A "John From Cincinnati" Headache

"John From Cincinnati" is becoming of perverse interest to me. It is just so awful. I forced myself to watch the fourth episode this week, after seeing the first three for review, and I was as irked by it as ever. It gave me a headache. Seriously, this show may be the most bombastic, nonsensical drama I've ever seen on TV.

The characters aren’t characters so much as instruments for David Milch to make some tired points about commercialism and selfhood. None of the actors comes off well, as they all natter on about nothing and project the self-importance that Milch has shoveled onto them. Poor Rebecca De Mornay is now forced to be all angry and rageful against the heavens, about what it's not clear. And Ed O’Neill seems particularly ridiculous as Bill the bird owner, who delivers Milch’s words as if they were Shakespeare. "John" is as awful as "Deadwood" was great.