The final two episodes of Fishing with John feature Dennis Hopper, and they go together to Thailand in search of a Giant Squid. It must be said the music in Fishing with John is quite excellent, and to be expected given John Lurie’s position with lounging lizards. It becomes apparent that the Giant Squid is also hunting the fishermen. Hunt or be hunted, they must pursue it deeper into the bosom of Thailand. They find an ancient tribe that apparently holds the giant squid in high esteem, and take some time to eat in a remote village. Dennis Hopper orders an Iced Smoothie beverage, but is disheartened to find that it has blended ice in it. He sends it back, asking only for fruit. The smoothie is delivered, and the men continue their expedition for the squid by stealing the ancient tribe’s boat, but the squid has a large eye and hypnotises them.

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Willem and John go fishing in Maine. Ice fishing is hard work, and they are very cold in their little ice house out there on the ice. During the day, they eat peanut butter crackers and wait for the fish. They have not planned appropriately, and are very hungry because the fish are not biting. Willem and John contemplate homosexual acts to stay warm. Willem flirts with John. John does not appreciate Willem’s advances, but he is cold. Apart from the fact that their breath does not appear to freeze in this intense cold when they are sleeping through the night in their inadequate sleeping bags, they appear to perish in the Winter landscape. Were there ever any fish in the lake to begin with?

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Matt Dillon’s episode is the worst of the bunch. He doesn’t really fit into the quirky mold of the other adventuring fisherman, and the subsequent conversation between John and Matt is a little awkward. Maybe this awkwardness was intentional, but it works against the flavor of the show and when the narrator bursts out excitedly that it may be the best episode of Fishing with John yet, you can’t help but admire his keen irony at the unrelenting boredom so much more similar to the actual act of fishing than all the other episodes that unfolds over the course of the episode.

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John and Tom go fishing in Jamaica for snapper. There are long periods of waiting before either of the men gets a bite. Tom finally catches a fish. Upon catching the fish, the men discuss catch and release, and Tom decides to put the fish into his pants. It is unclear whether this is what makes him irritable for the rest of the episode, but I have read somewhere that Waits refused to speak to Lurie for a year after the episode. Tom decides not to get seasick and waste his breakfast. The men fish.

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The first episode of Fishing with John is by far the best. You are simply not prepared for the interplay between the fishers and the narrative (Oh. My. God.), particularly given the whole tone of the fishing sequences is correct, minus the fisherman. They have quiet, introspect conversation while fishing. Jim and John are fishing for a shark in the first episode, out in Montauk. They discuss what they’re going to eat out there on the boat. What makes this first episode so effective is that it’s not quite so invested in the specter of otherness – all the other locales are pretty heavily invested in the exotic. Here, it’s just the men, waking up excited to be alive, hoping for good fortune in their expedition. They are covered in sores and boners.

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