Okay. Here’s what I think is happening: Hell, I haven’t got a clue.
Anyone know what kind of “implants” Butchie was referring to? What kind of implants does a person have in their head?
Loved that shot of Shaunie skateboarding. Who says the kid is wooden? Not when he’s moving, that’s for sure. That was glorious.
Loved Doc McCall-Wolcott-Meg’s Bad Husband on ER’s joy at learning that miracles happen. Especially since it means these people will be talking about it!
I’m losing patience right along with Cissy at Mitch’s Om-ish nature. I think that kind of response only works when your partner feels the same way about how to handle stress. Zen doesn’t work with Cissy. Mitch should know that by now.
So what happened when John offered to let Kai “see God”? It seemed to suggest that he was an angel rather than an alien. And I’m glad that it’s becoming clear to the characters that John is responsible for all of the supernatural events.
My first thought was it was a paranoid delusion, but then I thought perhaps he also was talking about something like this. But then again, with Butchie I could see it being either way easily.
Fun to see all these old “friends” from other HBO projects showing up.
I thought John was referring to Shaun when he said “see God.” Could it be that John is a metaphorical John the Baptist and that Shaun is “Jesus?” Shaun did bring that bird back to life and now he’s been effectively “resurrected.”
Does anyone know the story behind Shaun’s mother? Is she still alive? If they ever explained that part, I missed it.
The ‘see god’ thing was interesting. John was definitely referring to Shaun when he said it but I am unsure as to whether he was being literal or not. My suspicion is not.
I love this show. It is far and away my favorite thing on TV right now because I have no idea how the darn thing is going to end.
I thought hair plugs too, but it looks like metal was the problem – anyone connected with the Yosts who had metal in or near their body felt the heat. Kai’s nipple rings, Viet Nam Joe’s leg (probably shrapnel), the crucifix Guzman was wearing.
Over at TWOP someone posted a link to a site that talked about people getting metal implants in their heads and on their faces. The site had a photo of a guy who looked like he had horns – sharp bumps on his forehead, under the skin.
I read somewhere that we’ll be meeting Shaunie’s mother.
Anyone have any ideas about Mitch, when he was stuck on the fence? He said he had a nail in his knee, but after Butch helped him down, he seemed fine. Another miraculous healing?
I expected something to happen the second time John told Kai to see God. But nothing happened. Does that mean John has some control over his powers (whatever they are)?
So John represents a John the Baptist figure and Shaun is Jesus? Sounds good. I think Jesus would have understood surfing.
Not enthralled yet with the show, but a lot of what I liked about Deadwood is here too. E.g., I liked how Charlie Utter was narrating the scene with the TV reporters.
His “friend of the family” conversation with Ed O’Neill was hilarious. There’s some superb dialogue here.
I can’t stop staring at Guzman’s belly. It should get its own episode. The whole “see God” thing was pretty interesting since everyone was put into pain.
It really strikes me as to how obvious Milch is about some things, when some of the things in Deadwood were so subtle, and left unsaid.
I’m still unsure about the show. If it was on middle of the week, I’d probably be out already, but on Sunday nights I watch the tube, and I do find it interesting enough.
I really DISLIKE several of the characters. I don’t like Shaun. I don’t like De Mornay. I don’t like Kai. I don’t like the gay lotto winner.
But, I really like Guzman, “I can’t hear out of this ear because of running a leaf blower for so long”. I like Mitch and Butchie. I like Luke Perry.
The 3 characters at the hotel are my favorites, I think. The dialogue between the three of them reminds me of some of the dialogue written for E.B. Farnum and the people he’d associate with in Deadwood. I also always love to see Sex & the City’s Stamford getting work.
Anyone else recognize Vietnam Joe as Mr. Ellsworth from Deadwood also? He was one of my favorite characters from that show.
Regarding the implants…maybe metal plates after a head injury?
I have only just finished watching the first three episodes and not quite sure what I make of this show.
I think the one thing that bothers me is this supposed huge hoopla of press around a family of…surfers?! Seriously, I lived in Southern California for over a decade and cannot tell you the name of a single surfer, let alone a cult family of surfers.
It was interesting that even during this huge surfing event where Shaun had his accident, there were maybe 30 people on the beach and 9/10ths of them were more concerned with getting an orange slushee and not even paying attention to the surfers - that is pretty much how I remember surfing events in California.
Still, will continue to watch if for no other reason than there isn’t exactly a wealth of programs on this summer anyway.
Played by Jim Beaver, who is a SDSAB member named jumblejim, although he hasn’t posted to the board in almost a year and even then only posted three times.
Jim’s been awfully busy. He’s a recurring character on Supernatural too, and he does theater. He has a ton of articles at IMDB, and he’s writing that book about George Reeves.
He does post on the HBO boards though. So does Earl Brown (Dan Dority), and Garrett Dillahunt posts occasionally, also Keone (Mr. Wu). Rather than wade through those boards, you can subscribe to a poster and you’ll get an e-mail when they post something. Great feature.
Keone is supposed to show up on John, but I don’t know about anyone else.
And, the guy in black was Charlie Utter, and the doctor was the guy who killed hickock, and then came back as the hooker-killer.
Really? Laird Hamilton does national American Express commercials. Kelly Slater is somewhat well known.
I think that within surfing people know names, and perhaps even families of surfers. My wife was into surfing when she was a kid, and still knows the names of tons of surfers. She had posters of guys, and while watchign the show one day, mentioned a family of two generations of surfers, but I’ll be damned if I can remember it.
Check out the documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys” sometime. It talks about the original skateboarders, and then focuses on the people who were there when skateboarding first started to make money through sponsorships, and tours and contests. One of the guys in the movie ended up being a total junkie and wound up in jail. I wouldn’t presume to say that Butchie is based on him, but it wouldn’t surprise me either.
What is wrong with Cissy? She screams profanity at everyone, even random people in the store, threatens to kill her husband in his bed, blasts Shaun’s father about neglecting him when Shaun can hear the whole thing… she just spews unpleasant, irrational meanness continuously. I could understand flipping out abuot Shaun’s injury, but she’s been clearly shown to be a crazy bitch before that ever happened. She doesn’t seem too fond of her husband, either, and I can’t see what he did to deserve such hate from her. If I were Mitch, I’d be jumping fences to get away from her too. She is so miserable. Whenever she’s onscreen, I’m wincing.
I’m interested to see how the show handles the miracle of Shaun’s severed spine spontaneously healing itself. How would a media circus not ensue? How can this not become the subject of massive scientific inquiry? Seems like the show opened a can of worms and I’m not sure how they can follow through on it in a realistic way.
If the only people who knew about the extent of the injury were the medical folks and the family, maybe it won’t be an issue. Assuming the medical people keep quiet about it.
But maybe that’s where Milch is going. How would the general public react to a modern miracle, one that can be substantiated with x-rays and MRI’s?
You gotta think that enough people knew about it, both inside and outside the hospital staff, that it’s going to leak. There were hordes of press outside the hospital. Throw enough money at the nurses and orderlies, someone is going to talk. Then what? Also, don’t the doctors have an obligation to investigate something like this? After ther Terry Schiavo ordeal, having someone spontaneously recover from a catastrophic spinal cord injury and brain death, someone who was almost euthanized? It’s HUGE. I can’t think of too much that would be huger news for the medical community. How could they, in good consciense, suppress this news?
That’d be interesting. I can’t imagine it going that way, but it’d be interesting. I guess I don’t see this being handled in a realistic/believable way, but I’ll wait a while and see before I give up. I’m kind of uncomfortable with the message so far, I have to say, since I was totally in agreement with Mitch about how to handle Shaun’s situation, and in the real world, Mitch would have been right; as it went town, he would have been killing his grandson.
Is there metal in hair implants? Over at TWOP they’re speculating that Butchie had metal implants that he could hook things to (like devil horns) to fit his Butch the Beast persona.
Rubystreak, good points. Unless the doctor and the fan nurse were the only ones who saw the test results, the media won’t be going away.
Wouldn’t there be a radiologist involved, and a lab tech? More than one nurse? I’d think lots of hospital staff would know, and someone would talk in the real world. I don’t want to be pre-disappointed in the show, but I’ll be happily surprised if the writers pull it off convincingly.
