Wednesday, September 20, 2006

That's great, it starts with an earth -- er, nuclear bomb

Not much to add to my initial "Jericho" review, so what did everybody else think?
Posted by Alan Sepinwall at 10:17 PM
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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

s'ok. I still have a feeling the show would be a lot more fun if it starred ex-WWE grappler Chris Jericho, who certainly has more charisma than Skeet Ulrich and Sprague Grayden.

Then again, the both of them were perfectly fine, I thought; no surprises in their acting, but they held my attention enough. Gerald McRaney once again stole the show, making corniness salable in a time of chaos. Everyone else failed to register with me.

I do like the central mystery, the sense of unease it sets up, the answering machine message that I still can't get out of my head. It's a great idea for an overall plotline; but the question is whether the writers can populate it with interesting enough characters. They're not off to a good start.

11:49 PM, September 20, 2006
Anonymous said...

I agree with your take from yesterday, Alan. It's okay, but if it bogs down in 'micro' problems instead of the 'macro' situation it will get old fast.

It reminds me of the probme I had with CBS's Threshold from last year - so there's an enormous threat to the future of our entire civilization, but each episode revolved around preventing a small outbreak. Shouldn't they have been trying to figure out how to stop the whole thing, not just putting out the little brush fires as they arose? It became a typical CBS procedural. I fear the same could happen to Jericho. It would be nice for it to not follow this track.

One other note, when Skeet's brother (Kenneth Mitchell) popped up on screen, my wife and I both shouted "Eli Manning!" Quite a resemblance.

9:36 AM, September 21, 2006
Anonymous said...

can't...get...past...Skeet...must...look...away!

9:55 AM, September 21, 2006
Tosy And Cosh said...

Alan, you hit it on the head--they have a great, intriguing, creepy premise and abandon it (in the pilot no less!) for large chunks of time for the most cliched, lame, TV "action" tropes ever. Seriously, you have to haul out the beaten-to-death "emergency tracheotomy" in the PILOT? What are they going to resort to by episode 15??

10:18 AM, September 21, 2006
Anonymous said...

I liked it enough to give it a few more eps, but if they keep bogging down in the minor crap as you and others here have mentioned, I'm out. The creepy stuff is nice and creepy, but the clunky stuff is distracting and annoying. The trach performed with juice box straws was amusing, though.

11:41 AM, September 21, 2006
Alan Sepinwall said...

I fully acknowledge that my reaction to the juicebox scene is 100% colored by the fact that I have a daughter not too far from kindergarten, but it got to me. That said, there was just no excuse for them to go to such a generic place in the pilot.

And it's still light-years better than the escaped cons subplot next week.

But McRaney gets a lifetime pass from me after George Hearst.

11:59 AM, September 21, 2006
Tosy And Cosh said...

I've got two daughters about three years out from kindergarten, but it didn't do anything for me;) On the other hand, show me the end of Monsters Inc. . . .

And,as my wife pointed out, in what world do that many kids go on a field trip with one adult present?

3:54 PM, September 21, 2006
Anonymous said...

Speaking of the tracheotomy, someone pointed out on another board, if Jake can perform an impromptu tracheotomy he probably also knows he has a concussion, and therefore driving a rickety bus full of kids in the wake of a nuclear explosion in pitch black night might, you know, be a bad idea.

4:48 PM, September 21, 2006
Alan Sepinwall said...

But when phones are out, the driver is dead and the only other adult on the bus has a broken leg, what's he supposed to do?

4:54 PM, September 21, 2006
K J Gillenwater said...

I love any movie/tv show/book about 'end of the world scenarios.' So this pilot really intrigued me.

The trach thing was a little ridiculous, but I saw it more as an opportunity for the writers to give a bit of history about the main character and where he's been all this time. He has some kind of dark past that his family is not proud of, and I am curious to find out what it is.

The riot scene was pretty silly. I'm glad they ended that right away. I'm curious to find out who this black dude is that appears knowing an awful lot about everything.

Loved the ending scene with the girl driving and all the dead birds. Eerie. Wonder what happened??

I will be back next week.

5:19 PM, September 21, 2006
Anonymous said...

Well the birds, you see, were someone else's PREY.

Get it? Ashley Scott? Birds of Prey? Achachachachacha!

11:38 PM, September 21, 2006
Jim Hill said...

No actor gets a lifetime pass from me. McRaney's a good actor but this show blows and I won't be watching just because he's in it. The sonner this bowl-clogger gets flushed the sooner Major Dad can get a new gig on a good show.

10:43 PM, September 23, 2006

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