We watched Jericho[wiki] the other night, the new series on CBS. The premise of the show captured my attention, always being a sucker for something along the apocolyptic plot lines. I’ve been alive long enough and watched enough TV to understand that this show has the ability to suck.
Anytime a network makes a push to launch a new series in the middle of the summer means that they are hoping it will pull you away from enjoying the warmer temps outside. At the same time, it means that CBS doesn’t really have enough faith to add it to the fall line-up where all the big bucks are made. The pilot somewhat reflects that thought.
Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho’s residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town, especially because its isolation cuts it off from outside help. When nearly everything they know seems gone, will the residents of JERICHO band together to face their unfamiliar and mysterious new world? Skeet Ulrich (“Scream,” “As Good as It Gets”) stars. [cbs]
The first few minutes of the show had me thinking that this is like Lost in the middle of Kansas. Add in the nuclear explosions, I’m assuming, to add that terrorist flavor, and one can actually start to see the writers sitting in a meeting with CBS execs as they pitched this series.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t like what I saw. I think that once you are able to understand all of the Hollywood crap that goes on in the really real world, you can voluntarily turn off that sensible part of your brain and allow yourself to be entertained. Don’t believe me? Go see Mission: Impossible 3. It’s a situation that demands such measures, and it makes me very glad that we had passes to see that one for free.
What makes me interested in Jericho, however, is the psychology of the characters. This is what I studied in college, so naturally I’m going to focus on aspect. They’ve already hinted at the people in town starting to fight over resources such as gasoline and food. The lack of information combined with slices of what they do know about what’s happened outside of their community is leading down a road of potential mass panic.
Has there ever been an instance of a majorly produced TV program or movie where these concepts haven’t been presented in this way? The isolation in which a group of people in a life threatening situation work together and survive in a mutual effort of succeeding? That’s too happy and unprofitable to be made for our viewing pleasure, but think about it.
If a situation like this in the real world were to happen, would there be a huge, mass panic of people drawing lines and not trusting each other, or would people work together in order to survive? Everything Hollywood teaches you makes you believe the first concept. Even if you are smart enough to see beyond that idea with your educated mind to say it won’t, then you have to be smart enough to understand the potential of people out there that take a lot of Hollywood as a method of education.
Which would you be? Some one who understands that working together is the only way to survive as a community, or would you stock pile, protect yourself, and defend those who attempt to take your resources? For the most part, Hollywood teaches us that in the event of natural disasters, apocolypses, or zombies, option number two is the popular choice.
Rebecca
This past Sunday, we had the chance to visit the 
The one element of the fair that I have a major complaint about is those pastries in the picture above. Don’t they look good? Yeah, I thought so, too. If you wanted one, then you had to enter the eating contest to be the first one to stuff your face without using your hands. I just wanted to buy one and savor its taste, granted they were as good as they looked. 
About that wine tasting though, go check out the 
I read on 
It’s really no secret that I’m an