Jericho: Pilot Episode

Wow. Still as good as it was the first time around!

Just so you know, I don't intend to recap the episode for you: I trust that you actually sat down to watch it or, failing that, you recorded it and intend to watch it later. If for some reason your VCR malfunctioned, you can watch this episode online, for free, at the Jericho website, and if you do need a recap you can get a refresher at the Jericho Wiki.

No, this is mostly going to be my thoughts, feelings, and opinions about this show, interspersed with "You might've missed this!" and "Isn't this cool?"

I love how the series starts out: seeming for all the world like a weepy "coming home" drama, replete with music by The Killers (All These Things That I've Done): Jake's awkward reunion with ex-girlfriend Emily; strained conversations with his father; evasive questions as to where he's been for the past five years (as as aside: did anyone else make a Grosse Pointe Blank connection, or is it just me?

[Practicing in a mirror before his high school reunion]
Marty: Hi. I'm, uh, I'm a pet psychiatrist. I sell couch insurance. Mm-hmm, and I - and I test-market positive thinking. I lead a weekend men's group, we specialize in ritual killings. Yeah, you look great! God, yeah! Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Hi, I'm Martin Blank, you remember me? I'm not married, I don't have any kids, and I'd blow your head off if someone paid me enough.

... maybe it's just me.)

Anyway, I love how everything starts out so painfully mundane, and then right before the first commercial break, BAM! You see that mushroom cloud and you know, just know, that everything is about to change for the worse. What a way to begin a series, eh?

Some other noteworthy stuff:

• If you can't do it with quality, do it with quantity: Jake making a tracheotomy tube out of a dozen juicebox straws is perhaps the most player character thing I've seen lately.
  
• Johnston Green sure has a nasty cough, doesn't he? He'd better get that looked at...
  
• Gray Anderson, the man I love to hate... the way he shamelessly manipulated worried parents and tried to turn the missing children into political leverage. He's going to be trouble, you can just tell.
• Speaking of trouble: that Robert Hawkins has an oddness to him, don't you think?
• And finally, Gracie. She strikes me as the kind of weepy Oprah-watching woman I hate. I mean, really: Dale shows up at her store late at night... she lets him in, so clearly she trusts him, right? And yet when he -- her stockboy, don't forget -- starts taking the food outside, what does she say? Not "What are you doing" or "Let me help you," but "Why are you stealing from me, Dale?" WTF? Her first reaction is that he's stealing from her? She has "victim" written all over her.
  

Finally: Right before the blast, when the little girl is playing Hide and Seek and is counting down? That's a reference to the 1964 Johnson Campaign's "Daisy" Commercial.

Stay tuned next week for Episode 2, when the town of Jericho, Kansas must deal with.... Fallout!