Jericho

Entertainment WeeklyGillian 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 TribuneMaureen Ryan

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

Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart

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

NewsdayDiane Werts

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

LA WeeklyRobert 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 ChronicleTim 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 PostAdam 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 NewsEllen Gray

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

Los Angeles TimesRobert 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-LedgerAlan 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 JournalNancy 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.

VarietyBrian 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 NewsCharlie McCollum

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

SalonHeather 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 PressMike 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 TodayRobert 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.

TimeJames Poniewozik

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

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

The fall's biggest disappointment.

Miami HeraldGlenn 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 InquirerJonathan 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 TimesAlessandra 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 NewsDavid Hinckley

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

TV GuideMatt 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 GlobeMatthew 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 PostTom Shales

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

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

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

People WeeklyTom Gliatto

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

The New YorkerTad 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-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland

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

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

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