What a terrible episode. That was one of the worst-written hours of television I've ever had the misfortune to witness.
Jericho has been on the bubble for me since the first episode, but it seemed there was potential, and I was curious about some of the character background they've been keeping from us so far. Then came last week's show-ender, with nuclear rockets thundering into the sky... Cool! This show is really going somewhere!
Then last night. From nuclear rockets to a sudden "Two Weeks Later" where everyone is acting like they're on Int-draining meds. And this is no
Battlestar Galactica; what did they think they were trying to pull off with that transition? "We spent the first five episodes showing you a small town's day-to-day response to a distant nuclear holocaust, ending with secrets nearly revealed and the stakes rising much higher... Now it's two weeks later, and everyone's been turned into zombies but otherwise it's pretty much the same. A kid turns stupid when he hooks up with violent criminals. A farmer turns stupid when he doesn't understand he needs to share food after the collapse of civilization. A secret government agents turns stupid when he uses all his glowsticks on the first night of a permanent power loss[1], and neglects to realize that his teenage daughter can enter his secret sanctum with ease. We even give you a ludicrously sappy ending that would make you cry tears of reconciliatory joy if it didn't make you want to hurl instead."
Did they fire the old writing staff and hire twelve-year-olds to replace them? Actually, if it were written by twelve-year-olds, it would've at least been interesting. Hmm, nuclear-powered zombies you say...
With a mix of regret and relief, there goes my
Jericho Season Pass.
[1] That reminds of the hippies lighting all the torches at once in the Cave of Two Lovers on
Avatar.
