TVSquad

(S01E06) Wow. Wow. Wow. That's it. That's the review. Wow. I think my brain blew a fuse. Last week's interminable bridge episode was totally worth it for this. The pay-off. Love it, or hate it. This is the show to be watching right now.

(S01E05) What was going on in this episode? I don't know Butchie instead. Is Zippy your personal Lord and Savior? I don't know Butchie instead. Would you keep watching this show if you weren't reviewing it? I don't know Butchie instead.

(S01E04) "Want to leave a message... on my face?" Classic. I'm officially forming the Steady Freddy fan club. I could use a lot less mega-whiny Mitch Yost and a lot more Freddy.

(S01E03) Let that be a lesson to you, young padawans. If you're going to get pierced downtown or any other place the sun don't shine outside of Saint-Tropez, it could come back to haunt you given any major religious experiences... or bonings.

(S01E02) It's going to get harder and harder for Mitch and Bill to explain away the miraculous occurrences going on around them by way of their own neuroses now. Last week, Bill could chalk up Zippy the Wonder Bird's resurrection to his senility, and Mitch could decide that his levitating abilities came courtesy of a plumcot-sized brain tumor.

(S01E01) Unlike my esteemed colleagues at various print publications, I did not have access to John from Cincinnati's press screener weeks before the show's broadcast. I would have to write my review within an hour or two after watching the premiere with the rest of America. This is all well and good, but I was a little nervous about what I would make of David Milch's latest outing without some time to reflect. I didn't want my commentary to be mired in superfluous comments about how Ed O'Neill and Rebecca De Mornay are looking these days. This series is drawing on an "everything and the kitchen sink" range of literary and philosophical references. It deserves more from me so I prepared by reading everything that was available – namely the script, interviews with Milch and the early reviews.

Julia will have her review of the new HBO series John From Cincinnati when it premieres after the Sopranos finale on June 10, but San Francisco Chronicle critic Tim Goodman has seen the first three episodes, and he's not impressed. In fact, he's depressed.

Goodman says that the heads of fans of David Milch's other show, Deadwood, will "explode" when they see this, that they would get rid of Deadwood just to air this show. He won't have his full review 'til Sunday, but on his blog, Goodman says that HBO made "a total blunder" and that the show is just "a total mess." Wow, I guess we'll have to wait for his full review to find out what he really thinks.

As I said yesterday, I'm going to give it a shot. I mean, the previews are just so bizarre that you have to check it out.

Fresh off of Deadwood (does anyone else think that left the air too soon?), David Milch and the cast presented their new surfing drama John From Cincinnati to the TCA. Most surprising was the fact that there are some mystical elements to the show ... although they weren't really elaborated on at the panel. The clips offered up contained scenes of levitation and a bird seeming to come back to life, but seeing them out of context makes us unsure to label them just yet.

Milch did get a bit esoteric though, and said that the show takes place on "the edge of the coordinates of reality." It has a vague aura of Six Feet Under around it, even though the subjects are entirely different, and I tend to like shows that aren't laid out for you in black and white.

Monday's New York Times features a story on David Milch and the writing process behind his forthcoming HBO pilot John from Cincinnati. If you've been reading our reports on the series' casting, you know that HBO's enthusiasm for this project is what brought about the earlier-than-anticipated-end of Milch's other HBO outing, Deadwood.

Most Deadwood fans, including myself, were pretty pissed to find out that Deadwood was getting the boot thanks to a show about the first family of surfing, but what are you going to do? Artists grow. They change. They want to write other stuff, and most fans of Milch will follow him anywhere including the sunny California coast.

When all that controversy was going on with Deadwood, one of the reasons that David Milch gave for the show not returning (other than the problems he was having with HBO) was that he was preparing a drama titled John From Cincinnati. Now that show is coming together quickly. Rebecca De Mornay has just been added to the cast, which includes Bruce Greenwood (she'll play his wife), Austin Nichols (he's John and he's from Cincinnati), and Brian Van Holt (from Threshold).

The HBO show is about the surfing world in southern California. Nichols is a rich guy who comes to the area to take surfing lessons, and Matt Winston plays another guy who is coming back to the area to get even with someone for something that was done wrong to him long ago.

Internet users are surfing the web as much as they are watching television, according to a study done by JupiterResearch marketing firm. Researchers found that internet users spend about 14 hours a week online, which is the same amount of time they spend watching television. It also found that television, books and newspapers are losing viewers and readers who are opting to spend time online. That's a trend that has become pretty obvious to the bigwigs at television networks, because most of them have brought their content online for all of us geeks.

How much time do you spend on the internet and watching television each week? I'm not sure of the hours, but I know I spend way more time online than I do watching television.

[Via Lost Remote]