pamela reed

When Jericho returns on February 21 after its hiatus (I actually thought it was coming back at the end of this month but there's still another month to wait), several questions will (might?) be answered.

The first episode will show what happened 36 hours before the bombs dropped, in Jericho, Denver, and Washington, D.C. Maybe we'll finally get a hint as to who Hawkins really is and what exactly Jake was doing.

This has been one of the big surprises of the season for me. I really thought that it would be one of those science fiction-ish dramas that would go up against a powerhouse show on another network and either being canceled quickly and put on "hiatus" permanently. But this show has surprised with its ratings (it actually isn't doing too badly) and it's quality. There's a lot going on in this town, and I have to say that I'm more interested in what's going on in the town of Jericho than on that island over on ABC, at least for now.

When Jericho debuted on CBS earlier this fall, one of the big selling points was the plan to have a separate storyline on the network's web site. It would be actual scenes shot with the cast but shown online only, and they would beef up the subplots. This hasn't happened yet. There is a lot of online-only content at the site (including video about what would happen if a real attack happened, interviews, etc), but the additional storyline idea was canceled.

(S01E10) Great to see that even an episode of a series about nuclear war and small town isolation can have a Thanksgiving episode! But it's not a "Very Special Episode" of Jericho, where everyone has a bake sale and learn a valuable lesson about...I don't know, bake sales or something, it's actually a rather fascinating episode about what the people of Jericho should do when boxes and boxes of food, medicine, fuel, and supplies are dropped from airplanes. Do you trust them? Are they poisoned? Is everything safe to touch? Confusing matters more is that the labels are in Chinese, and the planes were Russian.

At first I thought, yay, Chinese Food! That's what everyone eats when they're alone on the holidays, right? But then you have to think about who sent it (if they really did) and why.

(S01E09) Right now, this show is better than Lost. Yeah, I said it.

While Lost seems to be, well, lost because they've suddenly turned into a show about a prison and a love triangle, this show is doing almost everything right. Yeah, I know, that might not be fair, because this is only the ninth episode of Jericho and Lost is in the middle of its third season. But I sense good things to come from Jericho, and this season of Lost has only showed me that the very structure of the show that I loved that first season and a half has now become a giant weight that's starting to sink the show. But that's a whole other rant for another day.

Ravenwood finds out Eric's address from his jacket and comes to town...

(S01E06) Well, well, well...so Hawkins has been gone from his family for the past four years, eh? Just like Jake. Hmmmm...

That was the most interesting revelation in tonight's episode. It was mostly a mix of tedious scenes and a few plot developments we had to have to move the plot along and set up future events

Oh, and horses. Lots and lots of horses.

(S01E05) You know how NBC's Heroes does endings really well? Actually, they do everything really well, but their episode endings are particularly cool and intriguing.

Jericho is like that with their openings.

The power comes back on, and not only does an "Emergency Alert" sign come up on all televisions, but every home and business in Jericho gets a phone call from the Department of Homeland Security. It's a recording, telling them to stay where they are, help is on the way. This is an amazingly creepy, effective scene. You wonder if that's how it will be if anything like this really happens.

(S01E02) Can I first say that, even before I saw the title of tonight's episode, that I totally guessed it just from looking at the previews CBS has been showing? It was either very predictable or I had a Dionne Warwick Psychic Friends Network moment.

This second episode was good. This isn't groundbreaking television. It's really more like just an old-fashioned suspense drama, but so far it's working.