Director: Mark Tinker
Cast: Bruce Greenwood (Mitch Yost), Rebecca DeMornay (Cissy Yost), Keala Kennelly (Kai), Jim Beaver (Vietnam Joe), Willie Garson (Meyer Dickstein), Matt Winston (Barry Cunningham), Austin Nichols (John Monad), Brian Van Holt (Butchie Yost), Greyson Fletcher (Shaun Yost), Ed O'Neill (Bill Jacks), Luis Guzman (Ramon Gaviota), Luke Perry (Linc Stark), Emily Rose (Cass), Jon Ryckman (Security Guard) & Jeremy Howard (Gary)
A strange man called John Monad arrives on Imperial Beach, quickly endearing himself to burned-out surfer Butchie Yost, just as Butchie's father Mitch finds himself levitating...David Milch is the brains behind gritty, foul-mouthed TV western Deadwood, and here he's teamed-up with "surf noir" author Kem Nunn, to create John From Cincinnati -- a family surfing drama with a dose of magical realism.
Bruce Greenwood plays Mitch, patriarch of the Yost family and a surfing legend whose career was cut-short by a knee injury. His own son, Butchie (Brian Van Holt), was similarly revered by the surfing community until fame led to drugs. Butchie's 13-year-old son Shaun (Greyson Fletcher), has also inherited this "surfing gene" and now wants to start competing in tournaments. Owing to Butchie's junkie lifestyle, Shaun lives with his grandparents -- Mitch and Cissy (Rebecca DeMornay.)
The Yosts are a dysfunctional bunch, with particular antagonism between Mitch and Butchie, but they remain local celebrities and are surrounded by acolytes who go weak-kneed in their presence. Put simply, they're the "Kennedy's of surfing" and similarly cursed by bad luck.
Into all their lives wanders cypher John (Austin Nichols, with an 80s poodle-cut), a dim-witted man who forms a quick bond with Butchie, who misunderstands that John wants surfing lessons. John is a weird presence, forever repeating questions back to people, shrugging "some thing I know and some things I don't", or ominously predicting "the end is near". He also seems able to produce any desired object from his trousers pockets! The arrival of John coincides with a sequence of odd events around Imperial Beach, most memorably when Mitch finds himself floating several inches above the sand after surfing one morning!
Kem Nunn and David Milch's script is difficult to get a handle on, as the Yost's aren't immediately likeable; Mitch is a proud grouch, Butchie's a junkie slacker and Cissy is prickly and overbearing. Only Shaun appeals due of his youthful innocence, but he barely utters a word.
The surrounding characters are perplexing: Bill Jacks (Ed O'Neill), a retired policeman who lives with caged birds; Linc Stark (Luke Perry), a surfing talent scout; Barry Cunningham (Matt Winston), a mentally-unstable lottery winner; Meyer Dickstein (Willie Garson), a lawyer who's arranged the sale of a flea-pit motel to Barry; and Ramon Gaviota (Luis Guzman), the current manager of said business.
As the characters are difficult to like, overtly strange, or intentionally blank, His Visit, Day One becomes an awkward experience. It also contains lots of jargon, colloquialisms and inventive swearing (a Deadwood hang-over), delivered at high-speed and volume, it just distances you from events.
It's frustrating, as the concept of a "spiritual surfing" drama is ripe with possibilities. The episode's occasional dalliance with the supernatural helps maintain interest, but I hope events gel together soon, as that doesn't happen here. By the end, you're just as lost as you were at the beginning!
John From Cincinnati wants you to invest time trying to puzzle things out for yourself. Is John a savant, alien, or angel? Why is he so interested in the Yost clan, particularly Butchie? What is the significance of the temporary dead bird? Just how do the motel owner and lawyer fit into the picture? Why does Luke Perry's talent scout character spent so much time on the periphery, acting almost as spooky as John?
The thing is, I'm a sucker for peculiar TV shows -- the kind that are waist-deep in atmosphere and bursting with metaphor. The surfing angle is a fresh vein mostly untapped by TV , the hard-boiled Yost antagonism has spark thanks to Milch's writing, the strangeness never really overshadows the human interplay, and John's character retains a bewitching Starman quality.
This isn't the best of starts, but there's definitely something to tempt you back for more. However, I have a suspicion audiences will abandon the show if things don't become more focused. After all, Twin Peaks was also weird... but its central murder investigation was a bedrock of normality audiences could hold into.
Posthumous review
Written: 11 June 2007
HBO
