Jericho Discussion/Appreciation

[ShadowMaat]

Profit was AWESOME. Must remember to watch Heroes since wossname is in it.

One POSSIBLY encouraging thing is that there's a lot of hype around the show and they've spawned a blog and this "outside of Jericho" hunt and all that, so the network is invested. The question is... invested enough for a full season? A few more eps at least might help make it clear whether TPTB are coherent enough to pull off a full show. Hope it doesn't pull a Surface and fall apart. Loved the show, but it was directionless and confusing. At least Jericho looks to be coherent.

[Easter Lily]

I don't mind Jericho being classified as a scifi show if it is, like Jeremiah, a post-apocalyptic tale... Just looking at the pilot, it's hard to know what it is exactly so I did wonder about that. It's only fair to give it time to develop into something a bit more intriguing but like MarshAngel said, I don't want it to be as ridiculously convoluted as Lost. Yeah, I know people have skeletons in that closets but honestly I don't want another show bombarded by flashbacks.

[LoneStar1836]

From SCI FI Wire...Jericho Asks 'What If?

[yaaayoubetcha]

From SCI FI Wire...Jericho Asks 'What If?

kewl.

thx.

[ShadowMaat]

Nice article. However, all those examples cited are of major cities experiencing things. How many folks have been in a genuine small town when "disaster" occurs?

I live on an island (no bridge there, either) and during the "perfect storm" the whole island was without power for a couple of days. There was no panic, no rioting, no looting of stores... it was seen as a bit of an inconvenience, but neighbors pooled resources and checked on the elderly and all those goody-goody sorta things.

Granted, seeing a mushroom cloud is vastly different than having a nasty wind storm, but the mob scene at the pumps and the looting seemed a trifle... melodramatic. I don't think people would panic that fast. Or at least, I don't think that would happen around here. But then, I think we're close enough to a major city that filling up the gas tank would be the LEAST of our worries.

EDIT: Just checked the target map for my state. We'd be dead. In fact, chances are good we'd literally be wiped off the map...

[Atlantis1]

wrong... EMP pulse that would fry electronics would happen if nuke detonates in atmosphere, not on ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMP_Pulse

and i'll check it. sounds it might be interesting...

I understood that nukes were to be detonated before hiting the ground so they would cause more damage.

The show looks interesting but I do want to see something about the matter of the EMP factor.

[LoneStar1836]

Granted, seeing a mushroom cloud is vastly different than having a nasty wind storm, but the mob scene at the pumps and the looting seemed a trifle... melodramatic. I don't think people would panic that fast. Or at least, I don't think that would happen around here. But then, I think we're close enough to a major city that filling up the gas tank would be the LEAST of our worries.

I don’t know. I think people would. Or at least I think they would make the run on gasoline.

I remember last year when Hurricane Katrina and Rita was headed for Louisiana, my dad was insistent that I go fill up the vehicle…mostly because of the fact that prices would be driven up higher but also because when the electricity goes out the pumps don’t work. Me…I wasn’t too worried about it. (btw we live in central LA so Rita was the only real threat to us)

You’ve got people that will stock up on the stuff before anything happens so when something happens like a nuclear explosion, people are really going to see it as a premium, imo. Cause if you don’t know what is happening in the outside world, when you’re going to get electricity back, etc. etc., gasoline is pretty much your lifeblood cause it powers your vehicle and generators and you don’t know when the next gas truck will be back. So I though the scenes at the gas station were spot on, especially if this is a small town that is some distance from a larger city. You will have the people that take more than their fair share like the guy with the gas cans.

Just because towns are small doesn’t mean everyone is all nicey nice to their neighbors. I’m from a town in Texas with less than 1000 people and I could definitely see that see taking place. Course we have 3 gas stations in town and are along a major interstate. You’d have to make a run on the stations before all those people fleeing Houston got up here to get our gas. (Had that problem when they fled Hurricane Rita last year.) Course we might not have to worry about that problem if Houston was one of the cities that got nuked…. If I were in TX at the time someone nuked Houston, I probably be like you and wiped away or radiated real good since we’re only like 50 miles from the city. I’d be safer in Louisiana cause I don’t think there is anything left worth nuking there.

[silence]

Nice article. However, all those examples cited are of major cities experiencing things. How many folks have been in a genuine small town when "disaster" occurs?

I live on an island (no bridge there, either) and during the "perfect storm" the whole island was without power for a couple of days. There was no panic, no rioting, no looting of stores... it was seen as a bit of an inconvenience, but neighbors pooled resources and checked on the elderly and all those goody-goody sorta things.

Granted, seeing a mushroom cloud is vastly different than having a nasty wind storm, but the mob scene at the pumps and the looting seemed a trifle... melodramatic. I don't think people would panic that fast. Or at least, I don't think that would happen around here. But then, I think we're close enough to a major city that filling up the gas tank would be the LEAST of our worries.

EDIT: Just checked the target map for my state. We'd be dead. In fact, chances are good we'd literally be wiped off the map...

big difference. while you knew that storm will be over, you also knew there is still govermant out there and there is no reason for panic.... just look at what happened in New Orleans when response from govermant failed ... now add to that fact that you saw nuclear mushroom and know that at least 2 major cities were hit and there is no TV, no radio, no govermant response....

we are talking major panic. and when panicking, you don't think straight, so filling as much gas as possible (even if u might not need it - no way to go) is one of things you would do... here is the rest : get a weapon, get stockpile of food and hope to survive on your own.

(my country had 5 years of war, so i have a bit different experience then you, trust me, one storm is nothing compered to all out war.... and even thou our govermant didnt fail, situation in cities on frontlines was almost as chaotic as in pilot of Jerico, only reason why it wasnt worse was that people knew there is still central govermant behind them... but if our govermant had been "neutralized" (which was tried by airstrike in 1991) i think there would be much bigger degree of panic).

all of ^ is one of reasons i like this show... i can relate to it...

[Mefusta]

So... who else thinks it's SkyNet?

[MB.Eddie]

I am surprised that we get to see this show at the same time it is released live in the states. Thats a rare thing.

I thought it was a decent pilot ep, and there is potential for future eps. Will watch again next week

[Orion's Star]

The pilot is online and I thought it was horrible. If nukes go off then the cars would be fried and they won't have power. It was just rather boring, it really needs to pick up. The C story was the best one, the Atlanta one.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

When the nuclear detonation occurs near to the ground, the SREMP target may not be located in the electromagnetic far field but may instead lie within the electro-magnetic induction region. In this regime the electric and magnetic fields of the radiation are no longer perpendicular to one another, and many of the analytic tools with which we understand EM coupling in the simple plane-wave case no longer apply. The radiated EM field falls off rapidly with increasing distance from the deposition region (near to the currents the EMP does not appear to come from a point source).

As a result, the region where the greatest damage can be produced is from about 3 to 8 km from ground zero. In this same region structures housing electrical equipment are also likely to be severely damaged by blast and shock. According to the third edition of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, by S. Glasstone and P. Dolan, “the threat to electrical and electronic systems from a surface-burst EMP may extend as far as the distance at which the peak overpressure from a 1-megaton burst is 2 pounds per square inch.”

They would have been probably at least 70 miles from Denver (I think), where the first nuke went off. It seemed to be a surface detonation, and it's hard to judge the yield from what little was seen of the cloud, but they seemed to be more than far enough away to be out of potential EMP range.

[ShadowMaat]

Jericho is at least several hundred miles away from Denver. Much is being made of the fact that Jericho- even if it's on the border- is still too far away to see a mushroom cloud in Denver.

...Was that here or on TWOP? Or both?

Whatever. I think they're in a safe zone. Or at least a safe-for-the-moment zone. Slow death instead of quick.

[Jonzey]

I live on an island (no bridge there, either) and during the "perfect storm" the whole island was without power for a couple of days. There was no panic, no rioting, no looting of stores... it was seen as a bit of an inconvenience, but neighbors pooled resources and checked on the elderly and all those goody-goody sorta things.

Granted, seeing a mushroom cloud is vastly different than having a nasty wind storm, but the mob scene at the pumps and the looting seemed a trifle... melodramatic. I don't think people would panic that fast. Or at least, I don't think that would happen around here. But then, I think we're close enough to a major city that filling up the gas tank would be the LEAST of our worries.

It's just one of those things. It's actually annoying me now- absolutely any TV show or movie which features a power cut of any kind will always, always have people rioting and looting in the next scene (Smallville's last season finale and 24 season 4 with the EMP come to mind). And people really don't behave like that. I had a pretty major powercut where I live not so long ago, and you know what happened? Nothing. People got candles and torches and carried on what they were doing. Admittedly it didn't last that long, but there was no panic or violence or anything. I guess at least in Jericho it was justified- a mushroom cloud might make people behave more irrationally, but the other shows were kinda stupid and make you think ''why? why do they have the urge to behave like schoolkids? and wont they feel stupid if the lights come back on?''

Anyway that's really a little off topic- back to Jericho.

I thought it was pretty good- suspenseful and kept my interest. They seem to have a lot of characters up in the air though- should be interesting to see how they handle them all. But the whole concept of the show reminded me of a book I read in school. Can't remember the name though, or much of what it was about. But I read it. And I think it was good.

[ShadowMaat]

just look at what happened in New Orleans when response from govermant failed ... now add to that fact that you saw nuclear mushroom and know that at least 2 major cities were hit and there is no TV, no radio, no govermant response....

Yeah, but within HOURS? A day or three and no response I can see people starting to panic, but this is the same day. And no one knows that two major cities were hit. They know there was a mushroom cloud in the direction of Denver, but no one knows what it was- attack, accident or something else. And it was only the people in wossname's house who knew about Atlanta. I have a feeling they stayed put and weren't participating in the hysteria.

(my country had 5 years of war, so i have a bit different experience then you, trust me, one storm is nothing compered to all out war....

Again, it's the time frame I have issue with. People freaking out after a couple of days of sitting around with no contact from the outside world and I can see the situation starting to fray, but I can't see a town's population descending into mass hysteria on the same day as the accident/attack/whatever. No one knows ANYTHING yet. Nothing concrete. I know when people gather it tends to degenerate towards a mob mentality, but I still found it a little over the top for the first day. They need time for it to sink in, to come to grips with the fact that something awful might really have happened and that it isn't a mistake or a misunderstanding... and that help isn't coming.

[Orion's Star]

So I finally had a chance to watch Jericho on the big screen. These are the things I noticed on my second viewing:

- Ashley Scott. What, I need more than that? Uh...I wished she had a much larger role (major draw for me).

- Why would a bus driver in rural Kansas try to avoid hitting a deer? A bus is huge, it would plow right through a deer. I thought most drivers know you don't avoid hitting animals while driving (unless absolutely necessary, and unless it is like a freaking horse or something). Even if the deer did damage to the bus, it is doubtful that it would cause it to run off the road and cause the kind of mayhem that occured.

- There were three cops that investigated that prison bus. I'm supposed to believe that an escaped prisoner, who was probably hurt, managed to kill three cops (I mean, sure they are from Kansas, but still). Why would a prisoner even stay in the busted up bus after it had crashed and not run immediately as soon as he could?

- I do think the gas riot was pretty sudden after the explosion, but I don't know if it was really that much of a real "riot". More like an angry altercation. A real riot would have seen true looting, destruction, and lots of wild gesticulation. I think we only got mild gesticulation here. Besides, I think that Major Dad is going to federalize the town's resources pretty soon.

- They are so copying Lost with all the music montages. You know, along with all the other Lost homages.

ETA:

Spoiler:

Well, apparently perhaps I misjudged them horribly, at least in one regard. Having just seen the teaser for next week's episode, there appears to be multiple escaped prisoners. Which seems dubious at best. But whatever. I still don't know how they could have gotten the jump on the two cops on the outside of the bus, but it's doubtful that will ever be explained.