| 100 |
New York Post Linda Stasi
As profane as "Deadwood" and as profound as "The Sopranos," the series strikes every right chord. |
| 91 |
Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale
[A] strange confabulation. |
| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
The ceaseless ways in which Milch and Nunn challenge our expectations about how families, friends, and strangers are meant to convey their fealty to each other, along with some fine hard-boiled dialogue and fisticuffs, suggest great continuing pleasures. |
| 70 |
Newsday Diane Werts
Ultimately, viewers just have to work a lot harder to fathom John from Cincinnati than Tony from Jersey. |
| 70 |
LA Weekly Robert Abele
Mesmerizing and entertainingly confounding. |
| 63 |
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
I found enough mesmerizing moments, bits of character and sharp Milch dialogue in the opening episodes that I'll probably stick around to catch a few more waves. |
| 60 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The premiere episode is almost willfully strange and unlikable. But that doesn’t mean that the series is bad, just peculiar, a solemn mythologization — and mystification — of surfing as unearthly pleasure and life-sapping addiction. |
| 60 |
Los Angeles Times Paul Brownfield
Sometimes "John From Cincinnati" is a muddle, at other times rich drama and divine comedy. And sometimes it's all of that at once. |
| 60 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Three episodes in, I started to buy into the world Milch has created. I don't understand it, I don't think I even really like it (almost all of the characters are damaged and rather unpleasant), but I am intrigued by it. |
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
It's only June, but I can confidently state that you won’t see a weirder show than "John From Cincinnati" all year long. |
| 50 |
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
Intriguing but not entirely satisfying. |
| 50 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
Too little of it even attempts to make a lick of sense. Still, the cast is first-rate, and Milch himself is a singular talent. I can't write off a show like that, but I can't exactly advise you to watch it, either. |
| 50 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
I'll be patient, out of respect to Milch and Tinker, but I don't expect you to be. |
| 50 |
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
It's an odd little show, often more David Lynch than David Milch, and after three episodes I'm still not sure I understand it all. |
| 40 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
The first three episodes of this peculiar series bored me silly with its pretentious mannerisms, and I can't help thinking that many HBO subscribers will tune in and wonder: They dropped Deadwood for this? |
| 40 |
Variety Brian Lowry
"John From Cincinnati" might be the strangest show ever produced for American television. |
| 40 |
Time James Poniewozik
Its visuals are gorgeous and its mystical glimpses tantalizing, but its transcendence is more asserted than earned. We sinful mortals still want prosaic things like a story. |
| 38 |
People Weekly Tom Gliatto
The tone of the first three episodes is grubby yet also precious. [11 Jun 2007, p.41] |
| 30 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
The only thing a person can be certain of after watching "John From Cincinnati" is this: Any die-hard "Deadwood" fan interested in keeping the veins in his forehead intact should not bother with it. |
| 20 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
A pretentious and talky botch, John From Cincinnati won't fill the void left by The Sopranos. |
| 20 |
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
In the three episodes HBO made available to reviewers, however, the only moment of transcendence for the viewer occurs when some of the characters take to the sea on their boards and ride the waves in an "Endless Summer" moment that comes as a blessed relief after the inexplicable chaos of what precedes it -- and is over too soon. |
| 20 |
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
A truly baffling series about surfing, screwed-up families and miracles. |
| 20 |
Salon Heather Havrilesky
This show needs a miracle even more than the damaged inhabitants of Imperial Beach do. |
| 10 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
Watching HBO's surfing drama "John From Cincinnati" is like sitting through a bad play at a tiny experimental theater.... In short, if Gary Busey were a TV series, he would be "John From Cincinnati." |
