Notes for Episode 16: "Jericho"

You guys know the drill... extra long show, extra long notes. Though come to think of it, I've said that a show's notes are extra long, like... five times now. Maybe this is just the new normal. Maybe this is the new reality we've all woken up to, as if our small town has just witnessed a nuclear explosion. Or if we're in Cretaceous times with reptiles all around us. Or if there's a Zoo. We're watching Zoo this month, that's pretty exciting. Take care!

• Plot / Structure Stuff:

  • If this sucks as much as Terra Nova we’re ending the show

  • This isn’t awful so far (pre-explosions) as just like. A primetime soap. If you showed me these first few minutes and said the premise was “scumbag comes home, his return shakes up a lot of small town secrets” I’d be like alright!

  • This feels like it’s drawing from a legacy of TV movies and event miniseries

    • Like this does not feel, from the jump, like it was meant to be a pilot, but a  script that spiraled out of control and had to be a TV show by default 

  • They are spending SO much time on like, the immediate aftermath in a practical, almost didactic way. “This is what would happen,” no sense of extrapolation yet about the post-apocalypse, we’re still IN the apocalypse

  • This fake sheriff plot in episode 2 is kinda insane because like… this is kinda agnostic to the nuclear apocalypse? This could happen to Winona Givens

  • Something I really find interesting about this compared to like, Under the Dome or Persons Unknown is that they’re not like, staying in Jericho proper because they’re physically trapped, it’s just like… it’d be hard to go somewhere else. Like two episodes in, for all they know Kansas City might still be around

  • As of the first three episodes, this is a first - a vibes show. You kinda know what’s happening right now is just table setting, so you like relax with some likable banter and people solving problems nicely

  • 14 minutes into episode 4: “They’re coming” … our first real indication that this is a Lostalike. It took them THAT long

  • It’s wild that the internet mystery, the contact from the federal government… that’s all really cool, and rather well done! But they don’t trust it to be an A-plot?

    • The A-plot is a special type of fire that’s hard to put out

  • Fascinating how the contours of the early mystery are isolated in Hawkins scenes. It’s a normal survival show that occasionally cuts to this one weird guy

    • Flight 29 Down but one of the kids is named Balthazar and every episode he travels to dead drops from an organization called Romulus

    • Hawkins has just had a nuke on him the whole time !!!

  • The Jake/Hawkins team-up………..if anything it took them too long to get here but the build-up makes it hit so good

  • They just have Every Kind of Terrorist on the payroll. They’re calling it the most well-planned CIA op of all time

  • Lmao they DIDN’T warn New Bern about Ravenwood. That’s funny

  • I really like the idea that the outlying towns have a plan to carve up Jericho because it’s the only town anywhere nearby that isn’t a smoking wasteland

    • Love how the last arc puts the low-stakes survival stuff into perspective. All these little glimpses of how literally everyone else is in hell.

  • I gotta be honest something I REALLY like about this New Bern arc is like. There’s so many players with their own angles. Lostalikes are usually REALLY bad about that, when it seems like such a table stake of having an ensemble cast. But this is doing really well at that!
    

• Character / Performance Stuff:

  • Direct from Wikipedia: Robert "Rob" Hawkins was, during most of Season 1, an enigma, with no one sure whether he was a goodie or a baddie.

    • He’s so epic. He’s immediately thinking about hiding the town from marauders like 2 hours after the bombs drop

  • Major change from the pilot: the addition of Black extras. Hm

  • Jake’s not the prom king… he BEAT UP the prom king! He’s sigma!

  • After Big Jim and Commander Taylor I kinda imagined the Gerald McRaney mayor was gonna be an “I’ll do ANYTHING to protect this town” but he just hasn’t done anything six episodes in. He’ll do nothing to protect his town

  • I gotta say, hats off to Skeet Ulrich for taking main character duties off Lennie James’s hands bc Rob gets to be at least like 40% of a cooler character for not needing to shoulder any protagonist responsibility

  • Goetz the droopy-faced Ravenwood guy is, gonna be honest, one of maybe three times a Lostalike villain has evoked a real sense of menace

  • Gray is the John Cena of Jericho. Subplot where Gray starts evangelizing to people about Jinma Heavy Manufacturing Concern

    • There’s a standoff between Jake and some mercenaries and Gray butts in to be like “Why are we fighting! It’s like you don’t even know that China has built 500 waterparks in the last 12 years!”

  • It’s so awesome that Dale has Men

    • Season two there’s a knightly order of silent wanderers in dark cloaks called the Dalesworn
      

• Technical / Aesthetic Stuff: 

  • Skeet Ulrich, All These Things I’ve Done… very competent mid-00’s TV cinematography… alright there’s a chance this is real

  • The worst part so far is definitely the score……overbearing and omnipresent

    • The fuck are these 808s?? The blast wiped out all the analog drums?

  • They DO know how to end episodes. They do know like… the specific moment to cut to credits, very well. Twice in a row now I expected them to soften the impact a little bit with a superfluous line of dialogue. Twice I’ve been wrong!

  • People really fucking let it spray on this show. Every bullet is five bullets

• Notable Quotes:

  • “She wasn’t in Denver… she was in Atlanta” is the first moment that got Hannah

  • I like the idea of Gerald McRaney explaining to everyone like they’re stupid, “You NEED to UNDERSTAND. I want VOTES. I like having VOTES.”

    • Lmao his actual speech includes the phrase “we can fight all enemies”

    • “WE can be the raiders! We can go to neighboring towns - those are ENEMY towns! We can take what they’ve got! And then we have it!’

  • “So what you’re saying is… nobody knows what’s really coming!” TV spot line

  • “Dad, there are worse things than venti frappuccinos” “Speak English!”

  • “Six capitals, but where’s the president?” “Which one?” GREAT

  • “How’d they decide on COLUMBUS?”

    • The two of us criticizing a Lostalike’s setting

  • “I could tooootally see that happening! Except everything ABOUT you!”

  • “If men can’t find a cave, they’ll make one… out of whatever circumstances might be lying around”

  • “I am much more of a vibe guy. I’m a guy that people keep around, for my vibe” 

    • In 2006?? Ancient aliens shit. A hieroglyph of a guy in a Curry jersey

  • “...that’slessacreage” said over the walkie talkie. So bashfully

  • “We’ll need guns” “Guns… guns are easy” Cool thing to say. CIA thing to say

  • “I am about to go to war with New Bern, Kansas. Home of the nearest COST CO”
    

• Cute Things We Said:

  • Them talking about Atlanta being hit… “What about the bisexuals?” “What about Coca-Cola?” “Well we might have to switch over to Pepsi… we got no reason to think PEPSI got hit too”

  • Funniest name of all time in the producer credits: Frank Military

  • One of the only jobs they can conceptualize on this show is Schoolteacher

    • Jericho was known for having the best student-teacher ratio in America. They’ve still got it after three teachers died this episode

    • Gerald McRaney Mayor: “Here in Jericho, we have a saying… those who can’t do… are the heart of our community”

  • Esther learned so many facts from this show. Like you can’t use water on an electrical fire. Or the ballpoint pen tracheotomy thing

    • IT’S AN EMP. AN ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE. IT FRIES ANYTHING WITH A CIRCUIT BOARD

  • They had infinity pools back then???????? Those seem like such a 2010s thing

  • It would be so funny if, after the mayor recovers from dying, he just starts doing Frank Cards asides for the rest of the season. And then not in season two

  • This show age regresses Esther. We’re stopping every ten minutes to watch like. The Watchmen trailer with her favorite Muse song in it

  • Emily’s fiancee describing his journey to Jericho like “You’ll think I’m crazy… but in town after town, I saw Grimace entering buildings. Sometimes by force, but sometimes the door would just open for him, as if it recognized him as its master”

  • They’re gonna start raiding outlying communities not for like food or fuel or mechanical parts, but for students to staff the massive school
    

• Special Fandom Corner:

  • Episode review on IMDB from 2020 somehow, getting all details wrong:

    • Let me picture this in my head. FEMA was evacuating people from nuclear fallout site... ran out of room in buses... "couldn't take everyone"... and then... KILLED EVERYONE WHO THEY COULDN'T TAKE!!! I mean, my dear writers, I understand, there hasn't been a single "news outlet" that hasn't kicked FEMA or blabbed about "FEMA camps", but... REALLY!? Do you SERIOUSLY think THIS could pose as an "artistic license"?! The worst thing about this is that it's actually not a bad story overall. But it is being destroyed by talentless writing.

  • A post on r/Jericho from AUGUST 2024 SOMEHOW:

    • Gray Anderson is the prime example of what modern politicians act like. He is manipulative, thinks he is the smartest person in every room, gets off on power, and always thinks he is "fixing things" when in reality he makes every situation worse. They tried to redeem him at the end of season 2 but it was too late. He is a buffoon!

  • https://archiveofourown.org/works/58743250 From SEPTEMBER 2024!