A small town in Kansas struggles to survive After the End once several major US cities are destroyed in terrorist attacks with nuclear bombs. Features a sprawling cast of townsfolk from the mayor on down, and centers on the Green family. This show is remarkable for being on the hard end of Mohs Scale Of Scifi Hardness, featuring such things as radiation poisoning, the effects on an EMP and the value of such common things as salt. Not quite as fatalistic as that other nuclear-war-surviving Kansas town, from The Day After, which early episodes were compared with.Anyone Can Die and they stay dead. Also notable is the Heroic Bystander approach to heroism, as a major theme is the common man having to choose to do the right thing or give in to baser urges or becoming Disaster Scavengers. Other major themes involve family and heredity, redemption, and the struggle to preserve American values like democracy. Similar to Battlestar Galactica drawing tension and avoiding the Inferred Holocaust by dealing with issues like shortages in food, electricity and the people who want to steal from those who have these.The first season focuses on the mystery behind the bombing, represented by Robert Hawkins, a mysterious newcomer to the town who knows more than he should, and also on the personal relationships, issues and problems implicit in surviving. The second season focuses on the townsfolk's attempt to rebuild Jericho while under the thumb of the corrupt new federal government and powerful corporate interests.The show was cancelled, but brought back by a fan campaign. A second season was shown in 2008, detailing the rise of an oppressive new government based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but the show was again cancelled due to low ratings. (Although the last episode tied up most of the immediately-dangling plot-threads.) There's been talk of a feature film, and plans for a 'Season 3' comic series.
Back Story - Most of the characters have a backstory which is never really expanded upon. For example, Johnston and Gail's relationship started as an affair, Jake 'got involved with the wrong people' and ended up shipping things in Iraq for J&R, and Stanley raised Bonny after their parents died. Hawkins' backstory is the only one which directly affects the plot, all the others merely affect a few character's decisions and choices (as they should).
Badass - Most notably Hawkins, but Jake too. Teenagers Allison, Dale and Bonnie each got one incident that was enough to earn them badass status for a long time.
Big Damn Heroes - This show lives and breathes this trope, most notably the Texas Air National Guard saving Jake Green and Robert Hawkins from a pair of AS Air Force interceptors in the final episode.
Bilingual Bonus - the Morse code at the start of each episode gives a hint/spoiler for the episode.
Bus Full of Innocents - The first episode had Jake rescue a school bus full of kids. The second has him using a different school bus to ferry hospital patients to a mine being used as an improvised fallout shelter.
Johnston: We'll keep this from the town. No need to get them worked up. Other than that I guess...just keep on living.
Jake: No, I mean what are we going to do about the tank?
Johnston: Oh, that. Stick it in our barn. You never know when a tank will come in handy.
Chekhov's Skill - Robert spends time teaching Allison how to shoot for self defense. Not only does the effort help shore up years of Parental Abandonment, but it even saves his life.
Cosy Catastrophe - The town more often than not pulls through together, but they still struggle to avoid become a Scavenger World.
Disaster Scavengers - Everyone, by default, is at least a little of a scavenger. Some reaching truly depraved levels of opportunism.
Divided States of America - In season 1, there are six federal governments. By season 2, there are only two contenders: the Allied States of America, of which Jericho is geographically a part, and what's left of the original United States government.
Texas is still an independent nation, but the government in San Antonio doesn't claim to be a successor government of the old United States like the other two do.
Eternally Pearly-White Teeth - You would think that eventually the supplies of toothpaste and toothbrushes would reduce people's tooth care. You'd think.
Well, we do see Robert Hawkins' family using homemade toothpaste, much to his son's confusion. Despite his badass-awesome survivalism, it's unlikely that he was the only person in town who made this stuff.
The Mountains of Illinois — while the pilot was filmed in the Canadian prairie and thus looks flat and treeless enough to be Kansas, much of the show was filmed in southern California, and thus has mountains.
The morse code acts much like a Bilingual Bonus, as it offers clues beforehand about events in that episode
One Nation Under Copyright - The Allied States of America is riddled with former employees of Jennings & Rall, from the new President on down. The company becomes integral and inseperable to the day-to-day operation of the government.
Product Placement: Sprint maintained service through 20 or more American cities being nuked and the resulting remnants dissolving into squabbling factions. (Sprint was a major sponsor of the show.)
Surprising how ubiquitious Motorola communications devices are as well.
Truth in Television - Motorola, while vastly outsold by larger cell phone providers, actually leads the industry in non-cell phone communication devices such as walkie-talkies.
Put on a Bus (Subverted) - Heather goes to New Bern to help design the wind turbines to help power the town. Afterwards she's reported dead shot trying to sabotage the mortar machine but is later seen again rescued by the army.
Reality Ensues- Happens in "Termination for Cause" when Jake and Russell were arguing what to do with Goetz, then Stanley drove up and shot Goetz in the head for killing Bonnie
Returning War Vet - Jake, whose skills from the army make him an effective defender of the town, though it's stated he's not quite as capable as Robert Hawkins
Jake wasn't actually in the army, he was working for a "private contractor" (Jennings and Rall), but did experience the war through that. Since Hawkins was thoroughly trained for what he does, he is much more able to navigate the situations they face than Jake, who reacts emotionally to what happens more often than not.
Shout Out - The producers evidently read Alas, Babylon. At one point, Dale can't sell some metallic trinkets because there's a fear of irradiated metal (which is identical to a plot in Alas, Babylon). Hawkins also suggests that Jericho is located away from projected fallout clouds and has access to useful resources, much like Fort Repose.
Taking Over The Town - This is what the Ravenwood mercenaries do to a town they invade. They take all the supplies and shoot anyone who opposes them. Since the towns are isolated from the outside world, they do not have to worry anyone coming to help the townpeople. The people of Jericho try to preempt this by blowing the bridge into town themselves before Ravenwood crosses it.
Took a Level in Badass - Everyone. Johnston Green, a former US Army Ranger, trains most of the citizenry and organises them into an armed force to defend the town. The "Jericho Rangers" spend the next fifteen episodes kicking all kinds of ass.
Torture Always Works - Subverted and lampshaded by Hawkins, who says that the fear of torture is more effective, and that real torture only works in the movies.
Two Lines, No Waiting - Robert Hawkins secret involvement in Project Red Bell seemed a completely separate story from the the whole survival of Jericho story arcs. The only link that brings the two stories together is Jake finding and keeping Hawkins' secret.
Un-Canceled, and then canceled again...but at least the writers were able to Wrap It Up.
Again, now that it's comic series has started being published.
Where The Hell Is Springfield?? - The citizens were able to see the mushroom cloud from the bomb that hit Denver. It was suggested that Oakley, Kansas, was Jericho's stand in. However, Oakley is about 70 miles east of the Colorado state line. It's doubtful you could see the Denver mushroom cloud even if you were standing on the state line at the moment it detonated. You still have to drive well into Colorado before you see the mountains.
The mountains can't be the Rockies, otherwise the mushroom cloud would be in front of them rather than behind. They must be a closer, fictional mountain range near Jericho. In the third episode, Stanley says that he saw a line tanks driving "over the ridge".
In the episode Four Horsemen, one of the pilots on the flight recorder estimates that the mushroom clouds are 16 kilometers in height, which would be visible on the horizon from parts of western Kansas. Probably not with the fictional mountain range obscuring them, though.
A map of Jericho that was posted on the CBS website showed I-70 and state routes 40 and 83 intersecting in Jericho. If this map is canon, then Oakley is Jericho's real-life counterpart. In real-life Oakley, I-70, U.S. 40 and U.S. 83 intersect, but in different ways than the map indicates. For example, the "official" map of Jericho shows I-70 going through town. At Oakley, I-70 skirts the town to the north and east, only coming within 3 1/2 miles at its closest point. In fact, Oakley is snug in the northeast corner of Logan County, within three miles of Gove County to the east and spilling over into Thomas County on the north. The way I-70 is routed, it never even enters Logan County, much less Oakley itself.
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