postscript: John From Cincinnati, continued

I finished the series today. This last disc has some lovely surfing, and some good time spent with good folks. I have sympathy for Dayton Callie and Paula Malcomson. Although their roles in JFC (a Hawaiian drug kingpin and a cafe-owner respectively) initially seem well-differentiated from their beloved Deadwood roles (Charlie Utter and Trixie), much of their dialogue and action might have been lifted straight from the previous show.

The finale also has a lot of "we-know-what-John-is-up-to-really-we-do" hemming and hawing from the writers which gets old fast. When you've got a supernatural strangeness in your plot (witness Lost or Twin Peaks or Carnivale), you've got to have a basic idea about how the ends are going to tie up. If you're just making it up from ep to ep, you're going to have a mess and a very unhappy viewing populace. I stopped watching Lost after the first season because I lost faith that the writers knew what they were doing (I've been told I was wrong about that, but I remain skeptical). I'd have to go back and watch Twin Peaks again to know if Lynch really had it under control, or if it was just so refreshingly strange for the times that we dug it in spite of its chaos. Carnivale took a truckload of faith, the whole first season being basically very enjoyable exposition, but it paid off in spades.

In this one, Milch lost me (or, rather, John the Angel did), but I'd have stuck around for further seasons anyway just to hang with the Yosts.

By the way, Milch's answer to his own big question, "Can a human find creative fulfillment if nobody is watching them while they do it?" seems to be "No. God only approves of those who place their work, themselves, and their families squarely in the marketplace for capitalist consumption. Also, God's pretty excited about using the Internet and visual media to do His Work these days."

ERRATUM: It's not set at Huntington at all, but Imperial Beach, further north, a place with "powerful fast beach-break peaks, consistent year round," according to my Buzzy Kerbox Wave-Finder. "Lots of room," it promises, but I can't believe there's as much room anywhere in California as you see in this show. Nary a fight for a wave or a disappointed scowl about an overpopulated coastline for the Yosts. But then, they can levitate and return from the dead, as well.