If 'Jericho' isn't the most anticipated new series of the year, it isn't from lack of trying by CBS. It's certainly the most heavily advertised.
Tonight, CBS's post-apocalyptic 'Lost' knockoff debuted and managed to make it through it's first hour of television without falling flat on its ass. Maybe anything more than that was too much to ask, post-apocalyptic drama is so rarely done right.
The show tells the story of a small, isolated Kansas town called Jericho in a near future where the whole world gets wiped out (or is it?). Tonight's premiere told the story of the town's first seventeen hours after its residents spot a mushroom cloud roaring into the sky from the direction of Denver, the nearest major metropolis. Television, radio, telephone, and eventually just about everything else goes out. Soon they're all in the dark, both figuratively and literally. What happened? Was it an accident? An attack? Is there anything else left?
'Jericho' is poured in the mold of 'Lost' not just in the sense that it's about a small group of isolated disaster survivors, but in that it's a series all about finding answers. We don't know what's happened to the world, and I suspect it'll be at least a full season before we find out. The show's in no hurry, and instead spends it's premiere focused on two or three characters as they survive car wrecks or manage different crises.
Skeet Ulrich's Jake Green is one of those characters. He's the star and so this first episode follows him as he survives a car wreck, stumbles on a bus full of injured school children, and then drives them all home. Actually, the show's choice to focus on Ulrich's misadventures for it's debut is my main criticism. I can see half-baked slackers survive traffic accidents on any show. As a way to hook an audiences attention, it seems like something of a waste. There's an apocalypse going on here, why are we watching Jake play med-tech to a group of kids?
The bigger story of how the town as a whole is handling this disaster seems to take something of a back seat to the much less interesting story of Jake and his busload of kids. Maybe further into the show, four or five episodes in would be the place for this. But right now, in the middle of 'Jericho's" debut, it might be a good time for something more spectacular if CBS wants viewers coming back. I mean, 'Lost' gave us a massive plane crash and a gigantic, invisible, tree-eating monster. All 'Jericho' can manage is a distant mushroom cloud, bad cell phone reception, and a guy in need of a tow truck.
Ultimately though, I think there's potential. Ulrich doesn't bring much to the table but Gerald McRaney is a calming, comfortable presence as the town's mayor. Other more minor characters leave enough of an impression too, enough to keep me coming back at least another week to see if they can keep the town from rioting. And of course there's all those pesky questions. Tonight we learned that at least Denver and Atlanta have been nuked, what about everywhere else? Who did it? Or what about that empty prison bus we saw outside of town? Will the town stock up on firearms and turn into an armed bunker run by crazed survivalists? Let's hope so, or 'Jericho' may be going nowhere fast.
If you're a fan of 'Jericho', check out our discussion thread for the show here!
