5 Reasons I Should Hate Jericho, and 5 Reasons Why I Like it
Jericho is up to episode 15 on ITV4, and I'm really enjoying it. But somehow I feel like I shouldn't. In an attempt to explore those tensions as shall do what has become traditional on blogs, and make a list...
5 Reasons I Should Hate Jericho
5 Reasons I Like Jericho
5 Reasons I Should Hate Jericho
- It's not original. Small town survival after a nuclear apocalypse has been done by Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank). Multiple nukes exploding throughout the USA has been done by The Wild Shore (Kim Stanley Robinson). And that's just the two that come to mind, there's probably lots more.
- Its too American. All that small-town stuff is so cheesey. Hokey is I believe the word. It's so foreign and false and UnBritish. Every small town I've been to in the USA was more like Twin Peaks.
- There are mistakes. Logical mistakes, probably deliberate and used to drive the plot e.g. Hawkins uses his computer inside, then for some reason opens a big dish outside, just so that Jake can see it.
- It reminds me of Dawson's Creek. Or maybe Echo Beach. One of those airbrushed soaps aimed at teenagers where relationships are off and on and off again.
- One of the main characters is / was "the mayor". It just doesn't translate. Have you seen an example of a British mayor?
5 Reasons I Like Jericho
- It's set today. Which means that there are modern twists on surviving the apocalypse. When they go to the library to find out about nuclear fallout they discover that all the books were written in the 50's.
- It concentrates in survival issues. Keeping warm, maintaining electricity production, getting food, all the basic apocalyptic things that need to be taken care of.
- It steals the good bits. Okay, it's not original, but it takes the cool bits from all the compost of previous apocalyptic fiction and pulls out some golden flowers. Sometimes they're just little references ( e.g. the mass migration to warmer climes), but I like them
- There's something bigger going on. It's all still a mystery. What actually happened?
- It's a nuclear apocalypse! And you just can't beat that.
Categories :
Apocalypse Watch
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Reviews
Hi James,
I liked your review and I put it in our article archive.
http://www.jericho-kansas.com/JerichoTelegraph/AllNewsAnnouncements/tabid/76/ctl/ArticleView/mid/403/articleId/931/Default.aspx
Gwen
I couldn't agree more. Jericho's a great show! Makes you think and that's always good...!
I like that you have reasons you should hate the show and then you have reasons like it.
No doubt about it Jericho is a prime time television show but one of the things I really liked about it early on was whenever I thought I knew what was going to happen next I found I was usually wrong. This is always a plus and one of the reasons I ultimately do think Jericho is a great show. Great items on your list in both categories!
Thanks, -b
Fun and different way to look at Jericho. It's a great show - looking forward to Season 2!!
(for all the reasons you stated)