John from Cincinnati
That it was cancelled, I now think, after watching the first six episodes, was a disaster. But if you’re looking for some humor in the situation, I’m not sure that watching the actors listen to Milch explain to them the artistic theory of the dream sequence in the sixth episode is likely to be beat. (Rebecca De Mornay’s* expression, in particular, is matchless, though Dayton Collie seems to rival her for mute and increasingly hostile** incomprehension.)
I’m waiting for the next disc, so I don’t want to jump any exegetical guns. Nancy Franklin’s review Milch seems bitter about in the commentary, this venue being the one which seems best to represent the values that HBO is selling to its subscribers. He doesn’t mention it specifically, but he does say that critics expected to be able to judge and understand the show after only watching a few episodes. I disagree with Franklin about it being boring and poorly acted. I found the dialogue to be hilarious, most of the time, and I’m not even bothered by the portentousness of naming the titular character “Monad” and recasting what seems to be an incident out of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in the first episode.
*Milch’s commentary on the first episode mentions first that De Mornay was best known for manually stimulating Tom Cruise in one film, and his remarks re her appearance on another occasion trend zestfully callipygian.
**If you’ve seen the show, you have to allow that this might be method acting.