Jericho & BSG
Well I said I would wait a few more episode to get a clearer feeling about how I feel about both these shows.
Well lets start with the new show Jericho.
I really really wanted to like this show. I was intrigued with the premise of a small town in America after the bomb. I had visions of Alas Babylon or a post apoc take on 1632. I thought it would be both dramatic and heart warming and had a real possibility to be a great show.
Unfortunately Jericho at the moment is rubbish!!! I have a lot of problems with the show that involve virtually every facet of the production. Mind you I still intend to see out the first season as maybe , it may be a forlorn hope it might get better.
My problems are :-
1) Characters:
There aren't any. At least none that I like certainly none that I love. The only two that I find tolerable are Jake Green and Heather. The rest. Well what can I say.
The mayor is an idiot . so lackadaisical and useless that you have too think the only reason he got elected is because the townsfolk are idiots. No idea of planning. He just wanders around in a daze all the time. No lets not have a town meeting to discover what expertise we have in the town. No lets not guard the pharmacy with all its valuable , irreplaceable drugs . No lets not issue rationing or think of raising a militia. No lets just wander around in a daze all the time. Apart from when we give crap saccharine speeches.
His wife supposedly used to be a nurse. utterly useless and as vacant as Tara.
Dale the geek you are supposed to be sympathetic for gives me serial killer vibes. And his potential love interest. Well lets just say nobody is at home. Her friends seem to act like it is just another school day. I could buy that they might party to blow off steam but not this close to the event.
And the store owner. God what a whiney bitch. You know what stop complaining about people taking your food and hiding that you have found the train. The mayor if he had a brain should have seized it and put her in control of rationing in the ep after the radiation cleared.
The mysterious Hawkins. Well he is just another idiot and his mystery doesn't click at all. I mean he acts as suspicious as hell. Plus he should be clear by now he could tell the townfolk that they came from legoland and they would buy it because they are so dense.
The townsfolk as a whole strike me as being about as intelligent as amoeba. I mean lets eat all our food and drink all the alchohol. I mean its not like we are NEVER going to have access to these in the future. Lets none of us think what we are going to eat this winter or how we are going to protect ourselves from marauders.Plus lets have have party when tens of millions of people have just died. Sure I can understand one being organised say to take peoples minds off the apocalypse but think it would be a bit of a downer not the merry , laughing fest that was Jericho.
Overall normally I need to like at least most of the ensemble. At the moment I think this lot have no redeeming features . There is no one to root for or who you hope survives.
2) Plot
At the moment I have trouble believing that anyone could really believe they were Al Queda, Chinese or whatever tanks. This place is north of Denver right so don't think any of those threats could actually get stuff there at that short notice.
Plus the number of strikes so far does not strike me as sufficient to cause the nation to collapse but are too widespread to be terrorist. One I could buy maybe two or three none of which would isolate Jericho on the TV or radio. Multiple hits on both East and West coast can only mean the Russians, Brits or French. No one else has the means to hit both coasts of America. The Chinese will in the future but do not now.
That of course leaves aliens. I thought the lack of radiation here might indicate the use of asteroids as kinetic weapons but that theory was ruined with all the refugees dying of radiation. So at the moment the main plot doesn't make sense . I would hope they are being clever but the rest of the writing does not give me that indication.
The intrigue plot with Hawkins and the rally point seems implausible and unnecessary. Either he is AL Queda, no indication from the way his family acts here. Or militia but that doesn't seem to make sense either or they are governmental who ran before something bad went down say with Aliens which might work but doesn't explain why he is so obsessed with his cover story as this town of yahoos couldn't spot a bad guy if he decked them.
What has happened in the rest of the world ? Why aren't they getting radio from them . The chinese maps and their plotting seem very US centric what has happened in Canada or Europe? You need to decapitate them or you end up with an Alas Babylon or Warday/rememberance day scenario where GB or Europe or Japan intervene in a humanitarian manner to set things right. Of course not ignoring the massive US overseas military assets that would also help. If you attack the US this successfully all it does is promote Japan and Europe to first rank status. Their first action , help the US. But this may occur later in the season.
Or using the internet, although since Denver has been nuked and that is where Jericho's pop will be they wouldn't get anything anyway. I really doubt this town has that much physical diversity in its routing infrastructure.
BSG
Really liked EP2 and EP3 . The tactics in EP2 made sense and worked for me although not enough colonists seemed to die and I wondered where the hell all the cylons went. Ep4 and the previous eps though cause me to continue to question the cylons. They don't have a plan so stop saying it and the religious stuff and the arguing models is really starting to annoy me. Still well below par.
Pissed off at Thrace and Tie they were occupied for 40 days for heavens sake . The whole insurgency idea was stupid and doesn't work unless the cylons are stupid in that size of population with clearly defined boundaries and no outside support. Quite liked the tribunals idea although the peace and reconciliation thing doesn't work. How many could have collaborated in 40 days . I thought the numbers in EP 1 were way to high. Basically I think the year gap almost wrecked the show and was a stupid idea.