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JFC was somewhat intriguing, but this is one that I don't blame HBO for canceling. I blame them for green lighting it in the first place. How could they have expected anything different? No one in their right mind would have expected this to be a Sopranos-like breakout hit. Someone needs to hypnotize the HBO execs into completely forgetting about the freakin Sopranos already. They need to pick a strategy and stick with it. I'll be switching over to Showtime once Big Love finishes the season. It's long overdue.

Lucky Louie was much funnier than Conchords and I suspect much cheaper as well. If they canceled that after one season, then I don't see how Conchords will last. The songs are sometimes fun but the rest is just your typical juvenile British humor (yes, I know they're from NZ). Repeating the same misunderstanding over and over again is not funny, nor is it art. It's the European equivalent of fart jokes. If Conchords were nothing but a musical, I'd like it a lot more.

I agree that Mad Men has no direction. I think that it'll be the first of the new shows that I stop watching. It has style and potential. Now if they only had some decent writers, it'd have a shot. But man, did it get boring real quick!

The Tudors is good, depending on what you're looking for. I'm a little biased in favor of period pieces (Rome, Carnivale, Deadwood, etc), but there is an interesting story there as well. Lot's of hot women disrobing as well. Still, it is a bit hard to relate to the characters, they might as well be from Mars. Pampered royalty debating the legal ins and outs of religion would get nothing more than a gob of spit in the eye from me in real life, so I'm not sure why I find it interesting on screen. It's just beautiful to watch I suppose. I don't expect it to last, it must be nearly as expensive as Rome.

and to all the haters with nothing better to do than watch a show that they supposedly care nothing about, get bent.....to "get" this show you have to realise there was nothing to be "gotten"....it was akin to a Dali....do you look at "the persistence of time" and say "i wish this guy had put an explanation on this somewhere"..... why does everything have to be spelled out all the time??? try using that lump of matter inside your skull and find meaning in your own way... it can actually be very rewarding....

its all there for you, even you who need it explained.....it was all there....as people above me have pointed out, pay hard attention to john and linc's conversation, and to the car dealer's interactions... if you need it written in crayon, or stick figures perhaps then you probably should have left it alone in the first place.......

I'm not trying to slam JFC here, but where is painting today, as an art form, compared to the past. As it got more surreal and less about trying to say something, it died out. I really see most modern art as a venue for pseudo-intellectuals to pretend like they have something special inside that lets them see that which we peasants do not. But it's not real, it's subjective perception. I don't need a catalyst for subjective perception, I can just stare at a wall and think about stuff and it doesn't cost me $12/month.

I know Milch hates the confines of a narrative structure, but that's what TV and movies are all about. Telling a story. I suspect this show wasn't renewed because of Milchs' comments about not knowing where this is going. I like my shows to take risks, but that kind of risk is unacceptable when you have that much money on the line. These aren't landed aristocrats buying a painting to hang in their home, HBO is a corporation that has a legal obligation to plan responsibly for the shareholders (not that they are by canceling everything they own). And even though I'd like to see a second season, I wouldn't risk the money if I were them. They don't even seem to have the creators enthusiastic endorsement, which can sometimes be trusted in a talented show runner.

Also, I love how people here think that they know what's going on in this show when Milch say's he's not even sure. I didn't care much about the answers on this show, but if some of you are so sure you have them, then why don't you share instead of keeping it to yourself and implying that others need crayons to figure it out. I can pretty much guarantee that you don't know either. Most of the "theories" I've heard on these talkbacks are ridiculous, but I'd be willing to hear some new ones.

i think milch wrote a show that was bigger even than him in that he tried to put ideas out there that A) are not popular, B) are not proven, and C) that he knew he couldn't wrap up neatly for what seems like 85-90% of the general public....i have an open mind, maybe too open, but this show resonated inside me and i need no explanation for that.......

Ed O'Neill confronting his dead wife's bed was heartbreaking.

...bring back Deadwood...

(to the rest y'all) don' go killin all o' 'em..........

God and religion is weak nowadays, more and more people have doubts about their beliefs, are athiests, or just plain don't care. And it's not like I can blame them, I'm one of them. I'm definately in the camp of "seeing is believing" and if the crap in the Bible is true then I've often wondered why God or whoever can't just send another Messiah to reaffirm a faith lost after so many generations.

This show was designed with similar thoughts, as the characters were clearly destined to become the new age version of the apostles. Closure? Damn people, it was full of it. What, you wanted a scientific explanation of the bird or the levitating? It's a miracle. An act of God. Have some fucking faith.

I watched the season finale again last night to see if there was something I/we missed. There it was right there on the 32" LCD. Big as the word itself. And it was throughout the show.

Start at the end with Linc's speach. The phrasing is mostly like John. it's in almost riddle form, but he's not as good at it. He tells the story of how he met the Yosts, signed Butchie, watched him crash and burn, etc. If you can understand that, then go back to the beginning.

Linc and John sit down and Linc tries to understand. This is to help us understand. those of you that thought John would start speaking coherently were way off. But Linc got some of it. What he got was the end is near. Not the end of the world, though. In his words he basically said if John said the end was near and Linc was in close proximity to John, the end could be Linc. End to what is an entirely different question.

Linc had to get into the game, but Mitch Yost had to get back into the game. We get images through words of how and why the family is disfunctional throughout the show. Some of that seems tohave been caused by the Buthchie crash and burn. Tina's last words were in response to Sissy asking what she wanted. "I want this" was the response.

So I pose to you this. John is not Jesus. He is not announcing the 2nd coming. He is not an alien, a robot, etc. What he is is an angel or something like that who has come to help this family get back together.

Lastly (I think), go watch the scene at the car dealership. The car dealer was John advanced. Whatever that means, here's where it comes from. He knew everything John did. No one said 25 cars, but he seemed to hit the nail on the head. No one other than the car dealer in this scene said anything about the ones and zeros and a mother reliving her son. And he took John offline twice. For me that was the key scene. We may have been watching a higher power in John, whatever that means, but we were not seeing the higher power in any character. Only how he/she/it can affect our lives...even today in the land of ones and zeros.

Did this answer all the questions? No. And now we'll never know now what those answers would have been due to the bean counters and the hatred spewed by those that do not understand.

Even that last sentence seems biblical to me...and I'm a non-believer.

Impressive.

HBO = Cocksuckers to the extrema

For those who said "nothing happened"...look how far they've gone in 10 eps. The show started with a fractured family, a drug-addled son, an evil corporate shark, a missing mother...and by the final episode everyone is healed, everyone has come together.

There was a lot in the finale that was setting up seasons to come, a time line of a final apocalypse to avoid 9/11/14, as well as the Yosts beginning the journey to heal the world together. I'm sure in time we would have learned more about John and his mission. But to call it unsatisfying is completely missing the drama, dialogue, and journey that everyone undertook for 10 episodes.

p.s. And Freddie needs his own spinoff.

Thumbs up to all the haters!! GOOD JOB!!

I'm not a biblical scholar or student, but I seem to remember from sunday school angel hierachy. Gabrielle, for example, is never referred to as just an angel. He's an arch angel. However, the shepards (I think) were visited by an angel...or was it plural?

If my theory is correct, I still don't have a clue as to what the "minor characters" role is...was. If I had to guess Bill would be where they seek wisdom, doctor and lawyer would be just that, innkeeper(s) would provide the sanctuary to get the family out of the spotlight, the hairlip would be technology...a new biblical role needed in this day and time, and the Hawaiians would be muscle/guards.

But that's only a guess. You got anything better I'd love to hear it.

...and I'll seriously miss this show.