Jericho

[technoir]

So I am as I have said before I like television. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of what tv did well was the Twilight Zone. It used solid writing and filmwork to carry fear, elation, wonder and lessons in short little bursts. The man behind it was Rod Serling. He had a decided love hate relationship with the medium. He certainly was one of the early luminaries of television despite his distaste for the advertisers growing grip on what was shown.

One of the episodes he did explore what humanity would do to itself with faced with the fear of an imminent nuclear attack. The episode was called The Shelter and Rod wrote it himself. I believe this quote is from that.

“"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, ideas, predjudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, predjudices can kill and suspicion can destroy. A thoughtless, freightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all it's own for the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, is that these things can not be confined to the Twighlight Zone.”

Jericho is built upon this simple premise. It is a taunt little show with a tremendous sense that the writers are deliberately keeping things from you and so you keep watching to see what those things are. The town of Jericho Kansas is a small rural farm and mine community in the middle of no where. Our hero, Jake(played by Skeet Ulrich) comes back home to get some money he had gotten as an inheritance. He and his father have the familiar dynamic of opposition, disappointment and lack of communication. All in all a fairly ordinary start really. Boy asks for money, does not get it and leaves in a huff. Things break when the mushroom cloud appears on the horizon. Everything from then on is built on fear. This show is a monument of human mob mentality and our own fear. They keep it tense and unknown but not telling you what has happened. Just little clues. A deciphered morse code message indicating cities, a brief glimpse of a chinese tv signal complete with places marked in red in north america, even cut off call with screams from Atlanta. There is no communication to the outside world other than brief burst of hidden clues. The mystery of it and the almost forgotten terror that was the thought of nuclear war make this a show not really like anything else on the air.

All in all there may be a bit of hollowness to some of the characters and situations. The cute blond on the show played by Ashley Scott is a bit whiny and forgettable. There are some political opportunist characters. A ham handed secret romance. all in all predictable and common stuff in the margins. But that is just it. All of that is in the margins. the heart of this show is as strong as that twilight zone episode. It is a harsh mirror of fear we kind of forgot about and mystery to make it more than just a single Vignette. I will keep watching to see what they are hiding which for a network television show is saying something.

oh well thats my thoughts on Jericho.

Comments

[chinook-wind.livejournal.com]

comic_monkey and I were talking about the show last night, and we kind of came to the conclusion that what we're hoping for is an Adventure show, and what they're setting up is a Character Drama. I think the kinks will iron themselves out over time, because really, they're not quite doing either milieu justice. This show actually reinforces in my mind why the earth will be inherited by gamers and survivalists when the apocalypse comes. :)

I'm really enjoying the show as a whole -- the secret romance subplot is pretty annoying, as is (as you point out) the blonde, but there are some characters I really really like. I'll keep watching. :)

[technoir.livejournal.com]

A favoritecharacter of mine is Mr. Hawkins, the"former cop from cincinatti". he reminds me of Locke from Lost. In fact the whole show has that same sort of story.

[chinook-wind.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY -- that's one of the things we brought up too. It's following the whole Life As You Knew It Is Over template, which Lost is doing as well, but I would argue that Lost is doing it better. Lost is more suited to that kind of story, I think, because the plot devices are Officially Weird. In a show like Jericho, I think the plot devices ought to be more survival-focused and incorporate more real-world stuff, like drinking water, for one. Without running as much clean water as they could before the fallout rain, they're just about screwed in the long run, yknow?

But yeah -- I like the character of Mr. Hawkins, and I'm seeing the parallels to Locke as well. I don't think it'll work as well without Locke's sort of supernatural connection, because this show isn't a magicorealistic show, but it's interesting. I'll be fascinated to see where that goes.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

see It is the Lost like elements that intrigue me about this show. The mystery of it. I keep expecting someone to show up and say it was not a nuclear blast, or this is all an experiment, or it was aliens or something bizzar. By keeping it a mystery as to what happened they keep you off ballance as to what to expect. If you have not seen last nights wait till you see the planes. It was a sureal moment.

You are right though Larpers rule in post apocoliptic world. Smart people not afraid of the woods.