Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas - io9 Comments

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

jackiek71 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:16:28 PST

Good grief! All the haters are here!

There may have been a little too much soap opera in season one for some people. But that's mostly gone for you adrenaline junkies in season two (thus far).

If NOTHING else, this is a great story for discussion. And that's really, really pulling it back to the bare bones. This show has opened up discussions with my young daughter about what *could* happen and what to do if it ever comes to this. With my parents and what is utterly wrong with the government, the military and the "hired" military on this show... the same goes for my friends and their families who all watch this show.

Quite frankly this is a show that is not only entertaining, but thought provoking - heaven forbid we use our brains!

jackiek71

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

deadlizard — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:53:48 PST

I watched the whole first season as a guilty pleasure. I like the premise and want to know where the main story leads, but they ruined it with embarrassedly bad filler subplots. It's like an apocalyptic show for soccer moms. I haven't watch this season but hopefully they cut the filler and went down to business.

deadlizard

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

thesupermikey — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:06:33 PST

I Missed Sprague Grayden's character. I hate to be a shipper, but i just cannot buy Jack and Emily.

thesupermikey

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Greasy Thumb Guzik — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:00:18 PST

So if CBS cancels it, and if SciFi picks it up...
Will they merge it with 'Flash Gordon'?
Then they can move everyone in the town of Jericho to Mongo.
The cognitive dissonance should make for some excitement, which is good as neither show currently has any!

Greasy Thumb Guzik

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Battey137 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:59:08 PST

Jericho suffers from the same flaw that Heroes, Lost and the 4400 suffer from the "Twin Peaks" dilemma, the never-ending mystery or conspiracy. There is just to many shows with the same plot device and a finite audience for it. Lost and Heroes came first and is better written and acted but eventually their audiences will abandon these shows. X-files is one of the few shows the successfully navigated the minefield of the never ending conspiracy because it presented the majority of it's programs in the episodic fashion. Each episode of the X-files for the most part was resolved in one episode with the over-arching conspiracy plot visited occasionally; the viewer had satisfaction from the episodic shows and could speculate on the serialized episodes. Writers need to realize a "Cool" conspiracy or mystery is "Cool" when there is a real resolution to the mystery. Do the writers of Jericho have a story arch they are following with a beginning a middle and an ending or are they just making it up as they go along? Babylon 5 was the great example of a show that had a story arch in place before on episode hit the air and the result was a serialized story that progressed in a logical manner. The writers on B5 had to fit each written episode into the story arch instead on creating new mysteries and conspiracies just to keep the plot device going. Programs like Jericho, Lost and Heroes is like great sex with out the Orgasm, it is fun at first but gets old with out the payoff.
Jericho also suffers from one more flaw and that is the setting of a post nuclear strike. The post-apocalyptic setting is so 80's with a post 9/11 paranoia mixed in, to dated and political for a mainstream audience.

Battey137

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Crunchy — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:47:00 PST

I let it play in the background so my plants has some conversational topics.

Crunchy

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

JoeyTheHobo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:37:23 PST

Yeah, I admit the slowness, but I really loved the first season, and this coming from a perosn who usually shuns tv shows in general.

JoeyTheHobo

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

zingbot — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:30:24 PST

@zeppelined: I hesitate to get into this discussion, but I totally agree. I gave it every shot (the whole first season and 20 mins into the latest first show). I was dying to see more of the Jericho universe, outside of the overly-complicated relationships and forced conflicts. I wanted to see what people would do after a nuclear attack, but not who they would date, who they would elect and who would make dinner.

zingbot

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Seth L — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:18:23 PST

I actually like Jericho more then Lost so far.

Even though they do the same sort of things that irritate me, namely, whole plots hinging on characters withholding information, or characters being completely, utterly, stupid.

That paragraph needs more commas, stat!

Seth L

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:53:38 PST

@PriorMarcus: The first season was a badly acted soap opera thinly disguised as a post apocalyptic story. Now that they are focusing less on the bland character acts and more on the exciting post-apocalyptic stuff, the show is more interesting, but still badly-acted. For the record, I don't mind character driven storytelling, but the characters have to be interesting and well acted, and the first season had neither of those things.

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Ed Grabianowski — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:52:14 PST

What I Hate About Jericho:

1). It has a great premise and then utterly fails to deliver. If it was a stupid idea to begin with, I wouldn't care, but on paper it sounds like a show I should love.

2). It was boring. I started watching season 1 (because, you know, the premise sounded so right up my alley). I wasn't interested in any of the characters, nothing in particular seemed to happen, and the writing was poorly paced...it was just boring.

3). It's still boring. io9 sort of hyped that the new season would be good, so I watched the first episode. Or, tried to. Oooh, contract disputes. Scintillating. Look, someone's baking cakes! That's when I stopped watching and reset the DVR to never record another episode. Baking cakes? People threatening to talk to a banker's manager? Someone misplaced the apocalypse in "post-apocalypse."

4). The writing is bad. The acting is bad. I could forgive both of these if it weren't for points 1-3 (and I do, in the case of the Sarah Connor Chronicles).

Ed Grabianowski

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:47:11 PST

I wasn't a big fan of the first season, but I like where it's going now. However, I don't want it to go onto a 3rd season. I want a good, satisfying finale at the end of this season.

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Epaminondas — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:45:58 PST

...but I already gave up on Pre-Holocaust Kansas!

Epaminondas

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

PriorMarcus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:42:14 PST

@zeppelined: Looks like we've found that someone who hates Jericho. Honestly though, what is that you dislike about it?

And yes, before you post I'll admit that the first season was slow, but I happened to like that. To each their own.

PriorMarcus

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Ed Grabianowski — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:40:18 PST

So, apparently there's a cable network called SUCKTV.

Ed Grabianowski

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Seth L — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:36:46 PST

Oh and the TWOP recaps are hilarious:

[www.televisionwithoutpity.com]

Seth L

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Midwesterner in NYC — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:30:34 PST

I really liked this show when it first premiered; but I think, like a lot of others, did not get back into it after that long winter break it took in 2006-2007. Maybe a show like Lost can pull of a hiatus like that because of its built in fan base but Jericho was just staring to build its fan base and just never completely recovered.

Midwesterner in NYC

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

gdcol1969 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:29:22 PST

The show is truly outstanding! We watched it faithfully through the first season and have done the same for this season. After all the fight to save the series, it amazes me that there aren't more people watching. @Seth L - Keep watching, you will love how the first season works out. All I can truly say about Jericho is this: NUTS to the naysayers!

gdcol1969

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Seth L — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:24:50 PST

I'm still working through the first season DVD's.

It's getting better.

Seth L

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:22:26 PST

@sandmanfvr: I don't think anybody hates Jericho... there just aren't enough people who love it like we do. Apparently.

Charlie Jane Anders

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

PriorMarcus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:03:57 PST

@sandmanfvr: I love this program. If someone ask me about it I always compare it to Stephen King's The Stand as I believe it examines a lot of similar themes while staying more grounded in reality.

I seriously hope it continues, but if Season Two is the end then so be it, I'll enjoy every moment all the same.

It's weird that Jericho really hasn't pulled in the same audience that is currently eating up other films and series with similar themes of world destruction.

PriorMarcus

Don't Give Up On Post-Holocaust Kansas

sandmanfvr — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:50:16 PST

Why is Jericho so fucking hated? The show is original and great. Fuck the ratings I say. I wish they would let it run and leave it be. How many fucking LOST seasons can their be? No griping there. Some shows I think are just targets. Sheesh.

sandmanfvr