So its the new TV season. And though I shouldn't watch TV until I get tenure, thanks to TIVO I have hours of entertainment waiting for me when I return home each night. I started watching a new series on CBS called Jericho. The premise is engaging enough: how does a small town pull together in the face of nuclear fall out. The pilot episode, despite some crappy writing, held me with the plot development. There are several mysterious characters who appear to possess interesting back stories (Ala Lost); the premise of survival in a post apocalyptic heartland also has promise.
However, in watching the second episode last night, I've concluded the show's liabilities outweigh its advantages. The same characters with mysterious and intriguing back stories are superhuman. One lead character, apparently on the outs with his family for not growing up, performed a tracheotomy on an 8 year-old in anaphlaxis (after sustaining a head injury and deep flesh wound to his thigh); then he fixed a school bus and drove it back to town (fighting to stay conscious the whole way) returning a group of stranded elementary school children to their parents. Then he climbed on top of a hospital to see the waves of oncoming nuclear rain; then he helped evacuate the hospital to a salt-mine, where he wired dynamite to seal the mine closed to protect the citizens from radiation. But before he sealed himself in with them (making arrangements with his brother to get them dug out later, of course) he heard a distress call from a former love interest who was abducted by escaped felons posing as sheriff's deputies...... puke....
The writing is terrible, the characters are cliched, and the show (only in episode 2) is already stumbling towards cancellation.
Wondering if I was the only one to feel this way, I checked the Internet for reviews. Apparently, I am smoking crack. TV critic Rachel Thomas writes answers the burning question: Is it worth your precious viewing time?
Absolutely! Jericho delivers that "what if" factor in a very real and poignant way. The pilot episode beautifully sets up the foundational history of the main characters. As the events unfolded, I couldn't help but feel the emotions of each of the characters and often wondered how I and those around me would react if a nuclear mushroom was spotted off in the distance. After one episode, I was hooked and am anxiously awaiting to see how this little town survives the unthinkable.
I can almost give Ms. Thomas a pass because her review stops with the pilot. But Brian Tallerico of the UnderGroundOnline review writes:
the second episode ("Fallout") is actually stronger than the premiere, feeling more confident and settled in its tone. Both episodes occasionally fall into a bit too much melodrama...
Stronger???, oy.
This is why I don't listen to TV critics. Anyway, I'm going to give the show one more episode before I delete my DVR pass to it. Maybe they can surprise me; but I suspect that this show will only last one season.
Stay tuned for reviews of Kidnapped, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and the latest installment of the best show on TV, HBO's the Wire.
