Saturday, July 21, 2007

The oblique, and then there's JFC

Okay, I just watched last Sunday's John From Cincinnati episode "His Visit: Day Five" for the second time. And here's what I'm sure of:
  • Cissy didn't scream every single line.
  • She gave Butchie, er, a "hand" when she was on acid and he was a teenager, and that explains a lot about why they're both so fucked up.
  • Bill is still fucked up about his wife's death, but he listens to the voice of his dead wife through John. And he listens to the voice of Zippy. The parrot.
  • Tina's porn producer doesn't market the names of his films very well.
  • Something's up with Cass's camera.
  • Jennifer Grey doesn't look like Baby anymore, and Dickstein's certainly not putting her in the corner.
  • Hi, Trixie from Deadwood!
  • The dude in room 24 doesn't look so good. Anymore.
  • There's a reason I hate tuna salad.
Okay, here's what I'm not so sure of:
  • Everything else.
I've wrapped my noodle around labyrinth, mystifying plots before. Even when they don't add up to a lick of sense at the end (Hello! X-Files!). I've waded my way through curly-Q, elaborate Milchian language, shrouded by hidden motivations, before (Hello! Deadwood). But this show is borderline impenetrable. Yet I am utterly fascinated. Is it adding up to something I just can't seem to understand? Is it adding up to nothing? Am I alone in being confused? Or should I just take at face value that even the creator and writer doesn't know what the fuck it's about?

I read through the latest TWOP recap, and it's quite funny. Particularly amusing was the poll:

Weirdest-ass thing of the week?
  1. There was this really long speech at the end of the show that was sort of unusual.
  2. Butchie and Cissy's unfortunate family secret.
  3. Freddy, the saxophone-playing drug kingpin.
  4. The vaguely menacing making of tuna fish sandwiches.
  5. John Monad, defying the space-time continuum.

And really, I can't pick one, though the speech thing, the "centerpiece" of the episode, is bewildering.

This is a train wreck (or masterpiece) of epic proportions, and I simply cannot believe this makes it air each week.

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