Then all that money went out the window on Rome, The Sopranos and Deadwood went away and John from Cincinnati challenged viewers in ways that no one could have imagined (like challenging them not to cancel their subscriptions to HBO) for a full ten weeks.

So with Showtime nipping at its heels and winning acclaim-by-default with one-degree-of-separation-from-FX shows like Dexter and Californication, HBO is now happy to be not TV... but MTV.

Four days after killing John, they've renewed Entourage and Flight of The Conchords.

Continue reading "HBO: HBO plays it safe and brings back the boys" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

But we would be wrong.

Hours after HBO pulled the plug on John in wake of its season finale, the floundering-without-its-Sopranos network announced they've got Milch is cooking up another series.

This one goes back to safe, familiar, unchallenging turf.

Continue reading "HBO: Got Milch? HBO comes back for more" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We'll never learn what "Mother of God, Cass-Kai" means.

We'll never know if John and Shaunie were surfing in from heaven or a UFO.

We'll never-- Oh who gives a s***? We weren't supposed to know. And you weren't watching, anyway.

John from Cincinnati, David Milch's saga of science, spirituality and surfing, his middle finger to popular opinion and a series that got more watchable as it got more incomprehensible, has been canceled by HBO after ten episodes and hours after its first season finale (with a rousing opening sequence set to Bob Dylan's "Series of Dreams" that seemed to be setting the course for a new direction).

Continue reading "HBO: John is dead." »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And he's not making it any easier by returning to HBO to play a real-life figure whose name at least sounds like it's straight out of Sopranosland.

He'll star as tough guy sports marketer Sonny Vaccaro, the man who signed Michael Jordan to the first million-dollar shoe deal at Nike, in the movie ABCD Camp. Gandolfini will executive produce through his Attaboy Films company, along with a few others including Baron Davis, the star guard for the Golden State Warriors.

So what's so dramatic about Sonny boy?

Continue reading "The Sopranos: Gandolfini returns to the scene of the crime" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"A programming note": Sunday is the season-- and possibly series-- finale for the greatest and most profound series with the coolest opening credits ever seen on television: John from Cincinnati.

We realize that no one can forgive creator David Milch for ditching Deadwood in favor of a show in which no one can figure out what the hell is going on, and even fewer of us gave John a chance after it premiered so obtusely, minutes after the frustrating final scene of The Sopranos, but the work of actors like Ed O'Neill, Dayton Callie, Luke Perry-- and Austin Nichols as John-- not to mention the angry, unhinged performance of Leonard Cohen's former galpal Rebecca DeMornay-- has generated a cult despite itself and made this appointment viewing.

So is he God or a space alien?

Continue reading "HBO: TiVo Alert! "The end is near" for John" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)