Monthly Archives: March 2008

March 25, 2008 · 11:29 pm

Series Finale – Jericho – “Patriots and Tyrants”

“Patriots and Tyrants”

March 25th, 2008

You know, say what you will about Jericho, but I have to point out how frustrating the title of this finale is. By the end of the show’s short second season, there is no questions – the world can be boiled down simply to patriots and tyrants in the world of Jericho, as we saw as the Cheyenne government’s days are coming to an end while we leave Jake and Hawkins on their way to finish saving the world.

This episode was always bound to be a disappointment due to the circumstances of the show’s cancellation, but for the most part it was a dramatic failure less due to its own accord and more due to the short season. There were arcs being resolved in this episode that were never given adequate time to develop. Would we not have been more involved with storylines like Beck’s redemption if, in fact, we had spent time in an episode examining his back story with his family? And wouldn’t we care somewhat more about Cheyenne being bombed if we knew anyone who lived in the city other than the evil Jennings & Rall? Wouldn’t we have wanted to spend more time with John Smith, or examining the nature of diplomacy in this new America?

The answer to all of these questions is an emphatic yes, which means that I left this finale wondering just how much dramatic potential had been by necessity left on the table. It’s never good when you’re thinking about what’s not there, as opposed to what it is, but thus is the nature of the only vaguely satisfactory series finale.

However, let’s take a look at what the episode brought, how it ended, and why the show’s chances of being picked up by another network are now even more slim.

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March 25, 2008 · 8:00 am

Jericho: A Question of Blame, a Legacy of Fandom

Tonight, March 25th, Jericho airs its series finale…well, it’s second one, in a way. When the series ended its first season on a cliffhanger, few expected that ten months later we’d be once again sending Jericho into the horizon. It was a bubble show then, but today it is official – Jericho is gone.

Here at Cultural Learnings, we spent a lot of time on the nature of the fan movement to save the series, as people bombarded CBS with Nuts until they cried mercy. Fans hoped in that moment, when CBS renewed the series for seven episodes, that it signaled CBS turning a leaf. That Nina Tassler, in all of her kindness she displayed in this scenario, would be there for Jericho all summer and fall long, making sure that the buzz surrounding nuts would not die down easily. Obviously, as we can see, it did.

I think that one of the things that I find most fascinating about all of this is the concept of a relationship between viewer and network. As we see  more and more producers of individual series engaging with their audience through podcasts or blogs, it seems as if the networks themselves are incapable of grasping the idea of some sort of unspoken contract between the two sides when it comes to struggling shows.

I think this is unfortunate, but I think it allows us to extend this idea of a contract of sorts further. There are many parties who eventually help make up the decisions, and the problem is that they’re all looking out for different interests.

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March 25, 2008 · 12:42 am

How I Met Your Mother – “Ten Sessions”

“Ten Sessions”

March 24th, 2008

Ah yes, back finally with a real episode review. I didn’t get a chance to blog last week’s episode due to an impending thesis deadline, but it’s hard to ignore this week’s continuation of an alarming trend: we appear to be closer and closer to discovering who, in fact, is the Mother of the series’ title. After Ted picked up her yellow umbrella last week, tonight we got a distinct sense that there was something fishy about Stella, the dermatologist who steals Ted’s heart.

Of course, there’s a whole question right now as to what this episode was, and what it was intended to be. Alicia Silverstone was supposed to play the role of Stella up until a few weeks ago when, when Britney Spears was stunt cast as her receptionist. Silverstone’s three-episode arc, then, became a one-episode stint with now back to work on Scrubs Sarah Chalke filling in at the last minute. This leaves the HIMYM community with a burning question: considering the events of tonight’s episode, is Stella the mother? And, if so, doesn’t these events and Scrubs’ imminent renewal complicate things.

Well, in the end, I don’t think we have to worry – I don’t think she’s the mother.

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March 21, 2008 · 11:44 pm

Reflections on the “Jericho” Cancellation

On this Good Friday, there is little good about the news coming from CBS. Nina Tassler, who nine months away resurrected Jericho from its premature cancellation has pulled the plug for good after unfortunately meager ratings. I’m still two episodes behind on Jericho, something I plan on fixing for Tuesday’s now Series Finale, but I wanted to stop in with a few brief thoughts.

For good reason, some articles are pegging this as the ultimate test of whether or not networks are willing to embrace the online success of series made primarily for television. Jericho was a highly streamed series, big on iTunes downloads, but these are still media in their infancy by industry standards. The result is that poor ratings, below even its performance against American Idol, is going to drag the series down in the eyes of advertisers.

It wasn’t a perfect time slot, no question – it really should have been placed earlier, but then it would have run up against American Idol. Or Lost. Or any other highly rated series that based on sheer numbers would damage Jericho more than a later timeslot would. Expectations from CBS were high, with a strike meaning less original programming airing opposite – when Jericho’s numbers failed to jump even after NBC’s Quarterlife drew abysmal ratings, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

I don’t blame CBS for their decision – they are more justified now than they were last May, having given the show a second chance and seen ratings only drop. I think that the fact they even gave seven episodes was a gesture of goodwill – their inability to market the show successfully is less negligence, and more CBS’s inability to market anything outside of their shows which sell themselves based on long-standing television cliches.

I also think that anyone who attempts to blame fans is out of their mind – the long wait between when the show returned to air and its original revival is reflective of not negligence but reality. People live busy lives during the summer, and people getting caught up in the fervor don’t always stick around. Any serialized show like Jericho requires a certain level of commitment, and expecting it to have been enough to substantially boost ratings is naive.

Really, this isn’t an issue of blame – there will be resolution to a show that was never supposed to have one, and when I reflect back on the show’s second season on Wednesday it will not be with remorse but remembrance. Hopefully, the episode lives up to that promise, and doesn’t leave fans even more frustrated.

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March 10, 2008 · 10:51 pm

Jericho – “Oversight”

First off, I want to apologize to everyone for a three-week absence – it was a period where a lot of things were due, and I ended up feeling as if the blog was just too much of a responsibility to keep up while completing everything else. I also apologize for leaving on a note of “I’m going in for surgery” and then disappearing without a word. In retrospect, perhaps not the smartest thing to do – recovery is going fine, and I’ve finally started to catch up on some of the TV I’ve been putting off.

Yes, indeed – not only was I not blogging over my three week break, I wasn’t watching much TV either. Much of this is to do with just being too busy, and also the fact that there were only four shows on that I’ve been watching with any regularity. I stayed up to date on Lost, but just wasn’t in a position to blog about it. Needless to say, however, “The Constant” was one of the best episodes the series has seen, and “The Other Woman” and “Eggtown” were more simple and containing small moments as opposed to large ones. Still, Lost? Awesome. However, I’ve been bored with “American Idol,” and am sadly a whole three episodes behind on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, but what I saw up to Episode 6 leaves me hoping for a second season regardless.

But, what I really want to talk about is Jericho, a show that I am really quite sad I wasn’t able to stay caught up on as time has gone on. As some may know, I’ve never been a huge fan of Jericho on a quality basis – it’s never been bad, but it just never seemed to pull together those moments that stayed with me on an emotional level. However, I can say for certain that this changed this evening, when I finally sat down and watched “Oversight.”

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