Second chance

The series returns tonight thanks to a massive campaign by fans to save the show. But will the ratings improve?

By Eric Deggans, Times TV-media critic
Published February 12, 2008

In tonight's episode, Jake (Skeet Ulrich, left) and Major Beck (Esai Morales) discuss rebuilding Jericho after a bloody battle with the town next door.
	[CBS]

After weeks of fan protest, thousands of pounds of nuts sent to network executives and one writers strike, CBS's Jericho finally stands poised to start its second season on the Tiffany Network.

Through it all, one question remains for those of us who have watched this soap opera play out on fan Web sites and TV critics' columns across the country:

Is this show worth it?

After watching two new episodes, I can answer that with an unqualified maybe.

It all depends on whether you cared about this scrappy action-adventure before CBS made its second-biggest mistake on 2007 the biggest was Hugh Jackman's horrid musical drama Viva Laughlin.

Canceling this series about a plucky Kansas town struggling after nuclear explosions decimate America - a move CBS made after building an online community of devoted fans - was like dropping Barry Manilow into the mosh pit at a Foo Fighters show. No good ending was in sight.

Tonight's episode, the first of seven new ones brought about by the fan revolt, picks up the action quickly. NYPD Blue alum Esai Morales is a military officer brought in to quell fighting between Jericho and a murderous neighboring town, leaving lots of folks looking to settle scores old and new.

Before long, it's obvious the new U.S. government, centered in Cheyenne, Wyo., has nefarious hidden intentions. Our hero, Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich), must decide whether he can trust Morales' character while working with onetime CIA operative Robert Hawkins (Brit actor Lennie James) to prove the nuclear detonations were an inside job.

There are unmistakable allusions to current events, including a good-looking, charismatic new president who fronts for a crusty, ruthless, behind-the-scenes powerbroker. There's also a Haliburton-style ruthless corporation dominating the West's reconstruction and a ruthless, Blackwater-ish private security firm, dubbed Ravenwood, that does its bidding. Sense a theme?

And CBS once again works its magic, cloaking an array of conventional TV relationships - reluctant hero made good, a marriage between two people who once hated each other, a gruff patriarch who dies before revealing how much he really cares - in a contemporary-feeling framework, gilded with bursts of violence and suspense.

It may not be enough to hook those who weren't already on board. But for fans who sent cases of Planters to CBS chief Les Moonves - and couch potatoes tired of TV schedules packed with reality shows amid the winding-down writers strike - the citizens of Jericho just might bridge the gap between good and good enough.

Eric Deggans can be reached at deggans@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8521. See his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/media.

Review:

Jericho

The drama returns for the first of seven new episodes at 10 tonight on WTSP-Ch. 10. Grade: B+.

[Last modified February 11, 2008, 23:54:26]