Letters to the Editor
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No American city under mortar fire?
"It's easy to forget that no mainland U.S. city has ever been subjected to the blind terror of mortar attacks (which tends to make Americans rather cavalier about bombings) until you experience the shock of seeing it, however cheesily rendered on-screen."
Well, a few of my ancestors saw it in Atlanta - not to mention residents of 1860s Richmond and Vicksburg and Nashville. Not to mention Gettysburg. The one interesting aspect about "Jericho" is that it reminds us all that Americans are not immune from the kind of war and privation other nations face. Apparently we need that kind of reminder - because it seems it's very easy to forget that Americans have faced that ordeal.
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I agree
I think Ms. Miller's on the money. At six times different duing the season I popped my head in to see what was happening, and no matter how different the scene, the result almost always looked and felt the same to me. A Dire Situation. Characters yell and react. A Tense Standoff. And then... back to standing around, waiting for the Next Dire Situation.
I never got a sense the characters were there to grow and evolve (an ironic use of the term for fundie Kansans, I know). And that jibe about Ashley Scott's forehead? BWAH ha ha! Her alabaster forehead kinda sums up the series for me: smooth on the surface, cold to the touch and incapable of movement.
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Ewww!
"Jericho is so perfect and pure, like a Mormon prom queen, you can't help wanting to see it sullied and degraded."
ick! Tug down your dress, babe, your Freudian slip is showing.
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Mortar attacks in the US
Miller says there's never been a mortar attack on a US city. Vicksburg Mississippi was mortared heavily before it fell to Union troops in 1863. And the "bombs bursting in air" in the Star Spangled Banner were shot from British War of 1812 mortars.
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Being a little ignorant of the plot....
how do they explain that 24 nuclear explosions in the US could knock out the country? Hell, it was calculated in the devastating film "Threads" that it would take 20 one-megaton Soviet bomb blasts to knock out the UK. Since the US arsenal doesn't have bombs in it that big any more (we use 300 kiloton bombs--about 18 Hiroshimas worth of TNT) and terrorists would be lucky to build a bomb that was as bad as the one that knocked out Hiroshima, I don't get how this size strike could possible hurtle our society back to the stone age.
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It's SKEET Stupid!
Who the hell cares whether the plot moves much less Ashley Scott's forehead when you have the rough-and-tumble Ulrich eye candy?
It's all about the eye-candy.
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All Bald Men are Evil, Like Lex Luthor and Howie Mandel.
Tsk, tsk, Laura. That "Rod Steiger-ish bald guy" is Daniel Benzali. Don't they make television critics watch the influential "Murder One" these days before they give them their critic's license?
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A Fine Example of the Genre
Born at the height of the cold war, I have always assumed that some sort of holocaust would happen to us. So, apocalypse shows have always been a very appealing genre. I see Jericho as a training video for the future to come. Hint: your emergency disaster kit should contain some gold coins and a gun.
The acting is bad, and the dialog is horrible. I fast-forward through all of the blah-blah between the farmer and the IRS agent, and I have also skipped through everything that mom has to say (kind of like skipping the Jar-Jar scenes). What's left is a great show!
As for Mr. Ignorant of the Plot, try watching the show. 24 blasts are more than sufficient to create an EMP that destroys most electronics across the US. The power grid fails, commerce ceases, and 6 men are claiming to be president. All entirely plausible.
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AJBuckle
No need to be rude. I've watched three episodes and got no clear idea of the "big picture." I know a little about military affairs (I have a Ph.D. in Naval History) so I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that the numbers don't quite add up. One would have to know what weapons were used where to have a viable "end of society as we know it" scenario. Since I have read a fair amount of Science Fiction, usually they try to make a stab at accuracy. I'll go with the flow, just give me something I can suspend my disbelief about.
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James
Nothing rude about it. I like the show, and I am encouraging you to watch it.
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Ever read Warday?
We live in pretty fragile electronically based economy. Remove the electronics and you set everything back a hundred years. All of our wealth is locked up in digital account. Blow up the data centers and all the money goes away. And the phones and the air traffic control system, and so on and so on. But that's all really besides the point. It's a plot device. It's what happens when you isolate a bunch of people and make them scared.
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Vicksburg, Atlanta, Etc.
I, too, would invite Laura Miller to read about the shelling of Vicksburg and Atlanta.
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No American city under mortar fire?
Technically it may not have been mortar fire, but my hometown of Jackson, MS was renamed "Chimneyville" after the US Army burned everything to the ground but the chimneys.
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Bombing American Cities
Vicksburg, Richmond, etc. had ceded from the real America so they shouldn't count.
I think it was General Sherman who said it best: "South Carolina must be destroyed."
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"the real America"
"Vicksburg, Richmond, etc. had ceded (sic) from the real America so they shouldn't count."
I am awestruck by your fiery intellect and humbled by the thunder of your riposte.
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Gary
You take yourself way too seriously
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Pure Cheese
Jericho is a completely ridiculous ball of cheese wrapped around the hot Skeet Ulrich. And it's kind of fun to watch.
There are the inexplicable number of candles always left burning in unattended homes, the beautifully waxed eyebrows (all those candles, don't you know?), the silly decisions that should get the entire town killed but don't, the very boring Emily and her smooth forehead and Breck-girl hair (because hair care is a must in these apocalyptic times), the plucky Heather, the super dumb townsfolk, the lack of atomic fallout ... it's just a must-see.
But, you can't really take it seriously, if you're going to enjoy it, I think.
By the way, as a side note, you've got a typo there, Salon. It's "season" not "seaon."