John from Cincinnati
HBO | Release Date: June 10, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
11
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: As profane as "Deadwood" and as profound as "The Sopranos," the series strikes every right chord. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorGloria Goodale
Season 1 Review: [A] strange confabulation. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: Mesmerizing and entertainingly confounding. Read full review
70
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: Ultimately, viewers just have to work a lot harder to fathom John from Cincinnati than Tony from Jersey. Read full review
63
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: Sometimes "John From Cincinnati" is a muddle, at other times rich drama and divine comedy. And sometimes it's all of that at once. Read full review
60
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: It's only June,? but I can confidently state that you won’t see a weirder show than "John From Cincinnati" all year long. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: Intriguing but not entirely satisfying. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: I'll be patient, out of respect to Milch and Tinker, but I don't expect you to be. Read full review
50
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
50
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: 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? Read full review
40
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: "John From Cincinnati" might be the strangest show ever produced for American television. Read full review
40
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
38
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: The tone of the first three episodes is grubby yet also precious. [11 Jun 2007, p.41]
30
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
20
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: A pretentious and talky botch, John From Cincinnati won't fill the void left by The Sopranos. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
20
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: A truly baffling series about surfing, screwed-up families and miracles. Read full review
20
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: This show needs a miracle even more than the damaged inhabitants of Imperial Beach do. Read full review
10
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: 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." Read full review
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