'Jericho' on CBS

Seems like a good mix between Lost and Invasion...More so like Invasion, but with the constant questioning of Lost...

pretty good mix, I enjoyed it, this show has my interest now

I thought it was pretty good. Having lived in Kansas most of my life I can say they did a pretty good job portraying the dynamics of small town Kansas. The exteriors looked like many run-of-the-mill towns you will find here. It had the right "feel". I guess we will have to see what develops. They are off to a good start.

I do have to call them on the fact there is nowhere in Kansas you can see the Rocky Mountains. Simply not possible.

I just watched this show on my DVR, and i was surpised how good it was....

I was kind of looking forward to this one, but didn't care for it. The characters weren't interesting and the storyline wasn't involving. I was hoping for a continental version of Lost, but this just isn't it.

I won't be watching further episodes.

Scott

I was looking forward to this but my stupid Fusion3Q recording screwed up. I'll have to go look for another source somewhere. Now I'm afraid to read this thread for the spoilers.

- Tom

edit: It looks like they are showing it again on Saturday.

Will not be HD, but you can stream Jericho at CBS.com starting Thursday morning...

It was a big yawn. Sloppy is the word.

Lost is the gold standard in series pilots. This ain't no Lost. I'll give it another week to see if it pulls an Invasion on me.

What an utter disappointment...honestly, I didn't think you could make a nuclear holocaust boring but somehow they figured out how to do it. The only character I like is Gerald McRaney (from Deadwood) but the rest were far too annoying. Skeet Ulrich should have given up a long time ago. The rest of the cast is bland and boring, people I don't know and don't really care about. I'm much more preoccupied with the idea of nuclear war and when they barely act like something is going on, I loose interest fast. Another stinker, rip-off show from CBS...keeping pushing out the poopers CBS!

yeah! The promo pics were even similiar...'child staring out over the phenomenon'...

...and throw in the pop-rock soundtrack and classic cars and you get a wee-bit of theWB/Supernatural in there too!

Talk about it all you want, it's not perfect but I will bet you that show will be one of the top shows in less than 4 weeks. With Criminal Minds anchoring CBS Wednesdays, it looks like CBS has 2 solid Drama's to compete with Grays, Law and Order, and House. Although my personal opinion is House is the best show on TV...

I'm a sucker for anything involving Kansas, and I'm also a fan of post-apocalyptic dramas (therefore "The Day After" is perfection to me, despite its many flaws). So I had high hopes for Jericho, which have been partially met in the pilot episode. I never get tired of mushroom cloud scenes and EMP afteraffects (sounds like the fallout's coming next episode), but there were a ton of TV cliches (the aforementioned emergency trache being one of them) riddled throughout the whole hour that I found distracting and off-putting. I guess that's what you have to do to pull in an audience, but it's not helping me believe this story. I hope the show lasts, but CBS isn't the most patient network out there... so if the ratings don't start (and stay) strong this thing will probably get pulled quickly.

It has promise that is for sure

Yeah, and Denver is like halfway inside Colorado (about 200 miles from the border), so there's no way you could see it that well.

What a huge steaming pile of dung.

Could the dialog be any lamer?

Turned it off after 45 minutes. I felt like I was watching a "teen show" on the WB network.

It makes me sad to see Gerald McRaney on a show so terrible so soon after his terrific work as George Hearst on Deadwood.

My TiVo cut the show off at 45 minutes for some reason. So Ill just have to download it to finish watching it. But from what I saw I really Liked it. Also the show Smith is worth checking out, hopefully both shows catch a solid audience

Skeet Ulrich's last show (Miracles) was about 10x better than this one.

It's missing a supernatural/scifi element ala lost to really give it a boost and it'll likely turn into a sappy drama exploring all the chaos/disaster stereotypes.

Ahhh yep...couldn't agree more.

Didn't ABC use this same story line as a 2 part special in 1983/1984, maybe for November Sweeps in 83?

EDIT: I was right - its been done:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/trivia

The film is set mostly in Lawrence, Kansas, which was chosen by the screenwriters as a way to dramatize how nuclear war would affect everyone. During the Cold War, it was theorized that Lawrence, Kansas would be one of the few cities completely unaffected by nuclear war as it is near the exact geographic center of the United States.

Not the same, trust me. And I'd venture to guess that any impressionable youth that watched "The Day After" in its day would agree with me.

"The Day After" sent chills up a nation of youngsters' spines - including mine. Not only was it a landmark presentation, it was a terrifying depiction of an event that always seemed right around the corner at the time. I was 13 or 14 and I remember reading about teens having committed suicide after having watched "The Day After." I doubt many felt the same impulse after watching "Jericho."

I watched "Jericho" - it was OK, but they have work to do if it's going to become part of my regular viewing habits. The nuclear event could have been much more dramatic. I love "The Killers" song they opened with - "All These Things That I Have Done." It worked better at the end of "The Matador" though.

I mean it wasn't bad, a few technical faults that have been mentioned here already (seeing the explosion from that far off, assuming it was Denver.) A couple points on the attack.

1.) Seems unlikely it was an attack from another major power with ballistic missile capability. Our early warning system would have detected them at launch and the President would not have had a address.

2.) Seems unlikely it was external terrorists as they would have had a hard time making bombs that big (in the megatons) and getting them transported to their targets in time for a coordinated attack.

3.) The only weapon delivery system I can think of that can deliver a large enough weapon without being detected would be a cruise missile.

4.) If we assume it was a cruise missile, I doubt terrorists would have access to that many of them. It had to be someone with a large military.

5.) To strike Denver, a ship launched cruise missile would have to be parked pretty close to US shoreline. I would believe our military would have detected that.

6.) This leaves only the US military (or members of) as the most likely suspects.

I believe the US military may have staged a coup using nuclear weapons in a "shock and awe" move on the US population to lower resistance.

Additional points...

The show clearly showed the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Congress for the President's address (all the civilian and military leaders in one place)

The Cop from St. Louis seems to know a little too much and is just a little too calm. He knows something about the attack and who is responsible.

The power goes out a few hours after the initial attack. If the attack was massive enough to cause grid problems, the blackout should have happened sooner. I believe someone has turned the power off.

I believe the attack was limited in scope and may have not affected most major cities (Washington may have been hit to cripple leadership, New York and LA hit to cripple communications, Atlanta may have been a targeted to knock out CNN. Not sure what Denver's value may have been.) Also if it was more of a massive attack, the entire sky all around Jericho should have been lit up. The fact that only see one flash (dramatized here with the actual mushroom cloud) means there may have not been that many targets.

Something to consider...

-- Jim

Another clue may been in the Mayor's speech at the end when he said the phrase "against all enemies." I wasn't in the military but isn't part of the military oath, "to defend the United States, against all enemies, foreign or domestic ?

Also, the nuclear explosions may have been used to confuse the public and allow the military time to ...

1.) Secure power generating plants. This would allow them to cut off the power (and after an attack, who would think anything nefarious about the military "protecting" the power plants?)

2.) Secure communications, take TV/Radio off the air. Take over Telephone Central Offices (cutting off voice and data transmissions)

I think this reenforces the idea that only certain cities were hit. If you hit Washington, New York, LA, and Atlanta...you basically take out leadership, the major broadcast networks, and the major news networks. I still have no idea what is Denver worth striking. Maybe a local can help.

-- Jim

Don't know about just straight on Denver, but around Denver is a lot of military stuff.

Denver has a lot of satellite uplink capability, plus some military- Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD HQ who would have seen it coming if air delivered.

Colorado is also a state that has many nuclear warheads...

That could play into the whole 'military coup' setting as well...

I like the way you're thinking though Jmallory...that's the beauty of these shows...you have no idea whats going to happen, until the show actually tells you...

Pretty borrrringgg. Not half as frighting as Stephen King's "The Stand".

I believe several broadcast facilities are located there, including DirecTV and HDNet. In addition, the area outside Denver is a hotbed of minutemen missle controls for silos in Colorado....and Kansas. I believe there is also a pretty good amount of land devoted to military bases.

If that weren't enough, I believe Denver is also a big hub and crosspoint for this little computer network known as the Internet.

I don't know if the Air Defense network within the US would be able to see a cruise missile launched from within the country hugging the terrain. I think the only real detection of that would have been people calling in asking what just buzzed their homes on the path to its target. The military would definately have the knowledge of what route to the target took it over the least populated areas and they have the logistic capability to get the missile as close to the target as possible shortening the time that people had to figure out what was going on. The time to target could have possibly been less than five minutes. (at 500 mph the missile could have travelled 41 miles...more than far enough way.

-- Jim

I had totally forgot about DirecTV's hub being in Denver...that would make sense to to knock out some additional communications capability.