It is just over 100 degrees outside, and the power went out at work this afternoon, so they sent us home. It’s sad – I dIdn’t know what to do with myself. I was thinking about going to rent 300 but…

Because I’ve been making an effort to be more ‘green,’ as is the trend right now, I felt guilty about sitting inside with the TV system and air conditioner on. And I didn’t want to pollute the air further by driving any more than I already have today.

I could sit and read a book, but that won’t happen. I’m the kind of person that reads right before bed or on vacation only.

Somehow my guilt dissipates when I’m on the computer. Yes, it takes up energy, but I justify it because I am productive.

So for lack of any other original ideas, here is quick look inside my brain at the moment:

Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of this blog.  The timing is perfect; last week was the most amazing and surreal experience in the two year history of my site.

If you haven’t done so already, you need to bookmark Whitney Matheson’s Pop Candy blog for USA Today. It is a daily must-read. As a shot in the dark, aiming high and hoping for the best, I sent her the link to Jim’s response, because I know she’s covered Deadwood, JFC and Milch in previous posts. She not only wrote a little blurb providing back story, she linked
directly to my site! This resulted in at least 3,000 new hits and
introduced me to several new friends with similar entertainment sites
and interests. Keep in mind that before last week, I was averaging
75-100 hits per day. So thank you, Whitney!

If you’re a true Deadwood fan, you must visit Save Deadwood. It is the best source for updates about the status of the cast and series.  I totally appreciate that they posted a link back to Jim’s response on this site as well! I also enjoy visiting and then listening to The Real Deadwood Podcast with Paul Dennis. 

Now what will I do to celebrate the silly little anniversary of this site? I’m glad you asked! I will be obtaining Season 1 of both Friday Night Lights and Heroes on DVD as soon as possible, and then starting to research new laptop options.  Four years later, my baby is out of style; the technology is sadly archaic and the performance increasingly sluggish. Any suggestions?

All of this is to say that I understand and appreciate the awkward years of youth. And clearly Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg do as well. They co-wrote Superbad, which features the best onscreen representation of floundering teenage boys in years. Rogen and Goldberg offer up very thinly-veiled versions of their younger selves (the characters names are…Seth and Evan). We all knew guys like Seth and Evan, and some of us were them, on many levels.

Jonah Hill (who has lost a LOT of weight since Accepted) plays Seth, the slightly bulky and extremely undersexed senior with a penchant for phallic illustrations and yelling with great exasperation. I couldn’t help but imagine the character of Seth as a 17 year old Ben Stone, Rogen’s character in Knocked Up. Besides the physical similarities, the stunted maturation fits the mold.

Seth’s best friend Evan is played by the unflappable Michael Cera from Arrested Development, which was yet another in a long line of my favorite shows that have been prematurely canceled. Cera is quite talented; he embodies and has mastered the art of bumbling boy far better than any of his contemporaries. I really hope that Superbad elevates his profile and Cera is offered opportunities above and beyond the gawky teen typecast.

Well this is a first, at least for me and this little Blog.

I respect Mr. Beaver as an actor, and totally appreciate the time he took to pen a very passionate response to one blogger’s opinion. He took a risk by sharing some of this information, but I asked and he granted me permission to reprint his email here. He stated that “some of what I said is my impression of events, but I believe them to be true. I’m sure that everyone involved with the shows would have his or her own perspective. This was mine.” I was thrilled but surprised, because some of what he has to say about HBO, Milch and John From Cincinnati is quite eye-opening and potentially controversial.

So here is the original email, in his exact words:

“Hey there.

I’m sorry for the rant. So many people, fans and
entertainment writers, have publicly excoriated David for things they
mistakenly believe he did or wanted or chose, and, while he doesn’t
need my defense, I feel he is too often unjustly blamed and I get
defensive for him. So I hope you’ll take my remarks in the spirit of
increased understanding in which they were intended.” – Jim

 

Dear Mr.
Milch: 

Deadwood
is easily one of my favorite shows of all time. As a matter of fact, we are
re-watching all three seasons right now, keeping a chart for the use of the
work c*cksucker. That is actually how we refer to the show (i.e. “Hey, let’s watch
the third episode of C*cksucker after dinner tonight.”).

It is a
well-documented fact that you are a genius. But John From Cincinnati was a
colossal failure.  You should have
christened it Driftwood, because it will forever be known as the The Show That
Killed Deadwood.  You had to know that
regardless of the fact that your new series was nothing like Deadwood it would
forever be compared to it. The nail in the coffin is that you killed a
brilliant show, only to replace it with a far inferior product.

I
understand that John From Cincinnati was your baby, your dream project. Wait…no
I don’t. Did you initially only envision three seasons of Deadwood, or did you
end that series in order to get John From Cincinnati on the air?

I loved
NYPD Blue, which you created and wrote almost every episode of.  Those characters, in that setting, speaking
your language? Amazing. And your Shakespearean dialogue worked brilliantly on
Deadwood. But it simply distracted from the actors, story and cinematography on
John From Cincinnati.   

It seems
as if this was your recipe for a 10-episode bucket of JFC:

• Add: 6 recycled
  actors from Deadwood
• Toss in: 6
  sentimental favorites from the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s (Luke Perry from Beverly
  Hills 90210, Ed O’Neill from Married with Children, Mark-Paul Gosselaar from
  Saved by the Bell, Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing, Rebecca De Mornay from
  Risky Business, and [with a wink wink/nudge nudge] Howard Hesseman from WKRP
  in…Cincinnati)
• Mix in: 1
  real-life world champion surfer chick (Keala Kennelly)
• Spice it up
  with: 2 seasoned character actors (Bruce Greenwood; Double Jeopardy & I,
  Robot) and (Luis Guzmán; Traffic & Magnolia)
• Sauté all into
  the most bizarre television show scenario ever

To be
frank, the six actors from Deadwood served as painful, frustrating visual reminders
of what we’re missing.

Mr. Milch,
I am an educated viewer, fully and willingly able to suspend my disbelief. I am
currently obsessed with a show where the villain is a moody cloud of black
smoke, for crying out loud. And I love the supernatural more than most (hello,
my cats are named Mulder & Scully). But in my opinion, John From Cincinnati
introduced and crammed far too many elements before allowing the series to
simmer.

John from Cincinnati = Jesus
Christ?

I am
convinced that the religious angle of the show was one of the strongest paths to
its demise. If I had to guess, I would venture that most of us who tuned in to
your new show were Deadwood fans; people who were acclimated to and enjoyed the
sex, violence and foul language for three seasons, and who would not
necessarily label themselves as devout or particularly religious. And we were
more than familiar with your favorite themes of redemption and salvation. But
to presume that we would view John as a living, breathing,
surfing incarnation of Jesus Christ was a stretch and a risk.

You don’t
need to redeem yourself. You’re David bleeping Milch. But when I read that you
are already planning a new series about a police drama set in the Vietnam war
era, I reacted with mixed feelings. On one hand, you have proven with both Hill
Street Blues and NYPD Blue that you bleed law enforcement blue, but on the
other hand…it is a sign that those long-overdue Deadwood movies may never get
made.

When John
From Cincinnati was canceled, I was relieved. You might argue that at least I
watched all ten episodes, but now I have that one hour a week back to spend
watching something that doesn’t make me scream at the television in anger and
disbelief.  

- Jo