Watching Jericho

In doing my normal technorati search today, I came across an interesting comment on John Rogers’ Kung Fu Monkey:

On the other hand, JERICHO’s starting to show the seams of being on CBS. The female characters are really, really awful.
I kind of like Pamela Reed as the nosy, judgmental mom, as she’s playing precisely the small-town mom who motivates you to move away. She’s nails on a chalkboard, and that’s a valid choice. But the best example of the sort of standard “moms/girlfriends or dysfunctional crimefighters” vibe all CBS women fall into was the ep where the Blackwater-style mercenaries were coming. While the heroic caucasian menfolk were having a stand-off on the bridge, the girlfolk were getting hammered in the bar, dreaming about one of the girls’ missed wedding. Now, that’s a valid storyline, but that juxtaposition was miserable. The women even comment that “something’s happening”. Yeah, there’s a squad of heavily armed men who are going to come in here, shoot all of you in the face and take your penicillin. That’s a bit distracting from mooning over the hope chest, no?

While watching the episode he’s referring to, I noticed that I didn’t like it as much because something was off about it, and this pretty much encapsulates why, once I read through it. While every episode seems to flesh out the majority of the male characters, the female characters seem to fall into caricature versus real character development. While it’s not exclusive to CBS, this unfortunately seems to happen on a lot of shows. I do wish that they would devote as much time as delving into Jake’s past, or what exactly is up with Hawkins as they would real character development of Heather or Emily or even Mary. The only female character that they seem to be taking a non-standard route with is Bonnie, but from the last episode of the Fall Season showed, who knows what they’ll do with her character now.

What do you think? Is Jericho not taking as much time with its female characters as it is its male characters? Or is this just over-thinking the show?

Jericho, CBS, Television, Women, Characters

While it’s not anything truly surprising, I’m hoping that some of the missing D-Storyline will come into play because of the spoiler mentioned over at TV Guide’s Ask Ausiello column.

This piece of scoop is da bomb: Rumor has it that a February-sweeps episode will go back in time to chronicle the days leading up to Armageddon. I hear lots of character questions will be answered in the process.

(more…)

Have you ever noticed the morse code being played during the title sequences? What the folks over at CBS have done is actually leave coded messages with the Morse Code, which you can find some of the fans’ thoughts on over at the Jericho Wiki. While there are some points that people disagree on the translation for some of the episodes, it brings a couple of things to light when it comes to some characters, and causes more questions to be asked for other things.

Kryptonsite has what looks to be setting up for a great spoiler site for Jericho. While it’s a tad empty at the moment, knowing their work on Smallville, I look forward to seeing what they will do with Jericho.

CBS has put up a new sneak peak for the spring season, introducing the Black Jack Fairgrounds.

Is it just me, or do you get a “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” vibe from the video? As long as Tina Turner doesn’t show up in chainmail, I think it’s all good.

The guys and gals over at Jericho surprise me sometimes. They’ve set up a myspace page for our favorite teenage outcast, Dale, called stuckinjericho. I’ve been spending time watching the videos available on his main page, and also reading through the blog entries, which perfectly stop right before the bombs dropped in the timeline. The only kvetch that I’ve got with the setup on myspace is using the promotional photos for his blog entries. I know, I know… I’m too much of a nit-picker, but I was hoping a little that they would have used some more candid, classic myspace-style shots. Of course, maybe I’m asking too much for the “extend your digital camera out to arm’s length” style photos from Dale.

Of course, I had to add him to my friends list. Would you have expected anything else?

There’s a link on the main site for Jericho that has a little mystery for their viewers, trying to guess the identity of this Mystery Woman. Over at the Official Jericho Wiki, people can speculate as to who she is, and CBS gave us a small clue.

If you right-click on the image and “Save As…” from the site page, the image tries to save with the name “sara.jpg”, which has led to the Wiki listing her first name, Sara. It also states that she is a police officer in St. Louis, the same story that Hawkins uses to the public.

Who do you think she is?

While Jericho is a new show this season, while I was scanning for something else, I came across this Promo poster for sale over on ebay, along with a copy of the Pilot script up for grabs.

I still have a bunch of the large-format posters like this for movies from the ’90’s, thanks to one of my friends that used to work at the local theater, but I didn’t get any for any television programs. For the right person, this would be well worth the bid.

I’ve been scouring the ‘net for any and all Jericho fan sites, and I’m only finding a few. Here’s the list so far…

• The Jericho Spot
• Fallout!
• The Approved Jericho Fanlisting
• Jericho Forums
• Jericho Forum
• Jericho TV Forum and Discussion

Are there any other fan sites out there that I’m missing and that I should be reading? Let me know in the comments.

Sometimes I wonder what goes through the minds of television executives to come up with a “Fall Hiatus”, especially when they do it to new shows such as Jericho. Why would you want to run the risk of losing all the ground you’re gaining with viewers by making them wait months until you get a new episode? Pre-Internet, that is, that would have probably been a nail in the coffin for a show with possibilities.

CBS executives on Tuesday said that television viewers’ increasing comfort level with ancillary online elements was a big part of the decision to rest promising rookie drama Jericho for a couple months at midseason.

“We never would have done that probably if it wasn’t for the Internet,� said CBS Corporation chief research officer and CBS Vision president David Poltrack at the Family Friendly Programming Forum in Beverly Hills.

CBS: Internet Let Us Rest Jericho Midseason

Of course, we’re not getting everything that the producers initially planned for their online presence, due to union issues, says Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post. The now much-talked about D-storyline probably would have added more validity to the networks’ use of the Internet to promote their shows, and instead of losing viewers because of the hiatus on the aired show, it might just have gained viewers.

Now, I’m not saying that what CBS has given us, from Countdown to the Wiki, isn’t a good thing, but I will say that the of seeing a complete storyline played out on demand would be one of those things that could pull a series from the threat (whether it’s a valid threat or not) of non-renewal to making it a hit.

I hope that these union issues can be resolved, because I for one would love to see the D-storyline. I’m sure that we’ll see pieces and parts of it on Innertube over the hiatus, but I’m never satisfied with pieces and parts.

Can’t wait until Spring for your Jericho fix? CBS has a Sneak Peak into Jake’s past up on Innertube.

Without trying to give anything away, I have to say that in just under a minute and a half, that video has given more information that anything that has happened so far on the show.

Trying to figure out how to pass the time between now and February, when Jericho comes back from it’s Fall Hiatus? Check out the Jericho Community that CBS has set up. There are discussion areas, a link to their youtube.com content, and plot theories as to who dropped the bomb.

Matthew Wayne Selznick may have a point, though I adore both shows.

“Jericho,� on the other hand, I was apathetic toward, then intrigued… and now I’m engaged. Much slower than “Heroes,� and that’s all right, because it’s focused on character conflict and growth. People are changing for better and for worse, and characters are making choices that drive the plot, not the other way around. And maybe it says more about me than it does about these television shows, but I have yet to say, “Well, I saw that coming� watching an episode of “Jericho.�

Go read the whole thing, and let him know what you think. Using the phrase “social science fiction” to describe Jericho is one of those things that makes me love the internet.

Got a few hours to kill on the ‘net? Well, check out Countdown, where you can watch videos detailing all of the intel that Hawkins was receiving in the weeks leading up to his move to Jericho.

While I’ve not really run across anything spoiler-worthy yet*, one can always hope. I do have until February to find stuff out.

*Why, yes, I am a member of Spoilers Anonymous. The first step is admitting that you have a problem, they keep telling me.

Jericho

I should probably admit something. I’m a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic story. One of the first novels that really hooked me was Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, and I have to re-read it every few years. So, when I heard that CBS was doing an nuclear apocalypse series, I knew that I would have to watch it. I recorded the first episode, and once I was done watching it, I got a Season Pass to it. Jericho is just one of those shows that I can’t seem to get enough of, and I’m happy to share my obsession here with y’all.

Welcome to my world!

Jericho

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