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Jericho
SERIES: CBS, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)


8.6

based on 30 reviews
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how did we calculate this?

based on 209 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Starring Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Ashley Scott, Pamela Reed, Kenneth Mitchell, Lennie James, Sprague Grayden, and Michael Gaston

In yet another "What the hell is going on?" serial, a small Kansas town is cut off from the outside world after a nuclear mushroom cloud appears on the horizon.

GENRE(S):	Drama
CREATED BY:	Stephen Chbosky Josh Schaer Jonathan A. Steinberg
FIRST AIR DATE:	September 20, 2006

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn

Jericho works when it sticks to the eerie surreality of a nuclear attack... The show, unfortunately, flops about in its first two episodes, leaning too heavily on the action-adventure stuff.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

"Jericho" has a surprising ability to create tension from the unthinkable.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

A gripping, one-of-a-kind drama.

Newsday Diane Werts

There's enough human drama here to keep us occupied without having the walls fall down, too.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

What’s intriguing about the series is the absence of a visible enemy -- with a citywide communication breakdown, hardly anything is known about the status of the rest of America -- and the focus on keeping citizens from becoming their own worst enemies

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

Discerning viewers -- and anyone who's hooked on "Lost" -- will realize that "Jericho" is doling out hints to a very large mystery at a very slow pace, which is never a good combination.

New York Post Adam Buckman

It's not a bad scenario for a serialized drama, but be forewarned: The apocalyptic story unfolding on "Jericho" is, by nature, exceedingly gloomy, reviving memories of the Cold War and also serving as a reminder of the tense times in which we live now.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

There's something faintly retro about a show that tackles fears many thought died with the Cold War.

Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd

If the Awful Truth of the Global Meltdown is the big carrot "Jericho" dangles before you, it is no more compelling than the question of which of the available good-looking girls Ulrich is going to get close to.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

What you do after surviving the end of the world as you know it is an intriguing premise, and when "Jericho" sticks close to that, it's one of this season's more promising new dramas.

Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith

"Jericho" doesn't pretend to be artistically risky, but it's got a scary and gripping theme in an age of terrorism and nuclear thuggery.

Variety Brian Lowry

Despite sharp casting, the real trick will be to develop Cold War-style fear while dribbling enough clues to elevate this above being just a post-apocalyptic "The Young and the Restless."

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum

For at least the first two episodes, "Jericho'' works better than it should, and there are some striking moments and images.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

The second episode is much cheesier and less suspenseful than the pilot -- nothing quite beats those mushroom clouds in the distance, let's face it.

Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy

That morbid premise -- in addition to the so-so storytelling, devolving badly by the second episode -- sure feels morosely overwrought for 8 o'clock.

USA Today Robert Bianco

In Jericho, claustrophobia, paranoia and the threat of nuclear rain are merely an overlay meant to distract us from the mundane nature of everything else the town has to offer.

Time James Poniewozik

There's something missing from this postapocalyptic drama, namely, a realistic feeling of apocalypse.

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

The fall's biggest disappointment.

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

It's an interesting approach, but despite well-drawn characters and the strong cast, there's a sense that the show is trapped in amber, a perfectly preserved relic from another age.

Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm

There's tons of trouble in Jericho, and that starts with T and that rhymes with D and that stands for dumb. Not flat-footedly, spectacularly dumb, just a little bit too dumb to live up to its premise.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

The creators of “Jericho” deserve some credit for beginning where most thrillers end. But they rely too much on melancholy pop music to paper over weaknesses in the writing and characters.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

It's not only about a bomb. It is one.

TV Guide Matt Roush

Downbeat and earnestly preachy about community and survival, this weird show is further hampered by glum Skeet Ulrich’s miscasting as the all-purpose prodigal hero.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

"Jericho" turns nuclear catastrophe into an excuse for a series of suspenseful "24"-like set pieces, and the result is a ham-fisted concoction overcrowded with incident and rigged thrills.

Washington Post Tom Shales

It might sound callous to say that "Jericho" has managed to make nuclear war look boring, but there you have it.

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

That's a lot of story potential, but most of it is squandered in trite and predictable ways.

People Weekly Tom Gliatto

Mostly it feels like an instructional film about disaster preparedness. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]

The New Yorker Tad Friend

“Jericho” lumbers; its townspeople spend all their time in the bar squabbling--they know one another so well that they haven’t got room to grow.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland

A catastrophic nuclear crisis never looked as boring and convoluted as it does here.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

It had a weak pilot to begin with, but the second episode is even more of a tedious bore.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 209 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gerry N. gave it a10:
The best show NOT on TV. What is wrong with CBS? Nina Tessler must go! She is a complete MORON!

Meg R. gave it a10:
I LOVE THIS SHOW! I never go out and rent dvds of seasons of shows, but at soon as I watched the first episode of Jericho I had to see them all. My boyfriend and I will watch one episode and immediately have to watch the next! It is full of adventure and suspense. There are always twists and turns in the story line, and never predictable. GREAT SHOW!!

Thomas C. gave it a10:
I hope that people don't read the comments of some ignorant television critics who would like reality shows to take over and allow those comments to distract people from the reality that in our time, this is a really great show. I'm appalled to even think about some of the surviving shows on the major networks and know that Jericho was canceled. I believe and so do around 25,000 others that i have seen so far, that this show is capable of being a prime time hit for many more than two seasons.

Spencer K. gave it a0:
There are very few shows I've watched that are as bad as this one. I'm five episodes in to the first season now, and I have no feelings for any of the characters in the show. Any one of them could die in the next episode, and it would mean very little to the overall plot. Writing, acting, and directing is all a flop. Decent idea for a show, but too bad J.J. Abrams is already busy with Lost.

Michelle H. gave it a10:
Intelligent, captivating, highly relevant television series. Please continue with new shows!

Noah D. gave it a10:
This is my favorite show ever!!!!! I cant beleive it was canceled!! bring it BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

Scott N. gave it a10:
This show is awesome - does it get any better than some F-16's smokin' some F-15's!!!!

Jericho SERIES: CBS, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)

Jericho
SERIES: CBS, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)