"TV and movie stars always stop the bomb with two seconds left on the timer --
they don't actually explode!' In this show, they do." --"Jericho" Executive
Producer John Turtletaub.
Does anyone watch this series? I've watched it since pilot and it really isn't
moving me. I guess the slowly-unfolding-mystery motiff in this particular case
isn't holding my attention. The actors are trying gamely enough, but I've found
myself bored. I should be happy that a Black man has a pivotal role: in this
case, the Brother's the one who seems to be in the know, and who may be part of
a larger scheme. Did he contribute in someway to the holocaust? Is it some
giant experiment that he's helping run? Don't, know, don't care yet. Part of
me wonders if it's just saturation of this type of show, where every week a
little bit more of the mystery's revealed, and it may go on for years. After
all, I'm already giving that mystery part of myself over to "Lost" and "Prison
Break", and shows like "Alias", "24", "The Nine", "Kidnapped", etc., etc., have
been so filling the airwaves with their own mysteries in the last few years. So
maybe I'm just full up? But then I thought about the f
act that I've actually added another new show to that mix: "Heroes", which
again parses out pieces of a mystery each week. So why the difference? Well,
"Heroes" is just plain fun! It's basically a mix of "X-Men" with the genre, and
it's fun to watch people discover powers each week. Maybe it's the escapist fun
that holds my attention with "Heroes" and "Lost".
So, I'm watching a show about on-the-run prisoners that's straining credulity
each week, one about people stranded on some magical/super-scientific island,
and a show about mutants. Yet the one about a all-too-possible nuclear
holocaust, which may be the most realistic of the group, isn't holding my
attention? Don't know if that says something more about "Jericho"--or me!
Sociology of "Jericho" intrigued TV producer
By Kimberly NordykeMon Oct 30, 4:04 AM ET
With world attention focused on the nuclear ambitions of rogue states like
North Korea, one might assume that the producers of CBS' promising new drama
"Jericho," which deals with the aftermath of a nuclear attack, are merely
playing on Americans' fears.
"Jericho" executive producer Jon Turteltaub does admit that a bit of real-life
worry over an attack helps make the show more compelling.
"If people had no fear of nuclear bombs, then this show would kind of suck," he
says. "But if America was in a panic over nuclear bombs, we probably couldn't
make the show."
Turteltaub's intention isn't to prey on that fear in the name of easy scares.
Instead, he aims to create intriguing stories that come via an examination of
the way that the different characters -- survivors left isolated in a small
Kansas town -- react in a crisis situation.
"I think what we have all really focused on is less the nuclear message and
more of the sociology of how to behave when everything goes wrong," Turteltaub
says. "Most of us are pretty wonderful during the good times, but our true
character comes out when we're confronted with tragedy and disasters. True
leadership appears, and really hard choices have to be made."
It's those choices -- many of which have arisen as a result of "societal
conventions being stripped away" -- that intrigue Turteltaub, a feature film
director who shot the Nicolas Cage hit "National Treasure" and next directs its
sequel, as he gets deeper into his first foray into television. "Jericho,"
which recently received a full-season order, came out of a deal that CBS signed
with Turteltaub last year. Jonathan A. Steinberg, Josh Schaer and Stephen
Chbosky are credited as creators.
"I like ideas where when I hear the initial part of an idea, it brings up
thousands of other thoughts," Turteltaub says. "This spawned a rash of other
ideas -- everything from the fact that all of life would be changed by this
event through where life doesn't really change at all if you live in small town
and are already removed from the nonsense of a big city."
Another factor that appealed to him was that nuclear war hadn't been part of
film or TV in some time, and even when it was, the stories had tended to deal
with trying to stop a bomb from exploding rather than the fallout from an
attack -- which, despite what's going on in the real world, ultimately makes
the thought of a real-life "Jericho" even more frightening, he says.
"When we see a suicide bomber on a TV show, we think it's a sign of the times,"
he says. "But when we see a nuke explode, we think: 'Holy crap, where did that
come from? That doesn't happen! TV and movie stars always stop the bomb with
two seconds left on the timer -- they don't actually explode!' In this show,
they do."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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