Below The Beltway

There are plenty of theories out there trying to explain what went wrong with Jericho.

Thomas Connor at the Chicago Sun Times thinks that Jericho lost steam because Season Two lost focus of what made the show good:

The show was beloved in its first go-round because, I think, it was a tale of true patriotism and America’s core values (and it creeps me out a little to write those phrases, given how they’ve been so commonly co-opted by the right wing as rhetorical weapons). It had (again, shudder) family values. It was a story of what really matters in people’s personal lives; the political stuff was a vehicle for that. But when it came back, the political vehicle was a runaway train. It became just a sub-Tom Clancy political thriller, with a byzantine plot that involved shadowy figures and conspiracies — absent of the real people with real motivations that made the first season so engaging.

Last night’s finale sealed things off ably enough — even despite what had become this season’s trademark leaps in logic (and, man, travel time between Cheyenne, Wyo., and Jericho, Kan., must be among the best airline service in world history) — and ended things on a broader note of American values (freedom, truth, justice, if anyone remembers those). It was disappointing only for those of us who wished the show would go on.

But that disappointment set in long ago, and I think most fans would admit that the loss of Gerald McRaney (his character was killed at the end of season one) was the real death blow to this show. His character’s son, our hero Jake (Skeet Ulrich), couldn’t hold the center, especially while splitting the moral high ground with his brother, whose personal flaws overcame his sympathetic qualities too early in the story. And when they killed Bonnie for, apparently, no good reason, well, the humanity had clearly leaked out of the story.

(There’s actually a business aspect to how that happened: The show’s original writers did not return for this second season. After the show’s cancellation, they moved to another new series, and when the show was renewed they were stuck in contracts for that other show and couldn’t escape. So the source material in their heads likely was lost.)

Personally, I liked the second season’s focus on the politics and intrigue of the attacks and the Allied States. It was certainly more interesting than devoting more screen time to useless characters like Dale, Skylar, and Emily.

From another perspective, a Boston Globe television critic thinks that part of the explanation can be found in the fact that Jericho was unlike any other television show:

Most of the time, on TV, we get the opposite message. The detectives, lawyers, and forensic scientists of the enduring “Law and Order” and “CSI” incarnations are universally good. The fighting forces of CBS’s “The Unit” sacrifice greatly to save us all. Even the corrupt cops on FX’s “The Shield” are softies at the core, skimming off the top to pay for family essentials, such as private-school tuition for autistic kids. And though each season of Fox’s “24″ has its fair share of government high-ups gone bad, the traitors are always exceptions, destined to be caught.

To the end, “Jericho” made no such promises. If “The Wire” was a real-time look at corruption and fatal compromise in Baltimore, “Jericho” was a worst-case-scenario fantasy, spelled out with intriguing detail. It began with a dread attack: 23 American cities destroyed by nuclear bombs. It asked what would happen next from the perspective of regular folks, represented by the good-hearted citizens of a Kansas town.

This season, the good people of Jericho were occupied by an army loyal to a corrupt pretender government, which was intertwined with a Halliburtonesque company called Jennings & Rall. The small-town heroes had proof that the government was covering up the true source of the attacks, and may have had a hand in the plot. (In a nice touch, they had to prove their case to Texas, which had formed an independent republic and revived its Alamo spirit.) Yes, there were elements of crazed conspiracy theory here, but the premise wasn’t entirely unrealistic; the vision of an encroaching military was clearly built on fears of post-9/11 government overreach in the name of national security.

(…)

[T]he finale offered a hint of what would have come if the show had won a third season: a civil war between the forces of good and corruption, and a decent chance that corruption would still prevail. Perhaps it’s no wonder it got so few takers; on TV these days, we still prefer to focus on the good.

Or, to put it more precisely, American television viewers would rather watch a bad rendition of “God Bless The USA” on American Idol than watch a television show that makes them think:

CBS’s sci-fi show “Jericho” limped across the finish line on Tuesday, attracting just under six million viewers for its series finale, Nielsen reported. “Jericho,” first canceled last spring but revived over the summer after an outcry from devoted fans, only to be canceled once again, finished third in its 10 p.m. slot, behind ABC’s “Primetime” (10.4 million) and a repeat of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (8.5 million). CBS ranked fourth for the night, despite drawing higher ratings with an “NCIS” rerun at 8 (9.4 million), followed at 9 by “Big Brother,” which also attracted 6 million viewers but fared better than “Jericho” among adults 18 to 49. Fox easily led over all, thanks to a 90-minute edition of “American Idol” from 8 to 9:30 (24.4 million). ABC was second with “Dancing With the Stars” at 9 (17.2 million). NBC finished third.

As in politics, the public gets exactly what it deserves.