Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
I watched the pilot episode of this upcoming CBS show.
In my opinion, it was the best new show I saw at ComicCon this year, and very much worth watching.
The official website:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/upfront_2006/jericho.shtml
Their summary:
The blog for this show is at MySpace.com under StuckInJericho, which I believe is written by the lead writer on the show.
This was the second of two panels I saw that were "network responses" to the success of the show Lost. The first was Heros (from NBC). Both panels quite often compared and contrasted themselves to Lost. Heros compared themselves to Lost in that all the characters are secretly connected to each other, and something strange is going on with that connection and the people who know about it. Jericho played more on the idea of being stranded without contact from the rest of mankind. But both were explicitly "Lost-like", or at least that is how the networks were spinning it.
Jericho, so far, is the better of the two new shows in my opinion (even though I am in theory the target audience of Heros, since I am a comic book fan).
Jericho is about a small town in Kansas that witnesses what appears to be a nuclear mushroom cloud in Denver, and later hears about what may be a similar event in Atlanta. Their power goes out, and outside communications (though they are trying some short-wave communications through a mad-man who lives in town and owns the only short-wave radio around). Though geiger counters do not register radiation (so far), birds are dead on the highway well outside of town, and actual blasts of force seem to have been felt by a couple of buses on the highway nearby. News reports before these events did involve discussions of possible war, and an emergency meeting of Congress with the President addressing congress about this unknown and unspecified emergency war issue.
Initially the town has to deal with the immediate panic that happens with all these rumors and sightings. Then some injuries, as a bus of school kids is damaged, and about 9 people overall killed (none by the blast, all by events caused by the blast like car accidents). In addition, a prison transport bus is knocked down, and the prisoners escape.
The show involves two mysterious figures. The first is the lead actor, who has just returned after a 5 year absence from the town of Jericho. He offers three or four different explanations of where he has been for the past 5 years, most involing the military in some way (Army, Navy, Military School, somwhere in San Diego, etc..). He is reluctant to explain why he returned beyond the fact that he was asking for money for something that he didn't want his parents to know about.
The other is a supposed ex-cop from a big city who turns up only hours before the "nuclear" blasts occur. He seems to know a lot about different things, and someone asks him if he was a science teacher. He seems a bit more prepared for this "disaster" than he should be, suggesting things here and there as the show progresses that seem a wee bit too obscure for him to have thought of off-hand. Is he an escaped prisoner? Is he from the miltary and part of an expriment they are running? Is he what he seems? It's unclear.
Spoilers beyond this episode included a hint that there are towns and or other people near-by that are also okay, such as perhaps a native american reservation. The issue of radiation sickness will be dealt with in the second episode, and they assured us that zombie-like disease-ridden people were NOT going to appear at any time in the episodes.
They do have the plot fairly well planned out in advance, though the writer didn't say how far.
The show was shot mostly in Calgary, Canada, as that is a good place to get shots of open planes.
The book "The Stand" served as inspiration for the writer. Events such as Katrina, 9-11, the LA Riots, and the Tsunami also inspired both the writers and the actors (and several actors were involved personally in some of those disasters and drew on their experiences)/
Overall again I really liked this show, and plan on watching when it gets released. The acting was good, the directing was good, the pace was good, it all worked for me.
In my opinion, it was the best new show I saw at ComicCon this year, and very much worth watching.
The official website:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/upfront_2006/jericho.shtml
Their summary:
The blog for this show is at MySpace.com under StuckInJericho, which I believe is written by the lead writer on the show.
This was the second of two panels I saw that were "network responses" to the success of the show Lost. The first was Heros (from NBC). Both panels quite often compared and contrasted themselves to Lost. Heros compared themselves to Lost in that all the characters are secretly connected to each other, and something strange is going on with that connection and the people who know about it. Jericho played more on the idea of being stranded without contact from the rest of mankind. But both were explicitly "Lost-like", or at least that is how the networks were spinning it.
Jericho, so far, is the better of the two new shows in my opinion (even though I am in theory the target audience of Heros, since I am a comic book fan).
Jericho is about a small town in Kansas that witnesses what appears to be a nuclear mushroom cloud in Denver, and later hears about what may be a similar event in Atlanta. Their power goes out, and outside communications (though they are trying some short-wave communications through a mad-man who lives in town and owns the only short-wave radio around). Though geiger counters do not register radiation (so far), birds are dead on the highway well outside of town, and actual blasts of force seem to have been felt by a couple of buses on the highway nearby. News reports before these events did involve discussions of possible war, and an emergency meeting of Congress with the President addressing congress about this unknown and unspecified emergency war issue.
Initially the town has to deal with the immediate panic that happens with all these rumors and sightings. Then some injuries, as a bus of school kids is damaged, and about 9 people overall killed (none by the blast, all by events caused by the blast like car accidents). In addition, a prison transport bus is knocked down, and the prisoners escape.
The show involves two mysterious figures. The first is the lead actor, who has just returned after a 5 year absence from the town of Jericho. He offers three or four different explanations of where he has been for the past 5 years, most involing the military in some way (Army, Navy, Military School, somwhere in San Diego, etc..). He is reluctant to explain why he returned beyond the fact that he was asking for money for something that he didn't want his parents to know about.
The other is a supposed ex-cop from a big city who turns up only hours before the "nuclear" blasts occur. He seems to know a lot about different things, and someone asks him if he was a science teacher. He seems a bit more prepared for this "disaster" than he should be, suggesting things here and there as the show progresses that seem a wee bit too obscure for him to have thought of off-hand. Is he an escaped prisoner? Is he from the miltary and part of an expriment they are running? Is he what he seems? It's unclear.
Spoilers beyond this episode included a hint that there are towns and or other people near-by that are also okay, such as perhaps a native american reservation. The issue of radiation sickness will be dealt with in the second episode, and they assured us that zombie-like disease-ridden people were NOT going to appear at any time in the episodes.
They do have the plot fairly well planned out in advance, though the writer didn't say how far.
The show was shot mostly in Calgary, Canada, as that is a good place to get shots of open planes.
The book "The Stand" served as inspiration for the writer. Events such as Katrina, 9-11, the LA Riots, and the Tsunami also inspired both the writers and the actors (and several actors were involved personally in some of those disasters and drew on their experiences)/
Overall again I really liked this show, and plan on watching when it gets released. The acting was good, the directing was good, the pace was good, it all worked for me.
