Jericho
Fall television is my favorite spectator sport. I love tuning into new shows and following who’s winning and who’s losing, so to speak. A few nights ago I watched CBS’s Jericho. The pilot was slightly entertaining, but not impressive. We follow Skeet Ulrich, who is apparently ex-army, as he returns home to the small town of Jericho after many years. He’s kind of a bastard and mainly shows up to see if he can talk his pops (the town mayor) into signing off on grandpappy’s inheritance. Ulrich is a great looking anti-hero, by the way. I get the impression that he’s done nothing but drugs since 1996’s Scream. He’s 36 years old and looks like he’s been living very hard and probably fighting people. We’re talking about a guy who had open heart surgery when he was ten. Excellent anit-hero. I’m stoked on Skeet Ulrich.
Not surprisingly, Skeet’s dad (played by Deadwood’s George Hearst!) doesn’t give him a penny and our hero takes off back to the open road. Why hang with the family any more than you have to? The only problem is that he sees a mushroom cloud in the distance. The power goes out in Jericho, all connection to the outside world is cut, and nobody knows what the hell is going on.
From here it’s a lot of A-plot and very little in the way of character development. There was one hamfisted moment between Skeet and Sprague Grayden (Six Feet Under) where he might as well have just said, “You are now my love interest. We will have passionate post-apocalyptic sex in season two.” And completing the obligatory love triangle is actress Ashley Scott. Yes, Skeet’s old girlfriend in Jericho is The Huntress (from the WB’s weird Birds of Prey series). I only mention that to flex to my fanboys. However, the most unforgivable part of the pilot, in my opinion, was the lines that they made poor Hearst recite. It got real Hallmark Movie of the Week, real fast.
That said, I think there’s a chance Jericho might be able to get it to together. There’s an interesting premise here with serviceable actors and an entire writer’s room that remains untested . I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories, so I’ll stick around as long as it holds my attention.
Oh, and Pier made the observation that Skeet Ulrich has new teeth. I wouldn’t be surprised if the old ones were punched out.