Jericho - Season 1 [DVD]

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

As the impact of the crisis sets in, the town’s people pull together and roles within the new community-–some unexpected and some unwanted--become established; Jake Green (played by heart-throb Skeet Ulrich; Scream, The Craft), the prodigal son of the town’s Mayor finds himself stranded in Jericho as a result of the catastrophe. Having just experienced a tense family reunion after five years unexplained absence he finds himself reluctantly assuming a leadership role within the community from which he has run: Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott; The Kingdom, Dark Angel), Jake's high school sweetheart who lives outside of town and innocently goes about her business unaware of the catastrophe until a chance encounter with two escaped convicts; Emily’s estranged father Jonah Prowse (James Remar; Sex & The City, Dexter), the leader of a group of survivalists who have settled just outside of Jericho, who finds himself having to flee the town when he is accused of murder. Robert Hawkins (Lennie James; 24 Hour Party People, Outlaw), a mysterious jack-of-all-trades stranger who moved to Jericho three days before the attack and who seems to know more than he’s letting on; Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney; Deadwood), a man dealing with conflicting emotions after the return of his son but who is forced into action as the town begins to riot; Bonnie Richmond (Shoshannah Stern), a pretty 17-year-old who is hearing impaired; and Bonnie's older brother Stanley (Brad Beyer), Jake's best friend from childhood and an avid car lover who works on the family farm.

The townspeople start to think that things are getting back to normal when the phone and power lines are reinstated and they receive a pre-recorded phone call from Homeland Security telling them that help is on the way. However, their hope is quickly dashed when a power surge disables all of the town’s electronics and fires break out across the town.

Compelling throughout, the first season of Jericho captivated viewers attention to such an extent that, when the network attempted to cancel the show, it was resurrected for a second season based upon sheer fan power alone. This essential post-apocalyptic drama instantly embroils the viewer into the complex character interactions that occur following the explosions and remains absorbing right through to the season’s dramatic finale.

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