by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
This engrossing new series takes us back to the Cold War’s paranoid vision of the apocalypse–Global Thermonuclear War. The series involves a small Colorado town, Jericho, that is cut off from the rest of the world during a nuclear holocaust. At first, the townspeople who have seen the mushroom cloud near Denver have no idea whether it’s an accident or other major cities have been hit. Finding out information is difficult. Radio and television reception is intermitent or non-existent. High-level anxiety clouds everyone’s judgement.
When the series debuted on Oct. 20, I was skeptical it would stay interesting after the shock of the mushroom cloud sighting. However, I thought about all the complex ramifications of facing an uncertain future being in a group of survivors of such a global catastrophe. Then, I realized that the premise could generate thousands of scenarios from how to communicate with the rest of the country, to finding food, to survival itself.
Eventually, post-apoclyptic survivors would be plunged back to pioneer times with no electricity, except what they could generate, finding unradiated food, avoiding radiation sickness when even the rain could be dangerous, and a multitude of other dad-to-day challenges. Thus, in the town of Jericho, we see a group of people who are regressing back in time. When I finally viewed the series from the beginning on-line on CBS’ website, I was hooked by the plethora of serious problems the townspeople of Jericho were encountering in regard to the nuclear attack, not to mention the inner-town conflicts and maintaining law and order.
Gerald McRaney made a smooth transition from his Deadwood character to portraying Jericho’s mayor, Johnston Green, whose governing skills are greatly tested by the crisis. Skeet Ulrich plays Jake Green, one of Johnston’s sons, who has returned home from a visit to Kansas. Kenneth Mitchell plays Eric Green, Johnston’s other son. Pamela Reed portrays Johnston’s wife Gail Green, with Darby Stanchfield portraying his daughter April. The family was never that close. So, transitioning to this new reality will be difficult.
Indeed, the Green family are supposed to be the tower of power that everyone is inspired to follow, but as in any group, there are people who would exploit this disaster for their own selfish gains. Jake acts as the consciousness of the town, as he tries to get a handle on just how pervasive the nuclear attack has been. Then one little boy gets a message on his answering machine that brings terror to the people of Jericho. His parents called from New York City to see how he was doing, and while on the phone, they express shock, and then they are consumed in an atomic explosion, clearly heard on the machine. So more cities are involved.
In one episode, the townspeople spot our ICBM missiles heading toward the enemy–still unknown. So at least we are fighting back. It is revealed that one of the townspeople is a CIA operative. Prior to that disclosure, the town experiences an EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse) which fries all the electronics including the radios, computers, and televisions. But this guy has a govenment issue laptop that is protected against EMP. He could be a link with the post-apocalyptic government. Wisely, the townspeople voted to send out people in all directions as human reconnaissance. So they load up with what fuel and food they can get and set out to gather news, which is in short supply.
One of the aftereffects of a Global Thermonuclear War would be the loss of our entire infrastructure. We are terribly spoiled by our gadgets and instant communications. Imagine losing that. Cell phones would be useless, TVs and radios would be dead, maybe short wave radio would work, but still it would mean huge adjustments to our lifestyle. And what about radioactive fallout? How could we gauge it. The town does have Geiger counters. In a frightening way, this is a new beginning for Jericho. The hardest part for the people of Jericho is the lack of news and wondering how much of the planet is still livable. There will be many new dramas as the townspeople adjust to this new reality. The what-if factor, the stellar cast, and inventive writers will play on our fears and draw us into this evolving new world.
The writers of this series are capitalizing on our fear of North Korea and Iran becoming a nuclear power. Or worse--what if the terrorists form an alliance with North Korea or Iran to use nuclear weapons against us? Yes, the Cold War ended in 1990, but we have a new frightening reality of al Queda and other radical Islamic fundamentalists hell bent to kill us all. What better way than nuclear missiles? Duck and cover!
Jericho runs Wednesdays, at 8:00 pm ET on CBS.
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