Airing of new episodes of the television series Jericho [1] will resume on February 21st here in the States. (After some sort of “split season” break.) I’ve watched most of the episodes via the Internet, since we don’t own a television here at the Rawles Ranch [2]. Here is my “$.02 worth” evaluation of the show, based on my own viewing and from comments that I’ve distilled from Internet discussion boards: Jericho severely stretches credulity for accurate portrayal of a post-nuclear America. Apparently all of the female characters must have been secret adherents of the Maybelline School of Survivalism and hence stocked up heavily on cosmetics in anticipation of WWIII. Viewers deduced this because none of the female characters show any signs of running out of lipstick or mascara, or for that matter the requisite time to apply them. And as for the men folk? Well, apparently hardly anyone in the town of Jericho owned a decent .308 semi-auto battle rifle, or if they did then they must be hiding them. Now that the proverbial Schumer [3] has hit the oscillator and flown around copiously, nobody in Jericho feels the need to go about their daily business armed. That seems odd, since in a recent episode the town of Jericho was attacked by a large groups of rogue Blackwater-ish looking mercenaries bent on “requisitioning”” food and fuel. If the show were less politically correct and a bit more pragmatically honest, then they would portray the majority of the adult citizenry–both male and female–armed at all times when they are outside of their homes. It only stands to reason that they would do so, both for their individual and collective defense. My other problem with the show is that it trivializes the need for basic necessities like food and water. For example, there they are on dead-level Kansas terrain, yet they seem to have no problem obtaining drinking water, without benefit of grid power. Perhaps the script writers don’t want to bore the audience with mundane things like the struggle to obtain the bare necessities of life, or the fragility of our technological infrastructure. I realize that the producers are trying to appeal to a broad demographic, but the characters seem to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing relationships. Come on! America has just been nuked back to 19th Century technology and population levels, yet they seem oh-so concerned with who is dating who. Lastly, for a town that has had no 18-wheelers arriving with milk, Nutter Butter cookies, and Pop-Tarts for several weeks, the citizenry seems remarkably well-fed and law abiding. Given the fact that the average American home has less than a week’s supply of groceries on hand, I am dubious that Mr. Joe Sixpack would just quietly starve at home. In actuality, there would be a lot of burglary and siphoning going on. Lots of it. Oh well, perhaps I’m too critical and cynical. It may not be very realistic, but at least Jericho beats watching re-runs of situation comedies or the umpteen different geographical flavors of CSI forensics shows.
OBTW, I should mention that airing of the new Jericho episodes should reinvigorate the Jericho Discussion Group [4], which is moderated by Rourke. [5] (Who you’ll probably recognize as a frequent SurvivalBlog content contributor.)