"John from Cincinnati", Part 2: Surfing Has Nothing to Do With It

Having bing watched all 8 episodes of John in Cincinnati in 2 days, I can report the following:

1. "Three generations of surfing champions find their lives turned upside down by a mysterous visitor."  Wrong!  The surfing is completely irrelevant.  They might as well have been family of taxidermists.

2. I thought that Butchie the Black Sheep Son and John from Cincinnati were a romantic couple because Butchie sees him and immediately wants to be part of his life forever.  But it's more like a religious conversion.  After their life-changing day together, Butchie gets off drugs and reconciles with his father and son, and John moves on to help someone one else (but of course they stay friends forever).

He performs some miracles, like curing the teenage Shaun's broken neck, but mostly he hangs out with you, smiling and repeating back what you have said, tinging it with cryptic but life-changing significance:

"Get back in the game"
"What do you want?"
"See God"

 Someone suggests that "When you repeat my words, I can hear the voice of your Father." 

Get it?  Well, he said he was coming back.

Among the publicans and sinners who get transformed through John smiling at them: 

Ramon (Luis Guzman), who runs the fleabag motel, starts to cook

Dickstein (Willie Garson), the sleazy corporate lawyer, quits his job, dumps his fiance, and joins the motel gang.  Ramon and Dickstein remain a gay subtext couple.

Kai (Keala Kennelly) starts to write again

Drug dealer Steady Freddie (Dayton Callie, right) cleans up , moves into the hotel and helps with the renovation.

His sidekick Polacka (Paul Ben Victor) moves in with him.  Gay-subtext couple.

Barry Cunningham (Matt Winston), the teddy-bear lugging gay guy who is tormented by the physical and sexual assault in his past, joins the motel gang.

Dr. Smith (Garret Dillahunt), a doctor who saw grandson Shaun cured of a broken neck, joins the motel gang and starts dating Barry.  Canonical gay couple.

Beefcake: An occasional shirt off.  Most of the actors are unattractive, anyway.

Heterosexual romance; Almost none. Butchie reconciles with the estranged mother of his son, estranged Grandma and Grandpa Surfers reconcile.  Some minor kissing, no sex. Grandson Shaun is 14,but displays no interest in girls.

Gay characters/subtexts:  All over the place.

My grade: A-.

See also: John from Cincinnati: Surfing Great Gets a New Boyfriend