CBS's Nuclear Apocalypse Drama: Jericho
 

Jericho is set in a fictional Kansas town nestled between Denver and Wichita. When a mushroom cloud plumes over Denver, and communications go out, panic begins to set in as nuclear fallout fills the skies. The torrent for the pilot can be found here and a new episode will air tonight on CBS at 8PM ET/PT.

So far some pretty radical stuff has happened, though the writers seem to be attempting to apply a WB drama mentality to the nuclear apocalypse. Something that's sure to be interesting as the crisis plays out over the next several episodes. In tonight's episode the town is hit by the fallout and people develop radiation sickness.

So far it's worth watching, but we'll see if modern entertainment can ruin even the most awesome of survivalist settings.

There's also a companion website called Beyond Jericho which features a seperate story and events that will eventually intertwine with the show.

And Beyond Jericho is extremely retarded. How lovely.

I watched the pilot last week, though I was in-and-out for the first bit, until the first kaboom. Of course, once I see an explosion, destruction, chaos, my interest level spiked. Coupled with the random prison bus, more nuke clouds, and the fact that I started this show, Jericho has become worth watching.

I just got through watching the pilot a few minutes ago, and I'll say I was impressed. I didn't really think too much of it before I saw it (which is why I forgot to watch it when it originally came on last week), but now I'm definitely gonna keep looking out for this one. If the rest of the series can stay on par with the pilot, I can see this being one of the better shows this season.

That's exactly what I was afraid would happen with Heroes, but so far that show's been far surpassing my expectations as far as kid gloves go. I mean, they showed a disemboweled body on national TV, for crying out loud.

I'll check it out, but I really hope they don't turn it into a Smallville.

My Grandpa's nephew (Not sure what that makes him to me. Second uncle?) is some sort of producer on this show. I'll have to check it out, eventually.

So Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, and at least 3 other cities have been mushroom-clouded. Characters are becoming mysterious, and the situation is surreal. So I'm officially watching this show now.

I wonder if they're gonna show if the people from the mine survived the blast next episode, of if that's something to come back to a few more episodes later.

I wanted to like this show, but the characters are simplistic next to Lost, House, Grey's Anatomy, CSI, and a half-dozen other shows. They will really have to ramp up the writing quality to keep me as a viewer. In fact, if they don't I don't see this show lasting past the first season.

It seems like they tried to create a show with the wholesomeness of Highway to Heaven or Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman against the backdrop of the post-apocalypse. If that's the case, I hope Mad Max shows up and teaches them a thing or two about the post-apocalypse...

Yeah, and wasn't San Diego where Jake said he was going to go back to at first, before all this stuff started happening? Sucks for him now, because whatever was waiting for him there just got blowed the fuck up.

But yeah, I'm now officially watching this show as well. It's not like there's anything else to watch at this time anyway, so CBS pretty much has a slam dunk in my opinion. And starting next week, I'll be watching this along with Lost and The Nine, which seem like good fits to go with this show.

Lookin' good, lookin' good. I'm really looking forward to how much the situation will spin out of control.

Apparently somebody at CBS was informed on what a bunch of campy B-grade shit Beyond Jericho was and they've pulled the plug on the project. The companion site no longer exists.

I never even checked it out myself, but I read that it was pretty stupid. Them pulling it just pretty much confirms this, so I feel no loss from never going.

The whole concept in general just seems kinda stupid, though. Lost did it kinda good at first, but now they just went overboard with the whole thing. And now Prison Break is trying to do it as well, and that's just terrible to start with.

The post apocalypse isn't the kind of setting that lends itself well to long drawn-out episode runs. Unless of course, nobody dies.

I'm hooked - I admit...

If anyone's interested - I've got all the episodes on my FTP (see sig)

Hmmm... after reading all these posts on the show, I may have to take a look at this. My mother has begun watching it and seems hooked, while my brother thinks its crap. As of right now (I watched a few minutes of it when I was home), I wasn't impressed by it. Had these feelings of a Christian type show... "Jericho"

Jericho is mostly an allusion.

The biggest problem with the show is that the plot doesn't advance until the first and last 5 minutes, making the rest of an episode filler. It keeps stringing me along because I love the Post Apocalypse, but if the body count doesn't start rising I'm gonna be seriously pissed.

The only part that is getting to me badly is how some people focus on insignificant crap and relationships when the world is falling apart. I suppose that could be intentional though.

What's starting to get to me is how every time people start behaving like rational beings is how the whole community pulls together in some kind of communist hippy love-in by the end of the episode, and all crises are averted. There's not a chance in Hell that people would have helped that guy harvest his corn "no strings attached," and it was perfectly reasonable of the store owner to try and trade her pesticides for half the crop. So what happens towards the end? She gives them away. I'm losing a lot of faith in this show. It's a shame too, since this episode actually had a lot of plot progression.

Speaking of which, it starts soon :D

I'm afraid the plot will never be completely revealed. I think this is one of the series where what would be the main plot is secondary to the story. It looks to me like a "Lost" since they introduce new enigmas every episode without never reveling too much about it.

I just can't wait still (because I'm now addicted to this show), for the explanation if they ever give one.

Well this week's just a recap, which I'm most likely not gonna watch. But next week's episode is entitled "The Day Before." It should be interesting...

Man, I'm still like three episodes behind on this show. Honestly, it wasn't really keeping my attention, which is why I never bothered to catch up. I may try to watch those last three episodes, or maybe the recap episode, but I don't know how much longer I'll stick with it, especially now that the awesome Friday Night Lights (and The Knights of Prosperity) comes on at the same time.

I'd actually see something along the lines of The Postman working out pretty well. I don't think the honey-coated endings would bother me near as much if it wasn't the same static environment. Focusing a post-apocalypse show on the lone gunman motif would appeal to people who love sci-fi and people who love westerns as well. They could even mix it up a bit and put in an episode or two about him simply trying to survive in the desert or something, a la Man vs. Wild. They'd just have to have a strong lead to be able to carry it off.

That reminds me, for people looking for a slightly less PG-rated (not by much) post apocalypse show, you might check out Jeremiah.

I downloaded the first episode and enjoyed it a bit, though I haven't caught up with the series. I'd really like to see a show similar in nature like this show up on Showtime or HBO just because they can get away with alot more.

Honestly, I'd love to see a zombie television series. That would be fantastic.

There's a catch-up episode (seems to be the craze) available at tvtorrents.com, and probably elsewhere.

So how is it looking this time around? I figured it just turned to shit around October.

Looks like the last half of the season is going to be the events leading up to the bombs... I'm kind of disappointed with the season now actually... Too much emotional bullshit :P I want to see more bombs and warfare :P I still watch it religiously tough :P I'll turn on my FTP and put them up, check your PMs brady, i'll set you up an account if you'd like :)

Anyone know where to find direct downloads of the show? I want to see what this shows about.

I gots them on my ftp, coming online now :)

This was one of the worst episodes of the season. I mean, a whole army is supposed to be coming down the road, and Hawkins radios ahead to tell them this. YET, by the time he arrives on horseback they still haven't gotten their sh*t together and started to move out? (Instead, they spent the time having "touchy-feely" moments. :rolleyes: )

It just reminded me of the time the town got shelled and they all stood around out in the open so they could be targets and get hit again instead of getting inside to shelter.

It's just not realistic that people would be that stupid or act in those ways. It's like watching a bunch of lemmings running to the sea...

I never caught back up with this show once it came back, so how was the second half of the season compared to the first? I know the ratings weren't that good, but that doesn't necessarily reflect the quality. I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't keep my attention on this show when it was on TV, so I may catch it on DVD.

I thought the second half was much better, because they started revealing what was going on in the rest of the country, we got some answers on Hawkins' role, and people finally started dying.

STFU, speculative. This series has never placed a high premium on realism, so you shouldn't have expected much. Any episode with a tank, a battle, and a glimpse of the condition of the government (that flag was an awesome touch) makes it better than all the crap we had to put up with the first part of the season with Eric and his love triangle.

What you would call a lack of realism, I see as a lack of common sense. For example, LotR wasn't at all "realistic," but it was extremely believable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief

As the article states, ymmv.

So you're suggesting that I should suspend my disbelief in relation to Jericho? Ok, fine, call it what you want, that's what I meant. To paraphrase MST3K, "Just repeat to yourself it's just a show; you should really just relax".

If the show was realistic, the nuclear fallout would have contaminated the ground and made their crops inedible. How could New Bern have come up with that many working vehicles after the electromagnetic pulse?

This is one of those shows that if you think too much, the whole thing falls apart. Just enjoy it for what it is, harmless drama, and don't think too much on the implausiblity.

Any word on whether or not this series is returning? The way it ended it seemed like they kind of didn't expect it to return, yet left things open just in case. I could see them easily doing at least one more year's worth of episodes with the storylines they've opened (Homeland security plots, new government, etc.). In fact, if they did a Half-Life 2 thing where Jericho was under martial law and they had to revolt somehow by using fire-hot rebar chunks for cross-bow bolts, I see the ratings going through the roof... :D

As far as I know, it performed much better than CBS was expecting, given the subject matter, and was considered one of the hits of this season. I don't think there's any danger of it not being renewed.

Yeah, lots of shows (Jericho, Heroes, Lost) dropped a ton of viewers when they went on hiatus. I don't think CBS will hold it against Jericho.

I honestly wouldn't be that surprised if CBS dropped this show. I mean, even though they called it a hit, it was only getting around 11 million viewers or so for the first half. It was probably better than their expectations for it, but I honestly wouldn't call that a hit (reruns of some shows get more viewers than that).

And since its return from the hiatus, the show's only been getting around 7 million viewers, which is a pretty big dropoff. Smith was getting around this many viewers when it first came on, and it got canned after three episodes. They probably had bigger expectations for that show though, and it was probably more expensive to make as well.

But yeah, Jericho could go either way. Depending on how many other shows they bring back and how many new shows they pick up, it can easily be picked up or dropped.

IGN says Jericho is unofficially cancelled. The new CBS shows for next fall look so stellar too. [/sarcasm]

Looks like Jericho may not be so cancelled after all. There was an online campaign to save the show which encouraged viewers to send nuts to CBS to protest the cancellation. CBS was so inundated that they've reconsidered their decision, and have agreed to bring the show back mid-season for 8 episodes. All that's left is to sign the actors to new contracts. It's amazing when these petitions to bring a show back actually succeed. Source article.

I don't believe it, I still don't believe it. A petition that worked?! Doesn’t that violate a law of nature or some thing?

Anyway, regarding the show itself, I came to watch the show near the end of the season I was flipping through my video demand menu and started watching a few episodes. I was intrigued and entertained. From those episodes I gathered that the criticism towards the show was not unjustified. The show requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and puts touchy-feely emotion ahead of realism at times common sense but the show was doing it well enough (and Hawkins is just plain awesome) that I kept watching the episodes up in till the season final and I must say that made me officially a Jericho fan. Given that I had accepted the show for what it was low realism high emotion the final worked fantastically. Really the only point that drew me out of it was them using their only tank round on a small group of retreating enemies but other then that it was honestly the best seasons final I’ve seen this year (not really saying much as I have been thoroughly disappointed with the way all the other shows I have watched this season have ended).

After this I went back and started watching the episode online and wow after the first episode of two there is definitely a massive drop in quality up in till it the point were it returned from it hiatus. If they can maintain the quality of the second half I’ll watch. I find it interesting the article mention how basically people are watching show via other means and not when it airs, since Jericho is the first show I have watched entirely in such a fashion. So if nothing else I’ll remember Jericho for that.

And I’ll say it again a save the show petition actually worked? Ok on a more serious note the send nuts idea was actually pretty clever and thoughtful so that likely what made this the rare one that hit its mark.

I think it was the fact that something physical was mailed and it wasn't some pointless e-petition that could be deleted with one click and ignored.

Jericho deserves another chance for the set-up alone, but they need to fire that one bad writer they've got that keeps "cheesifying" things.

This is CBS we're talking about, the network that brought us Matlock, Murder She Wrote, and Dr. Quinn. They have to stick some cheese in there for the old people.

Holy shit, they're bringing Jericho back to us?
This just made my day.

Thank God I signed the petition.

Yes, but did you ship them your nuts? :D

Well, seeing as they decide to go on with another 8 episodes, I'm glad I didn't.

Hmm, not the first petition to actually work (I know La Femme Nikita was one of the first shows to have a succesful petition, which resulted in an eight-episode fifth season), but it is a small number nonetheless. This may give me incentive to keep watching, which will be easier to do now that the first season will be coming out on DVD this fall.

It will definitely be interesting to see how well this show will do when it does come back. Will it do good enough to get a longer pickup, or will it do terrible and put the final nail in the show's coffin? Because no matter how successful this petition was, I can't imagine CBS renewing it again in the face of similar or worse ratings.

First, off TWOP has posted a hilarious “transcript” of how the decision to bring back Jericho might have gone down:
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com...content/a13167

Secondly, I have never really thought about this until now but could someone more in the know about these things fill me in. Are Nelson ratings the only relevant variable when executives determe cancellation or do they factor in things such as DVR, On Demand, and online viewer ship. Most of the article I have read regarding Jericho's cancelation seems to imply that these means of view aren’t part of the decision making or are least not weighed as heavily as the perhaps should be.

Well, I think recently DVR ratings were added to the Neilson ratings, but there was some other factor added on to it (like only viewings that took place within 24 hours of the original airing counted, or something like that). Other than that, I'm not sure about the rest of those things. I'm sure they count for something (not for Neilson ratings, but I'm sure CBS still pays attention to them), but there's no telling how much influence they actually have. That's as much as I know.

Besides the problem with DVRs, Nielsen also doesn't measure viewing in non-traditional venues (most notably college dorms). The whole Neilsen system is flawed when faced with today's technology and viewing habits.