Cool! I'm going to look for that. I've been watching a few TV series DVDs lately - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" by Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld, and starring who else? A guy that just can't get out of his own way, fingernails on a chalkboard comedy, and "Castle", main character is a writer, teamed with his female sidekick, Detective Beckett, solving murder cases. Very stylish and witty.
Oh, and a comedy clearly outside all boundaries of decency and good taste, HBO's "East Bound And Down", about a washed up foul mouthed baseball player, with Executive Producer (and occasional guest star) Will Ferrell at his best, given to me as a birthday present by my daughter - She said, "yeah Dad when I saw a preview of it online, it was for you!". And "Burn Notice", enjoyed almost as much for the camera technique and rich saturation of color throughout, as the rest of it. The characters are sustainable too, especially "Lacey" from "Cagney and Lacey", who plays the main character's wise cracking, chain smoking, mumu wearing, mom. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > One of the less-than-fully-appreciated aspects of beauty I like to share > from time to time is a TV series that, like many of my favorites, was > ignominiously canceled after one season. Its cancelation came as a bit > of a surprise, seeing as how the creator of the series was coming off of > a successful three-year run of a TV series that most critics on the > planet would include in their "Five Best TV Series Ever Made" lists, > "Deadwood." > > Instead of playing it safe and making a fourth season of "Deadwood," > David Milch decided to do something completely different and create a > series called "John From Cincinnatti." It sank like a stone. > > I was one of its diehard fans, and remain one to this day. I consider it > one of the best films or television series ever made about the spiritual > path, and what it is like to walk it. > > JFC is set in Imperial Beach, California, just a few miles from the > Mexican border. It is equally known for being a nexus for the smuggling > of drugs and illegal aliens, and for its surfing. Milch decided to make > a TV series about a dynasty of surfing champions -- three generations of > them -- trying to make a life for themselves while being completely > dysfunctional in Imperial Beach. > > You have rarely in your life ever SEEN such dysfunctional people. That > is probably one reason the series did not continue on to additional > seasons. Pretty much all of the characters are models of Milch's > signature dialog -- abrasive people saying things that are the polar > opposite of what they really are. In "Deadwood," that invocation of > contrast had evil Al Swearingen often talking murder but practicing > compassion. OK, it just as often involved the opposite, but that's kinda > the point of this dramatic technique. Characters are not unidimensional; > they have depth. And sometimes they can't bring themselves to express > the things that they really feel. > > In JFC, this technique reaches new heights. The sires of this surfing > dynasty talk for all the world as if they hate each other, but are still > together all these years after having met and fallen in love on the > beach because on a deeper level they're still very much in love. Their > son Butchie, having followed in his father's wetsuit footsteps and > become a worldwide surfing champion, "went his own way" and became a > drug addict, abandoning his son Sean to his parents for upbringing, > because he realized he couldn't bring him up himself. Sean is now making > his bid as a potential surfing champ himself. Throw into the mix an > astounding array of odd friends, relatives, and characters, and you have > pretty much the textbook definition of family dysfunction. Cast some of > these people using non-actors who are surfing champions in real life, > and you have the potential stuff of magic. > > On Day One of the series, into this dysfunction drops John. What exactly > he is is not really explained, only that he's more than a little naive > -- nigh unto retarded -- and that real, honest-to-goodness miracles > happen around him. And not just to him. The series opens with Papa Surf > looking down while washing off after a good surf and noticing that he's > levitating several inches above the ground. Then a dead parrot is > brought back from the dead. Then even more heady miracles occur. > > The thing that makes "John From Cincinnati" such a magnificent spiritual > work IMO is that it avoids the temptation that so many chroniclers of > spirituality have succumbed to -- focus on the teacher. JFC isn't really > about John. It's about what it's like to hang ten in the aura of someone > *like* John. > > What does it do to your life -- and to your notions of reality and what > that constitutes -- to hang day in and day out with someone who > constantly reveals that "reality" to be anything but? What's it LIKE to > have your safe, repetitive, dysfunctional world turned upside down, and > be confronted with non-stop Wonder? > > Many in the TV community think that David Milch made a major misstep > with "John From Cincinnati." I think he took advantage of those most > fleeting of qualities in Hollywood -- fame and success -- to make a > deeply personal, magnificently-rendered artistic statement about the > nature of spirituality. > > Ten one-hour episodes. Probably available for a bargain price from > Netflix, or as a used box set at your local DVD or Bluray emporium. > Worth the price, in my opinion. If you give it a try, based on 1) > ignoring my rep on this forum as a lying sack-o-shit lowlife, 2) reading > this far in this rap anyway, and 3) actually believing it, and find > watching this series a waste of your time, I will happily refund your > money. Just write to me here and I will send you a postcard containing > the cash. >
