After being resurrected by a fan-based campaign, CBS’s Jericho returns tonight at 10:
BURBANK, Calif. — “Jericho” may be remembered as the postapocalyptic drama canceled by CBS and only temporarily revived by vocal and Internet-savvy fans. But if its executive producers, Carol Barbee and Jon Turteltaub, have their way, it will be recalled as a television success story that earned a second life.
A short second season of the show — which follows the fate of a small Kansas town named Jericho after a round of nuclear attacks decimate cities across the United States — will start Tuesday night. Sitting in his office at the Walt Disney studio two weeks ago Mr. Turteltaub bristled at the suggestion that the seventh episode of the truncated season would also be the series finale.
“It’s a season finale,” he emphasized, before adding, “Ask me again in a month.”
With story lines shaded by the Iraq war and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Barbee and Mr. Turteltaub have only a handful of episodes to build an audience and earn a third season.
And it looks like they’ve got a clear vision of the story they want to tell:
If the first season was about how Jericho survived the attack, the second season concerns how the town responds and rebuilds. In interviews the producers and CBS executives said that first-time viewers would be able to enjoy the second season without having watched the first. Why? Because “Jericho” introduces a new face in Season 2: that of Esai Morales, once of “NYPD Blue,” who plays Maj. Edward Beck, a representative of troops based in Cheyenne, Wyo., who comes to lead the town’s reconstruction.
Through Mr. Morales’s character, viewers are introduced to the Allied States of America, a new country comprising the area west of the Mississippi River. The town of Jericho essentially becomes occupied territory. The military builds a base nearby to oversee reconstruction. A private contractor is commissioned to provide a semblance of law and order. History books are rewritten.
It intentionally resembles Iraq.
“People, and by people I mean our bosses, probably prefer to not get all political,” Mr. Turteltaub said. “But that said, ‘Jericho’ is not ignoring the political and social landscape.’ ”
Specifically, he said, the show raises questions about trust in government and the implications of having unchecked power in an unstable area. The producers had prepared a plotline about military contractors months before the private security firm Blackwater was in the news concerning its involvement in the deaths of Iraqi civilians.
I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers about the new season, but what have heard sounds promising. Hopefully, it will get a chance.
