Oh boy oh boy! Tonight is Jericho night! I haven’t had this much fun watching bad TV since, well, never.
In order to provide a little rollover space ala rockle, I’ll offer a discussion topic: Jericho has been picked up for the whole season. Apparently, it’s CBS’s most popular new show, and the ratings are strong in desirable demographic categories. People are watching this thing. But why?
What percentage of viewers do you think fall into the following categories? (People can be in more than one category. Feel free to create more categories if you wish.)
A. Viewers who think it’s really a good show.
B. Viewers who think it’s so bad it’s good. (i.e. MST3K-ers)
C. Viewers who are post-apocalyptic science fiction fans.
D. Viewers who just watch whatever’s on.
E. Other (be specific)
I’ve still got last week’s episode Tivo-ed, and haven’t gotten around to watching it–which is now what I’ve got planned for tonight sometime between 6 and 8. Wednesday nights are way too busy for me.
I think I fall into the C/D demographic, with a little bit of E–Viewers who think Skeet Ulrich is really cute.
I’ll go with E. it’s on before Lost so they are wanting something to watch. At least that’s why I watch it. I should have stopped after they blew up the mine. I’d say if it’s not all that great tonight I’ll stop watching.
I’m a B – sometimes bad TV is comfortable. You don’t have to think or pay close attention.
It’s funny. I won’t feel cheated if the story doesn’t make sense or if the characters do things that are out of character. It’s not like Desperate Housewives or Nip/Tuck or Rescue Me, which had promise to begin with and jumped the shark after I got sucked in.
I think I watch it just because I don’t have anything else to watch. It’s not that I actively dislike it- it’s just that it doesn’t quite grab me. I think I’m waiting for something interesting to happen.
Yay! I was wondering if other Dopers were watching.
I started out because of C, but now it’s all B, baby! It is just so charmingly awful, I can’t resist. I do mourn for the show that could have been - a show with well-constructed characters, who drove the action with their reasonable reactions to the combination of knowing something awful happened, then being cut off from further information, and forced to rely solely on each other. (Come to think of it, I am a Lost and BSG fan, so at least I’ve got that.)
Instead we have a show which careers from crisis to crisis. Multiple nuclear explosions are not enough to drive the tension - there has to be a ridiculous problem, with the possibility of shit blowing up, at least once an episode. And if we don’t get that there’s a crisis, there’s the helpful music thumping us over the head with how we’re supposed to react.
Add to that underlying matrix such idiocy as confusing first aid iodine and potassium iodide, plastic sheeting as fallout shelter, and a juice box tracheotomy, and you’ve got comic gold.
If you are at all watching for the delicious badness, I highly recommend the recaps at TWOP - very entertaining.
This episode looks like it might actually be good. And how stupid are the townspeople that they did plan for backup water in case they needed to shut down a grid in case of fire? What were they supposed to do if there was a fire during a blackout? These kind of stuff happens even without a nuclear war. Is reverse 911 real?
tonights eps was above average, actual DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM for a change, none of this interpersonal soap opera-y crap
still waiting for the Radioactive Zombies though…
seeing the ICBM’S soaring skyward at the end of the episode was very unnerving though, looks like the conflicct’s bigger than it appears
this episode has redeemed the show slightly, it gets one more chance next week, more post-apocolyptic action (and Radioactive Zombies, please?) and less soap-opera crap, please
Was that a Presidential seal on the podium? It looks like we launched ICBMs (presumably at whoever we think did this). Is Jake connected to terrorists?
Nothing says military like the haircut in that passport picture. Also, while finally watching last week’s episode earlier tonight, my roommate noticed that Jake was wearing dog tags when he got out of the shower. I confess to being distracted by the rest of the picture.
So we learn: someone’s got things together enough to patch together emergency communications and electricity. (There’s been a nuclear war, large chunks of power generation and distribution capacity are gone, but by golly people are going to be able to vacuum their living room??) We wait the whole goddamn episode for some news; we get none.
And FOUR FRACKIN’ DAYS LATER a retaliation strike is launched!?!?!?
This show is playing games with our heads. If it turns into another Twin Peaks, X-Files or Lost, I’m outta here…
This episode was an improvement over the previous ones. (Which isn’t saying much.)
Random speculation about future developments:
–Jake and Hawkins will team up somehow.
–Mary the Bartender will go crazy with jealousy and do something violent.
–All food supply problems will be solved when they figure out how to harvest Mayor Dad’s endless fountain of cheese.
And what the hell is up with the train full of food? The kid cant possibly think that they will just leave it there to rot.
The preview for next week mentioned the sheriff and half his men dead, I’m thinking outsiders arrive or the prisoners start trouble. It seems like the rain fallout was a wash so to speak, the one guy who got drenched has shown zero symptoms.
