Why John from Cincinnatti Makes Me Angry and Why I Can't Stop Watching it

In case you haven't watched John from Cincinnati, HBO's new series, it is basically about a family in turmoil at a rundown area of forgotten beach in California. John comes along. He seems autistic but not really. Just innocent? Yea, but it's more that that. He is odd and people have begun to notice he has angelic powers. He has healed people not from his own touch but by giving people (or animals in one case) the power to do so. Since John has shown up at Imperial Beach, one former star surfer floats in the air for no reason. It helps no one but it gives this depressed father ex-surfer a sense of something outside his own problems. Shawn, the child prodigy surfer broke his neck surfing only to walk out of the hospital the same day because a parrot that Jon had resurrected earlier 'kissed' the dying Shawn in the hospital room. Nuts, huh? And hope John never looks you in the eye and tells you to ,"See God." It can be an alarming experience. In one case, Cai (sp?) was trying to coax John into a sexual encounter. She was being pretty graphic with John when he says, "Cai, See God." Cai's eyes roll back in her head and she sees certain people in her life grabbing their wounds. The Vietnam vet grabs his knee, the druggie surfer grabs his head where he has received hair transplants, and Cai grabs her breasts because of her piercings. God is seen in their wounds is the message I suppose.


This is no 7th Heaven. The characters drop more f-bombs than Tony Soprano. There is something I like about that. Real people with real problems being chased and found out by God. There is nothing sentimental about this family. They would all benefit from a 12 Step Program but, hey, they have John. Their church is a creepy run down motel. Great things happen there to the oddest and most outcast of people. Sometimes their goodness seeps out.


What ticks me off at the same time is that life doesn't work like this. There are no healing Johns though I wish there were. It's just a show and one that is currently holding my interests. I don't blame the producers. However, we are all looking for a great healer to lead us out of our troubled lives. Instead, natural disasters occur, people starve to death because of where they are born while their political leaders live it up, and marriages split because people see in their spouse what they hate in themselves. I could get real religious here and start talking about Jesus being our healer, but it wouldn't change the fact that we (I) long for this world not to be so harsh. As a very conservative and faithful Southern Baptist co-worker of mine once said through her tears, "God is not enough." I was shocked that she could voice this. She followed this comment by saying she needed someone 'in flesh' to come to her rescue. It has been a few years since I worked with her, but I hope she found her 'John'.





So, I find myself totally mesmerised by this show and it's attempt to in a very strange way speak to spirituality. On the other hand, I know Johns don't come around. People die. Families fall apart. No miracles or miracle givers come to our rescue.