Jericho - Season 1

RRP £39.99
Lowest New Price
£15.99

Suitable for 15 years and over

Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)

Release date: Monday 10th of March 2008

Starring:
Ashley Scott, Gerald McRaney, Skeet Ulrich, Pamela Reed,

Director(s):

Format: PAL,
Region code: 2
Running time: 910 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

RRP: £39.99
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk

Part-Lost, part-The Day After, this television drama very effectively taps into palpable post-9/11 dread. The residents of Jericho are literally in the dark when they are cut off from civilization in the wake of a nuclear blast. Has the United States been attacked? How many cities were destroyed? Was it terrorists, or something way more sinister? It is up to Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), the town's mayor (and series bedrock), to calm the community, keep its citizens from turning on each other, and protect them from predatory outsiders. Johnston's son, Jake (Skeet Ulrich), a "screw-up," returns home just prior to the blast following a mysterious five-year absence. Jake is at odds with his estranged father, who is running for reelection, and his brother, Eric (Kenneth Mitchell), his deputy. He isn't welcomed back by his former girlfriend, Emily (Ashley Scott), who is now engaged to a man who is missing following the blast. With the fate of America in the balance, one would think that "small town problems" wouldn't amount to much in this crazy new world, but it is Jericho's human dramas that resonate most deeply.

On the most cherished TV shows, characters come to feel like family. Jericho's characters come to feel like neighbours. Dale (Erik Knudson), the orphaned teenage outcast, forms an unexpected friendship with the town's spoiled mean girl, Skylar (Candace Bailey). Robert Hawkins (Lennie James), just arrived in town, introduces himself as a former cop from St. Louis but his secret basement command centre suggests otherwise. Gray Anderson (Michael Gaston), a mayoral candidate, politicizes the disaster to undermine Johnston. Stanley (Brad Beyer), a farmer, falls in love with his condescending IRS auditor from Washington, D.C. (Alicia Coppola) and Eric plans to leave his wife, Alice (Darby Stanchfield) for bartender Mary (Clare Carey). But at the heart of Jericho's first season is Jake's hard-earned redemption in his family's (and Emily's) eyes (suddenly, he's a regular MacGyver, able to perform a tracheotomy with a juice box straw!). Star Trek has its Trekkies/-ers and Laurel and Hardy its fraternal organization, the Sons of the Desert. Jericho has its "Nuts," who mounted a monumental campaign to rescue the series after it had been cancelled. Fans posted a barrage of videos on You Tube and deluged the studio with peanuts (the significance is explained in the season finale). "What is it about this town that has you so addicted to it?" someone asks Emily at one point. Just watch a couple of episodes, and you'll also be hooked. This First Season set should rally Jericho's army and inspire new recruits. --Donald Liebenson

Pure, unadultered (and unbelievable) schmaltz
Review date: 2008-08-14 Rating: 4 out of 10

I had high hopes for this series based on the reviews, fan-boy following the series has and the concept. Unfortunately this suffers from the usual over-production endemic to US series - the photography is colourful and bright, interiors look like they featured in a magazine, everyone is beautiful, everyone's teeth are white and hair coiffured, and no-one is remotely believable.

The first episode was well done and gripping and I thought "this is going to be good like everyone says". Sadly the drop-off from episode 1 is massive. After that point it becomes a slushy mix of melodrama (extra-marital affairs, teen romance) and episodic drama (each week the denizens of Jericho face a new challenge and overcome it - fallout, fires, food shortages, power cuts etc).

The biggest problem is the plain lack of believeability. The US is "attacked" with nuclear weapons, planes crash, birds die, fallout clouds loom. So what do people do? Go to the snug-looking bar and pretend it's an episode of Friends. And the people aren't ordinary: all the guys are "hunks"; all the women "babes" in keeping with most US TV. Like the Pamela Anderson-alike ex-girlfriend of the erstwhile hero. As if she would be in smalltown Kansas with her high-flying banking husband - what bank is he meant to be working at?

She's not the only immaculate beauty - everyone has lovely lipstick, mascara, trendy haircuts or rugged stubble-covered square chins. So after a nuclear blast and war, people will spend hours making-up before they trot down to the bar to flirt and play pool. Nuclear armageddon sounds okay to me!

Clearly reality is a concept the writers have chosen to ignore. Soon after the nuclear blast, fallout hits the town in the rain. Nevertheless the next day everyone's out standing in the puddles being glamorous with no concern for radiation. Actually radiation appears not to be a problem and obviously has no effect on anything like crops, drinking water, the air people breathe. And although there are some complaints about a lack of power - beer is cold(!), there seems to be no problem keeping the bar nicely lit for intimate encounters.

Also, Jericho must be twinned with the city in Logan's Run. No-one is allowed to live in Jericho beyond 55 (I'm guessing at the age of the shrewish shopkeeper). There are no old biddies - everyone is young, handsome and very, very clean and fresh faced. Perhaps radiation is like pro-retinol or anti-cerimides and makes everyone young looking?

The layer of treacle-y schmaltz covering the show doesn't help either. The show is almost propaganda for social togetherness and team work. I can almost hear the chants of "USA!", "USA!" in the background. Nothing can't be overcome with the town pulling together and anyone not joining the cause is clearly A Bad Person.

The most painful example to date is the potential destruction of a corn field by insects. The shrewish shopkeeper wants part of the farm in return for the pesticide. The major will only help if the farmer will split his crop with the town. Just as the farmer decides to burn the infected crop, along comes the whole town to help pick the corn and the store owner provides the pesticide for free, all to a slushy romantic soundtrack just in case we missed the fact this was a Very Poignant And Emotionally Moving Scene.

This would have been better had it been made in the UK in the late 80s or early 90s with elements of Threads and Survivors thrown in (I say early 90s as since then, UK TV has suffered the same over-production sheen of glamour as US TV). In fact, go and rent Threads and the first season of Survivors - much more challenging and realistic.

Reviews

Could not watch it till end...
Review date: 2008-07-22 Rating: 4 out of 10

This is a soap...!
I loved Prison break, 24, Heroes, Spooks, Life on mars... But Jericho has nothing in common with those great TV shows. The nuclear bomb explodes in episode 1, and then almost nothing else happens ! We see a few people in the city of Jericho trying to survive in their small town, fighting some bad people who want to kill them. The bad against the good, some romance... Always the same thing. Could you imagine the life in a small city in the middle of nowhere in the US ? This is Jericho. It is sooo boring when you come to episode 8 or 10...

Criminally cancelled
Review date: 2008-05-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

What is it with US networks? They always seem to cancel the best series. Take this gem of a series; it was hidden away here in the UK on the hallmark channel and it didn't have enough viewers in the US (try advertising more CBS!)Skeet Ulrich leads a top notch cast in this post apocalptic drama series. A terrorist attack cuts the small town of Jericho off from the rest of the US. This eventually leads to a war between Jericho and the nearby town Newburn because supplies are running out. It starts of slow (maybe putting new viewers off) but the acting is superb and the storylines are thrilling. More importantly the charachters are believable and we can understand their actions. The fans bombarded CBS with trucks of nuts after something that is said in the season finale. Something involving taking action and war! The fans listened and so did the network season 2 was made (only seven episodes) but the series was cancelled again. CBS are trying to their credit to get the show a new home (maybe the co-owned CW - why don't they just put it on there?) Great stuff - you won't regret buying this.

nuts
Review date: 2008-05-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

nuts, meaning go to hell, one of the dialogue in the series, brilliant series, cannot wait for series 2, starting friday the 16 on hallmark

5 Stars for a Soap??
Review date: 2008-05-04 Rating: 4 out of 10

Come on folks - this is a TV soap with a nuclear bomb conspiracy thrown in to spice up the 'angle'. I'm sure U.S TV producers are just too scared to break the mold too much but just spare me yet another stereo-typical Made-In-USA formulated TV series and look closer to home for real production values, like Spooks. Jericho is also so full of factual holes it's laughable.

Product Details/Specifications

Actor(s):
Ashley Scott
Gerald McRaney
Skeet Ulrich
Pamela Reed

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
EAN: 5014437938336
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 6
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-03-10
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 910 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

Tech info, cast and quotes/trivia when available. Exclusions may apply with free delivery. Price and availabiltity subject to change

Jericho - Season 1

Reviews

Product Details/Specifications

Search

Similar Products