Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1902 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-10
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 910 minutes

Amazon.co.uk

Part-Lost, part-The Day After, this television drama very effectively taps into palpable post-9/11 dread. The residents of Jericho are literally in the dark when they are cut off from civilization in the wake of a nuclear blast. Has the United States been attacked? How many cities were destroyed? Was it terrorists, or something way more sinister? It is up to Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), the town's mayor (and series bedrock), to calm the community, keep its citizens from turning on each other, and protect them from predatory outsiders. Johnston's son, Jake (Skeet Ulrich), a "screw-up," returns home just prior to the blast following a mysterious five-year absence. Jake is at odds with his estranged father, who is running for reelection, and his brother, Eric (Kenneth Mitchell), his deputy. He isn't welcomed back by his former girlfriend, Emily (Ashley Scott), who is now engaged to a man who is missing following the blast. With the fate of America in the balance, one would think that "small town problems" wouldn't amount to much in this crazy new world, but it is Jericho's human dramas that resonate most deeply.

On the most cherished TV shows, characters come to feel like family. Jericho's characters come to feel like neighbours. Dale (Erik Knudson), the orphaned teenage outcast, forms an unexpected friendship with the town's spoiled mean girl, Skylar (Candace Bailey). Robert Hawkins (Lennie James), just arrived in town, introduces himself as a former cop from St. Louis but his secret basement command centre suggests otherwise. Gray Anderson (Michael Gaston), a mayoral candidate, politicizes the disaster to undermine Johnston. Stanley (Brad Beyer), a farmer, falls in love with his condescending IRS auditor from Washington, D.C. (Alicia Coppola) and Eric plans to leave his wife, Alice (Darby Stanchfield) for bartender Mary (Clare Carey). But at the heart of Jericho's first season is Jake's hard-earned redemption in his family's (and Emily's) eyes (suddenly, he's a regular MacGyver, able to perform a tracheotomy with a juice box straw!). Star Trek has its Trekkies/-ers and Laurel and Hardy its fraternal organization, the Sons of the Desert. Jericho has its "Nuts," who mounted a monumental campaign to rescue the series after it had been cancelled. Fans posted a barrage of videos on You Tube and deluged the studio with peanuts (the significance is explained in the season finale). "What is it about this town that has you so addicted to it?" someone asks Emily at one point. Just watch a couple of episodes, and you'll also be hooked. This First Season set should rally Jericho's army and inspire new recruits. --Donald Liebenson

DVD Description
When twenty-three nuclear bombs go off across the USA, the residents of Jericho are left wondering whether their small Kansas town is all that remains.

As the impact of the crisis sets in, the town's people pull together and roles within the new community--some unexpected and some unwanted--become established; Jake Green (played by heart-throb Skeet Ulrich; Scream, The Craft), the prodigal son of the town's Mayor finds himself stranded in Jericho as a result of the catastrophe. Having just experienced a tense family reunion after five years unexplained absence he finds himself reluctantly assuming a leadership role within the community from which he has run: Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott; The Kingdom, Dark Angel), Jake's high school sweetheart who lives outside of town and innocently goes about her business unaware of the catastrophe until a chance encounter with two escaped convicts; Emily's estranged father Jonah Prowse (James Remar; Sex & The City, Dexter), the leader of a group of survivalists who have settled just outside of Jericho, who finds himself having to flee the town when he is accused of murder. Robert Hawkins (Lennie James; 24 Hour Party People, Outlaw), a mysterious jack-of-all-trades stranger who moved to Jericho three days before the attack and who seems to know more than he's letting on; Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney; Deadwood), a man dealing with conflicting emotions after the return of his son but who is forced into action as the town begins to riot; Bonnie Richmond (Shoshannah Stern), a pretty 17-year-old who is hearing impaired; and Bonnie's older brother Stanley (Brad Beyer), Jake's best friend from childhood and an avid car lover who works on the family farm.

The townspeople start to think that things are getting back to normal when the phone and power lines are reinstated and they receive a pre-recorded phone call from Homeland Security telling them that help is on the way. However, their hope is quickly dashed when a power surge disables all of the town's electronics and fires break out across the town.

Compelling throughout, the first season of Jericho captivated viewers attention to such an extent that, when the network attempted to cancel the show, it was resurrected for a second season based upon sheer fan power alone. This essential post-apocalyptic drama instantly embroils the viewer into the complex character interactions that occur following the explosions and remains absorbing right through to the season's dramatic finale.

Synopsis
A nuclear explosion plunges a group of Kansas residents into a fraught battle for survival in this post-apocalyptic serial drama. Isolated from the rest of the country in the small town of Jericho, and unsure of the cause behind the explosion, uncertainty and chaos reigns supreme. Chief among the survivors is Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich), a prodigal son who returned to Jericho after his grandfather died. But his uncanny skill with a gun and ability to perform complicated medical procedures provoke troubling questions about his shadowy past. Rifts form among the townsfolk as survival instincts take over, while others fight to maintain order among the ashes. As the series proceeds, its rich ensemble of characters come ever closer to the reasons for the strange new world they are faced with. Originally cancelled by CBS, loyal fans successfully lobbied to have the show continued for a second series. It won't take new viewers long to see what all the fuss was about...

Customer Reviews

Criminally cancelled
What is it with US networks? They always seem to cancel the best series. Take this gem of a series; it was hidden away here in the UK on the hallmark channel and it didn't have enough viewers in the US (try advertising more CBS!)Skeet Ulrich leads a top notch cast in this post apocalptic drama series. A terrorist attack cuts the small town of Jericho off from the rest of the US. This eventually leads to a war between Jericho and the nearby town Newburn because supplies are running out. It starts of slow (maybe putting new viewers off) but the acting is superb and the storylines are thrilling. More importantly the charachters are believable and we can understand their actions. The fans bombarded CBS with trucks of nuts after something that is said in the season finale. Something involving taking action and war! The fans listened and so did the network season 2 was made (only seven episodes) but the series was cancelled again. CBS are trying to their credit to get the show a new home (maybe the co-owned CW - why don't they just put it on there?) Great stuff - you won't regret buying this.

nuts
nuts, meaning go to hell, one of the dialogue in the series, brilliant series, cannot wait for series 2, starting friday the 16 on hallmark

5 Stars for a Soap??
Come on folks - this is a TV soap with a nuclear bomb conspiracy thrown in to spice up the 'angle'. I'm sure U.S TV producers are just too scared to break the mold too much but just spare me yet another stereo-typical Made-In-USA formulated TV series and look closer to home for real production values, like Spooks. Jericho is also so full of factual holes it's laughable.