Jericho returns to TV on Tuesday

This Tuesday is the season premiere of a compelling serial drama about a group of people isolated by disaster, trying to survive in the aftermath. Unlikely friendships have formed, hidden talents have been revealed, there's a threat pending from a similar group of "others" with less honorable intentions, and there's a mysterious conspiracy with layers of complexity. What's that you say? "Hey, that's Lost and the season premiere was a week and a half ago!"

Nope, I'm talking about Jericho, which hit the airwaves in fall of 2006 as part of a batch of serial dramas hoping to capitalize on Lost's success. Jericho broke out of the pack of quickly canceled series to gain a small but rabid following. So rabid, in fact, that when it was not renewed for a second season, fans initiated a save-the-show campaign that involved deluging CBS with thousands of pounds of peanuts.

Jericho: Season 2 Preview 

When it comes to Jericho, I am a Season 2 bandwagon jumper. By the time enough people told me it was good for me to want to give it a try, I was too far behind with Season 1 to catch up, but I knew it was a safe bet that the DVDs would come out in plenty of time before the start of Season 2. I devoured the discs as fast as I could get them. The season ended with a doozie of a cliffhanger; no wonder fans were outraged at the prospect of the show being left that way.

The Season 1 finale left off with the denizens of Jericho facing off against an encroaching force from the neighboring town of New Bern who want to gain control of the town's farms and food supply. Johnston Green, the town's mayor and patriarch (and next to his son Jake, the only one with significant military training) was killed in the first wave of the battle, meaning we can expect to see a bit of a power vacuum moving forward. The peanuts sent by fans were in reference to an old Green family story; during WWII, Grandpa Green responded with "Nuts" to a German request to surrender. Just after his father's death, surrounded, and outnumbered, Jake had the same response for the New Bern contingent.

Meanwhile, Heather, the science teacher and physics whiz, was found on the road and taken to a military camp. After going to New Bern to help build windmills, she'd been presumed dead by her friends in Jericho (and maybe some of the audience, too, but I didn't buy it for a minute). Instead, she had been gathering information about New Bern's plot to invade Jericho. Her pleas to the military were ignored until an order came down from higher up to help Jericho. But there's more to the order than meets the eye, as the direction is actually coming from government higher-ups who want to track down Robert Hawkins and his undetonated bomb, in order to prevent him from revealing the conspiracy.

I would recommend Jericho to any Lost fan, but not because it is a Lost wannabe. It may have started out that way, but the truth is that both shows share the same quality that makes them great. The big stories of disaster and survival provide a backdrop against which the smaller stories of interpersonal drama can play out.

CBS initially renewed Jericho just for another seven episodes, which were completed before the beginning of the WGA strike, so they won't be affected. Currently, there are no plans for a Season 3, so we don't have to be worried about being left hanging. However, I have to wonder if the show might get a ratings boost from the lack of other scripted shows on right now, and if that might cause CBS to consider continuing the series. Better get a Costco-sized bag of peanuts, just in case.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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