RevolutionSF Forum

[John Galt?]

Here are my thoughts as I watched Jericho.

-Credits roll...where's Jericho, I thought this had Chris Jericho in it.
-Major Dad looks like Charles Emerson Winchester in "Better off Dead"
-OOOhh, mushroom cloud, now I'm hungry, I wonder what Emeril is cooking.
-this show needs more Bam! (still hungry)
-everyones rioting, Mayor makes speech, I would have thrown a tomato at him.
-that little tiny key deer stopped a bus? A mule deer, maybe but not that midget.
-rednecks with guns in a pickup, and nobody grabbed the bus wrecking deer, meat is meat.
- I wonder if Emeril is cooking deer?
-If the power is out why are people fighting at a gas pump which doesnt work without power?
-This show needs a hot chick with wet clothes and a mysterious past.
-Dead birds, that means clean windshields.
This show has one hope...change the name to Stargate-Jericho
It's CBS so expect CSI-Jericho.
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It's not Rocket Surgery...

[plucas1]

I watched both the pilot and the second episodes. Gladly, the second episode was much better than the first. The people were convinced that the rain heading their way contained radioactive fallout, and people reacted in a somewhat believably intelligent way to it.

*spoilers*

The hokiest part was the escaped cons posing as deputies. That stuck to every cliche about that kind of situation ever seen in movies. Kudos to the realitic problems faced in finding adequate shelters, especially with the hospital one proving unviable after being sealed up for 49 years. The solution in using the salt mines was actually reasonable, even if it meant blowing up th entrance.

And they did have that great closing scene, of Mysterious Black Guy (can't remember the character's name, but he is the only black guy in town) pushing pins into a map of the US representing (we assume) destroyed cities. The scene faded out with a close up of his fingers picking up push pin after push pin...

*observations and theories*

I'm betting that was NOT a nuke that hit Denver. There was no EMP effect, and all the people who saw the mushroom cloud first hand did not experience the heat flash that occurs when such a weapon first detonates. I'm willing to bet further that next week we'll discover the rain had little to no actual radioactivity in it (otherwise it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the lingering radioactivity to drop to tolerable levels, and by that time the half the town would be dead or sick--yet we see in the coming attractions that everyone is still hale and hearty and spreading out to discover what happened)

There's only one thing that's as destructive as a nuclear bomb and causes a mushroom cloud like a nuclear bomb but doesn't cause emp effects or lingering radioactivity--an asteroid strike. And since specific cities were precisely targetted, that means all those rocks were aimed. My theory, then is that the United States--if not the whole planet--was attacked from space. The Footfall scenario, a la the novel by Niven and Pournelle.

So yeah, I'm strarting to warm up to the series. Hopefully things pick up even more in the third episode. Hopefully it will last long enough to see if I'm right or just blowing smoke out my posterior...

[KaosDevice]

Good observations, andI agree with you that the second episode is better than the first. I don't think it was nukes either. I'd dig a space attack, perhaps mass drivers from orbit, which would cause a nuclear like sort of effect when they strike.

But how did Skeet get out to the farm so damn quickly? Teleportation?

And I thought Ashley Scott was much hotter as a brunette.

----------------

Update, lookslike the producers are going the nuke strike route...
link
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I do not kill with my gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.

I kill with my heart.

[John Galt?]

[LeisSuit]

I agree about the subplot involving the escaped cons being pretty cheeseball. I was thinking, "Wait, did CBS bring back Walker: Texas Ranger?" lol But the worst part of that was how they played the 2 roles...it was like they had attended the Snidely Whiplash School for Screen Villains!
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"Deeeeeeeeep Hurting!"

-MST3K

[John Galt?]

Time to pick up the pace a little. This show must have it's own identity and not try to be "Lost, but in Kansas". The gas shortage and people hording is good. Dealing with real issues like food, water, fuel etc. is a direction they have to concentrate on, especially with a Kansas winter coming. The big mysteries like who is MBG Hawklins is ok but the Krispy Kritter guy showing up with the "THEY are coming message" just seemed like a "Lostism".

The real question is who dropped the bombs?
Only 3 countries have the means to bomb Denver and other inland cities.
And the question about the tanks, are they US tanks or someone elses.
Only 2 countries have the naval ability to transport large quantities of tanks. So either, th U.S. nuked itself (D.C. was not one of the cities on MBG Hawkins map) or the damned Brits did it! With Canada as their ally.
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It's not Rocket Surgery...

[LeisSuit]

*Doing his best Professor Farnsworth imitation* Good news, everybody! The show has been picked up for a full season!
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"Deeeeeeeeep Hurting!"

-MST3K

[plot mechanic]

Stopped watching after the second episode. There were some good things, like the answering machine message, or Skeet's fablous impression of Lassie saving the day. But the show just kept socking you in the face with something wrong. Completely ruined the flow.

Examples?

Fake drama: Skeet has saved the little girl with a DIY trach, then is both falling asleep and running out of gas. Or Geral McRaney collapses while the fallout is coming.

Sloppiy plotting: There's a salt mine that can be used as a fallout shelter but people are running around looking for basements. Or an unsealed storm door will protect against fallout, depsite all the to do about duct tape and plastic. (Notice how sloppy plotting also makes for fake drama?)

Dubious characterization: Brother getting horny with his girlfriend after a near brawl over getting into shelter. Or snotty debutante suddenly warming up just because they guy gives her a coke.

Just plain stupid: The teenies duct tape and plastic a whole house in minutes. Or the very idea that duct tape and plastic will work. Or a salt mine that can't keep out the rain.

The trouble was that it wasn't all bad. There was too much good stuff to simply enjoy a trash wallow.

pm
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Plants have no brains.

[plucas1]

I'm sorry, I still like the show, even if some of the characters are becoming less than compelling. I really could care less about Bearded Mayor's Son's marital merry go round or Dorky Kid's crush on Miss Stuck Up. And yes, I'm really bad at remembering characters' names.

But the pace does need to be picked up. Let's at least learn where Mysterious Mayor's Son has been for the last five years and what Denver and the other destroyed cities actually look like.

MBG (Hawkins, right?) is still the best character. I think the way they're going to play it is he's basically a decent guy but went into testosterone-overdosed uber-protective mode for his family when he found out what was happeneing.

Again, though, those couldn't have been nukes that hit those cities, at least not if the creators of the show are trying to play it realistically. Its not like this is the 50s and nuclear technology is still this mysterious science that we think might cause ants to grow to the size of semi-trucks. We KNOW inside and out what these weapons can do. Not only was there Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but The US, the USSR, etc, conducted something like over 1500 tests of various weapons over the last 60 years. Nuclear weapons are a completly known quantity.

But NO radioactive fallout whatsoever so far. Their geiger counters didn't even budge after that rainfall. Fallout can carry for many hundreds of miles and would register even with cheap radiation detectors. But nothing.

But most telling is no EMP. If you wanted to cripple the US, all you really need is one nuke: a high-altitude detonation around the center of the country (right where Jericho is supposed to be) would fry the electronics in 75% of the country. Ground-based or air burst strikes on cities would produce the same effect if there's enough of them, and from MBG's map, there were. (if they were really nukes, of course)

This would include electronics in airplanes. But we saw in the third episode that no airplanes AT ALL were knocked out by EMP. They should have all been falling from the sky like swatted mosquitos, not be able to make controlled landings on remote highways.

Plus the planes were able to radio each other without a problem. There should have been tons of radioactive particulate in the air, making radio communication very spotty at best. But again, we don't see this.

Now the creators could be just fudging everything about the bombs, or they might invoke a technobabble new type of weapon that hits like a nuke but doesn't have its nasty side effects. But they're trying to play everything else realistically, so from the evidence I see orbital bombardment by deadfall weapons is still the best fit so far. I'm not invoking aliens just yet, but I could see, say, a rogue faction of the US or Russian government hard at work engineering such an attack for years, or maybe an old Soviet splinter group invoking a doomsday option that the USSR had in place before it died and everyone else had forgotten about.

[John Galt?]

The whole EMP issue is tackled in tonights episode. I don't know how you get an EMP from a bomb 2 weeks later.

[Dharma Bum]

Thanks a lot. Now Goldeneye is ruined forever.
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http://www.theanticrat.com/page/dead-porn-star-of-the-day

[John Galt?]

How can the movie that brought us this sexy vixen ever be ruined.



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It's not Rocket Surgery...

[Dharma Bum]

Hot damn, that V-Cut showing off her saggy freckled hooters is a good move. Oh, Dame Judy Dench, you are one fine GILF I wouldn't mind confiscating the dentures of. For sexual purposes.
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http://www.theanticrat.com/page/dead-porn-star-of-the-day

[KaosDevice]

I really like where this show is going. But am I the only one that think this whole nuclear war thing is a bit on the protracted side? I mean an EMP strike happening weeks after the initial strike? Us issuing a response attack weeks after the fact? I suppose I was under the impression that nuclear warfare was a pretty whiz-bang affair.

Things I liked:

-The high society girl coming to Dale's rescue in the station.

-Skeet beating the snot out of the criminal, you realize he is actually trying to beat up his past.

-Hawkins teaching his daughter to shoot. You know that is going to have a pay off later.

-The developing relationship between Grace and Stanley (and Stan's sister making fun of her in sign language, any of you know what she said? I've always wished I knew sign).

-Skeet's mom. You always knew she was a pretty strong figure, but now you realize just how tough and influential she is.

-The shopkeeper coming to her senses. (Although every time I look at that actress I keep thinking of her saying "I'm beginning to doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!")

-Hawkins getting Skeet's back, repeatedly. I get the feeling those two are going to become a pretty serious force together.

I'm really looking forward to next week.
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I do not kill with my gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.

I kill with my heart.

[John Galt?]

KaosDevice is dead on. Wouldn't a High Altitude EMP be the FIRST thing an attacker would do. Take advantage of the 5-30 minutes between the power going out and emergency generators kicking in to make your big launch. And hasn't the DoD waatched all the movies which show retalitory misslies being launched while the incoming bombs are still in the air?

Maybe(hopefully), this is part of a plot thread, the US was attacked by some sort of new "stealth bombs' and didn't know who did it, for a while, throw in some sleeper cells (MBG) and Quislings in the Gov. and you get some good "who do you trust" tension.

Yes, that would be good but who am I kidding, its CBS and they are probably making it up as they go.

The kids playing baseball with cell phones was funny 'cause they weren't broke, the emp knocks out cell towers not the phones, and that scene got higher ratings than the world series.