hasn’t lasted. Probably because the question is mostly an internal one and the audience isn’t going to support a show that asks it to work for a change (aka Thinking!).
Here’s hoping that “John From Cincinnati” bucks this trend and continues for a long time to come.