HBO Closes Out on John From Cincinnati

by The Editors on August 15, 2007

Ep5 Cass John 252Being fans of both Kem Nunn and Deadwood creator David Milch we awaited their new show John From Cincinnati with anticipation because it featured a beach town (like Carlsbad) and surfers (like us, sort of).

The HBO series centered around a troubled family of formerly famous surfers from Imperial Beach (some claim it was loosely based on San Clemente’s Fletcher family) who encounter a strange, seemly autistic man named John, who claims to be from Cincinnati. John has come to get the family “back in the game.”

When the show arrived Sunday nights on HBO we were intrigued. Rarely does a beach community, (or surfers in general) appear in the mainstream media with serious representation. As the weeks wound down to last Sunday’s finale, however, the show drifted so far in to the metaphysical realm of surf as metaphor for spirituality and marketing as religion that even the show’s writers seemed to get lost.

They won’t be lost any longer. HBO has announced that it is canceling John From Cincinnati. The ratings never picked up, and the fact was, the show was complex and confusing. “A spokeswoman for HBO declined to comment on the reasons for “John” ‘s cancellation.”

[Link: San Diego Union Tribune]

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