on John from Cincinnati Season 1

so, the season/series (maybe) finale of John from Cincinnati aired last night, episode 10, and i thought i'd try and write a bit about it.

i've written about the show before. it's main focus is a family - and the people around them - in trouble and a mysterious man that enters their lives in what i think is an attempt to turn things around (or at least that's a byproduct of his presence).

the show was filled with vagaries, vagueness, religious overtones, alien undertones, technological babble, and anything and everything in between. the way people talked and acted, it was almost like listening to and watching a play - an over-the-top melodramatic play at that. it was thought provoking, conversation starting, and a journey at its best - pseudo-intellectual boring trite crap at its worst.

where did i fall? well i wavered from week to week, but in general the series started off strong and then petered out, bringing in and focusing on too many side characters and drawing out the main story way, way too long. if the show had been 6 or 8 episodes instead of 10, i think it would have been better for it - i mean there were entire episodes where NOTHING happened. and the season/series finale, where you think maybe a few things would be revealed? nothing. nada. zip. zilch.

so what is my final verdict?

...

i don't know.

this is one of the first times i've finished watching a show and not known what to feel. it's why i didn't jump online and write about it last night, why i'm struggling to write about it tonight. i've visited a few message boards out there trying to get some answers and the general consensus is that there ARE no answers, and i don't know how i feel about that. some say that it's because the writer was setting up for a second season (which now might be canceled i hear due to lackluster reviews and number of viewers) but my feeling is nothing would have been revealed anyway, because the show isn't about the reveal - it's about provoking thoughts, starting conversations... it's about the journey, not the destination. and i would be fine with that if they hadn't had those filler episodes where nothing happened, and if they would have at least thrown us a bone or two in the finale. SOMETHING.

what do i think happened? well it's funny because i think there's enough evidence the writers threw in there that could support almost any theory - Second Coming, alien invasion, robots and technology... my gut tells me it was about the Second Coming however. there were more religious overtones than anything.

John was Jesus/God come down to prepare for His Second Coming. He (or possibly Butchie, who would be Joseph here) impregnated Kai (Mary) and she will be the "mother of God" (as the very last line of the series stated), mother of the Second Coming. but then Sean figures into it somehow, as he was the main focus of most of the show - he died and rose again (fell for the first time), was missing and was found at Sea World (fell for the second time), and was taken by John and brought back (fell for the third time). if it comes in threes, it's got to be religion, right? John's message will be brought to the world through Cass's camera and also the new brand he brought to Stinkweed for the Yost family.

...or i might be way off.

if i had to do over again, i don't think i would have watched this show - by myself. this is a show that you need to watch with someone else, to bounce ideas off of one another, to communicate, to share thoughts, to journey together. as it was, i had a pretty good journey by myself, but it could have been much, much more.

- kawitchate