Jericho TV Show – First Impressions Of The CBS Pilot
Categories: Movie ReviewsOf all the new shows scheduled to be released this Fall, Jericho was the one premier I was looking forward to the most.
The premise is a tantalising one.
Imagine going about your usual daily business when suddenly something catches your eye. You look up to see a mushroom cloud forming in the distance signalling…what? An accident? A nuclear attack? Then the power goes out and you learn that mushroom cloud was over Denver and before you lost communication with the rest of the world, you hear Atlanta and possibly other big cities were hit too.
Welcome to Jericho, possibly humanity’s last stand.
Quite a hook….but unfortunately, the premier of this show which aired on CBS earlier this week did little to make me want to watch any further.Â
Admittedly, the pilot episode of any new show is difficult to judge as there is a lot of baggage to unload before the actually series can get going. You have characters to introduce, personalities to establish, ongoing sub-plots to set up and get going etc. but you also set a tone and the tone here was a rather uninspiring dull ‘thunk’ in my opinion.
The writers of this show somehow manage to portray the hinted at destruction of the United States and deaths of millions in a totally humdrum way. Rather than anger, panic and fear, we are presented with some seriously resilient people who seem totally at ease with the situation.
Now, no one expects an all out panic from what looks like a small-ish farming community, but the flat acceptance displayed here is pretty poor writing too. No worries about family elsewhere in the country? Further attacks? Fallout and other effects of multiple nuclear strikes across the country? These are either some seriously strong people or seriously dumb people…I can’t decide which just now.
The few signs of emotion are immediately quelled by the town’s mayor who only has to open his mouth and say something patriotic to instill complete calm in all within earshot.
I assume the next few episodes will deal with issues such as food and water contamination, EMP, fallout, radiation poisoning etc. etc. but so far, not a mention or even an expressed concern about such things. Instead, we are supposed to worry about escaped prisoners from a crashed prison bus which just happens to be in the area and seems a little contrived to say the least!
On initial showing, this show is going to ask a lot of us to put our brains in neutral before we dare switch on the TV set and ultimately, I think is something I am going to struggle to watch past halfway in the series. So far, I’ve seen two new shows launched this fall and Jericho isn’t the worst (that honour goes to Smith which looked like someone cut up the reel with a chainsaw and glued it back together in the wrong order) but it has to get a lot better – fast – if it’s going to hold my attention.
Tags: television | tv | jerico
One Response to “Jericho TV Show – First Impressions Of The CBS Pilot”
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wampyrii Says:
September 23rd, 2006 at 4:54 pmI agree, at 8pm there is nothing else worth watching and looking at the new line up of shows featuring the usual suspects (cops, lawyers and doctors) it’s probably going to be one of the better shows to watch regardless of my initial impressions.
Like I said, it’s hard to judge a pilot and if nothing else, it feels to me like a 2 hour episode may have been better in terms of actually launching this show because it felt like a lot of major issues were glossed over in favour of introducing characters and future subplots. I’m definitely going to keep watching for few more episodes because I’m sure it’ll hook me eventually.
Just as a side note, my wife lived through the San Francisco earthquake in ‘89 and says the same as you in terms of people coming out of their houses and starting to barbeque on the streets when the power went out. Knowing that other family members and friends would have been affected or at least have heard about the quake they also jumped through hoops to try to make contact with them (the ham radio guy down the block became very popular) and that’s the biggest ommission from Jericho that I saw. Not panicing is to be expected, you’re numb and people cope, but flat acceptance and seeming disinterest in contacting the outside world? I’m not so sure about that.
I’m sure all the bits which felt ‘missing’ to me will be covered in the next episode or two though and this show still has the most potential to be one of the more interesting things on TV.
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