365 Days of Television: Day 19 - R.I.P. Jericho

Series: Jericho (2006 – 2008, two seasons)
Network: CBS
Created By: Jon Steinberg, Stephen Chbosky and Josh Schaer

In the post 9/11 era and the ensuing trainwreck that was the Bush administration, television dramas began to articulate a broad range of different responses to the political ramifications of the new post-Cold War order.  Programs like Lost, 24, Heroes, and Battlestar Galactica navigated through the various issues floating around our collective conciousness: terrorism, fear, torture, rigged elections, human rights, corrupt government, and so forth.  Somewhere in there, lost in the shuffle, was a little gem of a show called Jericho which aired for a scant two seasons.  Its first season was cancelled, until an overwhelming fan response managed to make the network change their minds and pick it up for a second season (a measly seven episodes).  Then, and finally, the show was axed again. 

Where shows like Lost and BSG dealt with these issues through the tools of genre and complex metaphors, Jericho engaged collective anxieties in a much more literal sense.  In the series’ first episode, 23 major American cities were attacked by nuclear bombs.  The show is set in the titular fictional town, located in a remote area of Kansas, which remained unaffected by the blast.  The series then follows the struggles of the community, as they must maintain order and survive, while also trying to make contact with the outside world in order to discover what happened.  As the story unfolds, it appears that the attacks may have stemmed from a complex internal conspiracy involving the defense contractor, Jennings and Rall.  This of course represents fears over the privitization of the military, and capitalism run amoc.