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

Jericho
Critic Score
Metascore: 48 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 30 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 205 votes
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rate this tv show

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

What The Critics Said

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...

75
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.
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70
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
"Jericho" has a surprising ability to create tension from the unthinkable.
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70
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
A gripping, one-of-a-kind drama.
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70
Newsday Diane Werts
There's enough human drama here to keep us occupied without having the walls fall down, too.
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70
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
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63
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.
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63
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.
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60
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
There's something faintly retro about a show that tackles fears many thought died with the Cold War.
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60
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.
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60
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.
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60
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.
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60
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."
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60
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.
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60
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.
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50
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.
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50
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.
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50
Time James Poniewozik
There's something missing from this postapocalyptic drama, namely, a realistic feeling of apocalypse.
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40
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
The fall's biggest disappointment.
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40
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.
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40
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.
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40
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.
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38
New York Daily News David Hinckley
It's not only about a bomb. It is one.
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30
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.
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30
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.
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30
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.
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30
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
That's a lot of story potential, but most of it is squandered in trite and predictable ways.
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25
People Weekly Tom Gliatto
Mostly it feels like an instructional film about disaster preparedness. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]
20
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.
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20
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
A catastrophic nuclear crisis never looked as boring and convoluted as it does here.
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20
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
It had a weak pilot to begin with, but the second episode is even more of a tedious bore.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 205 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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!!!!

Will Colon gave it a10:
I like this show, it has been the best show I have seen in a long time. A lot of Conspiracy and how maybe one day something like this could happen. The show needs to stay!

Molly V gave it a10:
Jericho is my favorite show! The *best* actors and crew make the story come alive.

Karen S. gave it a10:
THis is a great show. Every episode has been exciting. It is a good as 24. I want to see season 3. If CBS cancels it again ( which I hope they don't) why can't another network pick it up.

Shelley M gave it a9:
Hey, a hit like 24 makes baur the obvious hero but jericho's heroes are US! Get it?

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