John from Cincinnati Cancelled

Tue, Aug 14, 2007

I’ve only caught a few episodes of this in hotel rooms, but it seemed sublime. (But the affectless intrusion of the marvelous also seemed to be something I think of as a wounded trend in contemporary American fiction.) I’m not at all surprised that it was cancelled, given that its obvious lack of popular appeal. It also captured the dilapidated beachside community well, though I have more personal experience with the East Coast versions.

I have always wondered, though, about the somewhat hyperbolic comparisons that the HBO renascence has provoked. What would be the proper contemporary literary parallels for something like Deadwood, The Wire, or The Sorpranos? The problem of incommensurable media arises. By the standards of the novel, for example, even Milch’s baroque dialogue and plotting seem poor fare. But the televised dramas are more entertaining, more immediate, for what are well-rehearsed and understood reasons now.

I don’t suppose I have to worry about a DVD release, though.