Merrick here...


Episodes of JERICHO will be rerun beginning July 6. In an extremely interesting move, CBS is opting to air only the pilot episode, followed by second half of Season 1.

This is quite intriguing, and probably rather wise.

For my money, JERICHO didn't find traction until the second half of its inaugural season. The breadth of its story, and the true nature of what the series is really about, didn't become apparent until the second half of Season 1 - after many viewers had already drifted away.

The first 11 episodes (or so) suggested JERICHO was extremely soap operatic in nature, and would be myopically focused on life in (and immediately around) the small town of Jericho, Kansas. In the pilot episode, Jericho survives a large scale (but not apocalyptically destructive) atomic attack on multiple American cities. The first 11 episodes were heavy on mystery (what's happening out there?), improbability (one particularly unfortunate episode dealt with the town dodging fallout brought around by a storm), and interpersonal melodrama. In all fairness, it was sometimes difficult to conjure that the series ever would...or could...go anywhere compelling beyond its promising set-up.

But, after episode 11 or 12 or so, things changed. Dramatically.

JERICHO's scope broadened considerably; the nature of its mythology became chillingly apparent. The series was no longer about life in a small town, or "lets have post-apocalyptic street dances". It was about a nation being rewritten by carefully considered nuclear attacks - mounted from within our own government. It was about the remnants of the United States breaking into factions and deploying regional militaries in a prelude to possible Civil War. It was about what happens when the people in the next town (many of whom were known and trusted for years) retrofit their factories into weapons plants & attempt to overrun Jericho by shelling it into submission, then overrunning it completely. It's about what happens when the citizens of a small, quiet place must take arms against a superior, supremely callous, oppressor. This is only the beginning of what went on after episode 11.

The second half of JERICHO is, in essence, an action / war story in which Americans like you and me are pitted against...Americans like you and me. It asks some tough questions, not the least of which is: how honorable might any of us really be when the chips are down?

So, if you left JERICHO during its preposterously long mid-Season break, you never got a sense of what the series was really about. This is a great chance to see what you missed.

If you were functioning under the false pretense that JERICHO is a bunch of angsty people sitting on their porches talking after the nukes blow - this is a perfect opportunity for you to check out the show & see how wrong you were.

On a side note, CBS's press release characterizes JERICHO thusly:

JERICHO, CBS's drama about how residents of a small, peaceful, Kansas town band together to survive in the wake of a nuclear explosion, will return to the Network beginning Friday, July 6 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Rebroadcasts of episodes from the first season will air in the Friday, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period for the remainder of the summer.

Sigh.

IF JERICHO is to survive, and thrive beyond its recently announced seven episode reprieve, CBS MUST MUST MUST MUST x MEGA INFINITY SELL THE SHOW DIFFERENTLY!!!!

I just demonstrated above, in a few simple paragraphs, that JERICHO is far more than it's consistently presented to be. CBS needs to completely reassess its promotional paradigm for this series, and not promote "life in a small town" - rather the scale, action, and thematics of the ideas at JERICHO's core. I'd say: sell it as a war tale. Promote the Tom Clancy-esque "internal coup/missing nukes" angle. Promote the little people against overwhelming odds subtext. Promote the people we love tiredly going off to battle down the lonely road. LOOK at what it is, and exalt it. Don't hide its substance.

I've talked to 11 people about JERICHO since its cancellation / rebirth came about a few weeks back. None of them had seen the show - all of them believed it was life in a small town after Atomic bombs explode, and little else. They didn't think it sounded too interesting. I told each and every one of those people about the same macro elements I mention above. Each and every one of those people said "THAT I would watch!" Even a few hardcore, non-TV viewers.

I don't know what else needs to be said. CBS is to be roundly commended for giving JERICHO a limited reprieve - but it also needs to understand the show, and appreciate why it struggled the first time around. Otherwise, the same mistakes will be made again. No one's gonna watch this time if it's being pushed as the same bill of goods.

Finally, a few brief words about AICN's JERICHO coverage past and future. I'll keep this as brief as possible.

The movement to pull JERICHO back from the abyss was nothing less than astounding. While not unprecedented, this is a rare interaction between a network and a fan base. Most importantly, it's entirely possible that CBS will now be evaluating JERICHO's "success" based on factors never before considered. DVRs, for example. Evidently, when CBS factored in the number of viewers recording JERICHO on DVRs, the series' audience increased by...what was it...10% (someone correct me if I'm wrong in the Talkbacks below). And, this doesn't begin to factor in the streaming of episodes, available through the series' official website.

In short: it's possible that the parameters of a show's "success" or "failure" may change in the future because of what's happening here. In the future, shows like FIREFLY, ENTERPRISE, and so forth...which were unceremoniously sent to the gallows...may feasibly catch more of a break, or get a second chance, if JERICHO's resurrection is deemed successful & is seen as worthwhile by the numbers crunchers.

So, this isn't just about JERICHO. In a sense, this is about all the shows Geeks like us ever wanted to keep on the air. It's about a hope that such series may not need for us to save them in the future. Maybe things will go well, maybe they won't. Either way, it all starts with JERICHO. Which makes the series, and the circumstances surrounding it, kinda significant to television viewers in general - and genre fans in particular.

Just something to think about as we move towards Round 2.

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