Sunday, May 25, 2008

In Praise Of Jericho

Never one to be up to date with great TV, I've been having a bit of a catch up the last few months on some TV series that I'd heard good stuff about. I have to say I'm not a fan of the US style drama series, but that's a whole other post that I'm not going to waffle on about now. That said, I recently watched the entire first seasons of Heroes (really good), Dexter (superb) and after seeing the adverts on the TV for the DVD release recently, I plumped for season 1 of Jericho.

I don't really follow a lot of stuff about TV, and I don't follow the behind the scenes news either. In the back of my mind I recalled people I knew who were into US TV had recommended it, and I also vaguely remember hearing critics praise it in the past. Seeing the advert on TV really got me interested and got the discs on my rental list. It took a few weeks to work my way through, and I just finished the first season tonight, and have to say its been one of the most intense TV shows I've enjoyed for a long time. It was absolutely mesmerising.

As the show neared its end on my DVD player, I took a look around for the second series, only to find the show had been cancelled twice, first after the end of series one, then again after 7 episodes of the second season. It was cancelled due to lack of viewers, and in a way for me, it's a good thing it has now finished. One of the biggest things that wind me up about US shows is their money-spinning, open ended nature. Had Jericho carried on to seasons 4,5 and so on, I'm sure I would have soon tired of it. I was also disappointed to read the second season was a bit disappointing as well, but hey - I'm still going to seek it out just because the first one was so damn good.

Funnily enough today looking at stuff about the cancellation, I visited the Nuts Online protest site set up by the fans to try and get CBS to invest in more episodes of the show. I recall visiting it when it was first set up, but I can't recall why (boingboing post maybe?) At the time it was all meaningless and I knew nothing about the show behind the protest, but now I can see why so many fans took the time to donate and try and get more episodes. I'm pretty certain I thought the level of protest and action of sending nuts was a bit OTT at the time, but there you go, boots on the other foot now.

So, if you've not caught it or know anything about it, the show follows the residents of a small town in Kansas called Jericho, and how they survive in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the US. The situations and events get progressively darker and desperate as the series progresses, and there's all sorts of great plots going on around who set of the bombs, and the secret service agent who's involved in it and in Jericho.

The show focused on both the best and worst of human nature, which is probably why it worked so well. It had a great balance of warm small town characters and people you generally want to see do well and follow their stories, set against a grim struggle for survival and a real upheaval in the way lives of the characters. It's sort of like Northern Exposure meets Threads in some ways, very gritty with some heart stopping action and suspense. Seriously, every episode just seemed to get more impressive and intense than the last. I can't recall having been so enthralled by show since the original mini-series of V was on back in the 80s.

Unfortunately, at the end of the first season things were not closed as I had hoped for, and given the cliffhanging nature of the series, I can see why the original protests were sparked off. The end did feel a bit rushed and smacked of Deus Ex Machina, but still, it was pretty explosive and tense none the less. It was also extremely emotional, a real tear-jerking, nut-kicker of an ending.

It's a shame there's not more stuff like this out there, if you haven't seen it then it gets a top recommendation from me. I'm looking forward to seeing the next season even if it turns out to be disappointing. I hope they manage to close a number of the dangling story threads that are still unresolved, but I think if it got into a Lost / X Files sort of never-ending story ramble it wouldn't have that special something it has now in this very short form. Great TV, really, really super stuff, check it out if you haven't already.

Posted by Dio Bach at 23:11

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: The fight to save Jericho is not over!

If you want more Jericho please write to: Ms. Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, CA 91604-2190.

Ask her to continue to produce Jericho and sell it to another network. These letters need to go out now, if we wish to save Jericho.

For more information go to: http://www.jericho-kansas.com/Community/Forums/tabid/74/forumid/27/postid/2148/view/topic/Default.aspx; 1:37 AM