I dunno. I watched the whole first season, despite the fact that the show never really seemed to be all that great to me. Leaden dialogue, wooden acting (oh my god somebody stop Skeet Ulrich, although the guy playing Johnston Green was really good), and silly plots kept getting in the way of what was really a brilliant concept. I love - LOVE - the idea of a TV show in which a few small communities in Kansas, spared the nuclear bombs and the attendant fallout, struggle to stay alive and together.
But why with the mysteries and the conspiracies and the hokey family barbeque's where everyone in town is invited, like they all just got finished watching a season of Leave It To Beaver together? This show could have stayed insular, within the town, with truly terrifying rifts between people. I can't help but think of the Twilight Zone episode in which the friendly, small-town neighbors turn on each other as they all try to secure a place in the only fallout shelter; that episode said more about human nature and the fear of WMDs, and in a more intelligent manner to boot, than every minute of Jericho added together.
It would have been great if, say, the whole town were coming apart at the seams all season (like what would really happen in real life), with the "good" folk barely keeping control by force, when they all have to learn to come together in an inspiring (and disturbing) display of community and tribalism against the war-like neighboring town that was featured at the end of season one.
Hmm. I guess I'm just going to have to stick with Battlestar Galactica for my brilliant entertainment-as-metaphor-for-a-post-9/11-world kick.
Too bad, too. I really think Jericho could have been something.
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