Jericho [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

When the town had a Barbecue after a half dozen or so cities were vaporized.

It's the best hour long comedy on network TV. I take exception at using Vanilla Ice cds for target practice, but the contrived stories and poor character development make for laugh out loud moments. The best laugh so far is when the guy dives behind a hay bale as another fellow fires a pistol-gripped pump action shot gun. Tune in each week for more of the improbable.

This is an incredibly stupid show that got it's science from Lost In Space. On the sixth episode a guy claims that Corn Husks protected his crop from fallout! That was it. I turned it off right then never to go back. First, it's a freaking Nuclear War, so everyone is going to die. Second, when the rain came from Denver, carrying fallout, they were all dead the minute it rained, but, the rain had no fallout! The acting is atrocious with no one acting like there's been a disaster at all. The one guy wants to jump the barmaid rather than his doctor wife, Skeet Ulrich has one expression and he looks like he's in hemorrhoid pain from it! Just a terrible, terrible, terrible idea, executed poorly. comments: Just a crap show that should be cancelled as soon as possible. Jumped the Shark in the first ep and kept jumping!

This show has been a trainwreck since the pilot. And, like a good train wreck, you cannot look away. I watch Jericho religiously because nowhere else on broadcast TV can you find such a satisfying combination of bad writing, bad acting, bad direction, all coupled with piss-poor pacing and a total dearth of realism and believability. Some famous philosopher once said "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" -- this rings as true as the Liberty Bell for Jericho. From hammy, nightclass-style acting to textbook high-school drama story arcs, Jericho has it all. And did I mention the fear-mongering, nuclear terrorism premise? Instead of zooming out to see how a nation is dealing with several dozen cities swathed in atomic hellfire, Jericho chooses instead to focus on how its namesake smalltown is handling (gasp!) a fire at the library, and (swoon!) the theft of the mayor's horses by area scofflaws. One last thing I might add is that Jericho contains the most unrealistic, hateable character in the history of primetime telvision: Gracie. As of episode 7, Gracie, a frail, grandmotherly Midwestern woman with a limited vocabulary and a horrific accent, is practicing her smalltown brand of price-gouging at her general store. She has also taken in an orphaned child for the purposes of slave labor, and has refused the town's largest farm bags of fertilizer needed to save the only corn crop that might feed Jericho. On lesser programs, she would quickly be overwhelmed by pitch-fork heaving townsfolk, her store inventory transferred to the mob or at least the collective good. But not in Jericho. Last time I checked, good old Gracie was trading a bag of cat food for someone's antique crystal vase. In many ways that is a metaphor for this show. While its ingredients -- mostly tripe, and some filler -- may resemble those of cat food, the producers have somehow managed to trade them for a peach of a show, watchable -- nay, unmissable -- because of the very self-atrocity lesser shows would be said to "suffer from."

Jericho majorly jumped the shark when they decorated the town square for HALLOWEEN!!! The premise of the show is the US is under attack. Several major metropolitan areas have been destroyed, yet as of last nights episode the residents of Jericho, virtually in the dark about what's happening, DECORATE THE TOWN SQUARE FOR HALLOWEEN!! These people have no idea what has happened around the world. They have no idea if their little hamlet will be attacked, nuked or invaded by a foreign enemy, yet they not only seek out pumpkins, they DECORATE! Come on!! The other issue I have with this show are all the subplots. WHO CARES IF HE LOVES HER OR SHE WANTS HIM?? This isn't Dynasty! I thought this was supposed to be about how a small Kansas town survives and deals with more than nuclear explosions and their aftermath!! I was so disappointed last night I actually changed the channel after 10 minutes!! What a shame to a potentially unique show! It's becoming cookie-cutter like most of the rest.