Posts with tag nuclear war
Posted Oct 24th 2007 12:00PM by Jay Black
Characters: Entire castShow: The Day AfterEpisode: Mini-seriesI hope this post doesn't feel like a cop-out. I tried really hard to find a more traditional scary character and couldn't think of one; the fact of the matter is, monsters and freaks don't scare me. I don't really have an explanation for this other than the fact that I live in New Jersey so seeing monsters and freaks isn't that big a deal.
The Day After is about nuclear holocaust. It might be hard for some of our younger readers to understand just how scary the world was in the early eighties. To give you some historical context: we had a right-wing hawkish president in office, there were rising tensions with the Russians, and the Middle East was destabilized.
Uh, you know what, maybe our younger readers actually
don't need any historical context to understand
The Day After. Here's all you need to know about the movie: it was scary as hell...
Continue reading All-time scariest TV characters -- #2: The Day After's entire cast
Posted Sep 15th 2007 4:59PM by Jay Black
Filed under: Awards, Emmys

Time to take out your Hello Kitty date book and make a note: TV Squad will be
liveblogging the
Emmys starting Sunday, September 16th at 7:55 PM and running right through to the end of the show (which conservative estimates put at approximately 11:40 PM the following Wednesday).
My favorite part of a liveblog is the family atmosphere it tends to create (
check out the
Testament-like way we all gave each other comfort and support during the VMA liveblog in the face of Britney's "comeback"), so I'm hoping all of you will join us tomorrow. Run the bubble-bath, pop open the chardonnay, and charge up the laptop, 'cause we're all about to bask in the glow of Seacrest
together.
Posted Dec 4th 2006 3:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, Web, Jericho
When Jericho debuted on CBS earlier this fall, one of the big selling points was the plan to have a separate storyline on the network's web site. It would be actual scenes shot with the cast but shown online only, and they would beef up the subplots. This hasn't happened yet. There is a lot of online-only content at the site (including video about what would happen if a real attack happened, interviews, etc), but the additional storyline idea was canceled.
Continue reading Why doesn't Jericho have an online storyline?
Posted Nov 29th 2006 9:18PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E11) So Gracie the store owner is dead, stabbed by an unknown assailant, and you just know five minutes into the show that the person who is suspected of the crime, is not the guilty party. And when Mitchell comes back into town, injured, saying that Jonah "confessed" to the crime and then ran off, you know that Jonah didn't do it. But Gray and the townspeople form a posse to go get Jonah anyway. He's hiding at Emily's house, and Jake finds him there, bleeding to death.
Dale finds guilty about the way he quit the job at Gracie's store, but Gail has some shocking news for him: Gracie left the store to him in her will.
Continue reading Jericho: Vox Populi
Posted Nov 22nd 2006 9:33PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E10) Great to see that even an episode of a series about nuclear war and small town isolation can have a Thanksgiving episode! But it's not a "Very Special Episode" of Jericho, where everyone has a bake sale and learn a valuable lesson about...I don't know, bake sales or something, it's actually a rather fascinating episode about what the people of Jericho should do when boxes and boxes of food, medicine, fuel, and supplies are dropped from airplanes. Do you trust them? Are they poisoned? Is everything safe to touch? Confusing matters more is that the labels are in Chinese, and the planes were Russian.
At first I thought, yay, Chinese Food! That's what everyone eats when they're alone on the holidays, right? But then you have to think about who sent it (if they really did) and why.
Continue reading Jericho: Red Flag
Posted Nov 15th 2006 9:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E09) Right now, this show is better than Lost. Yeah, I said it.
While Lost seems to be, well, lost because they've suddenly turned into a show about a prison and a love triangle, this show is doing almost everything right. Yeah, I know, that might not be fair, because this is only the ninth episode of Jericho and Lost is in the middle of its third season. But I sense good things to come from Jericho, and this season of Lost has only showed me that the very structure of the show that I loved that first season and a half has now become a giant weight that's starting to sink the show. But that's a whole other rant for another day.
Ravenwood finds out Eric's address from his jacket and comes to town...
Continue reading Jericho: Crossroads
Posted Nov 8th 2006 9:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E08) A question for all you mothers and wives out there: if your husband was dying and needed medicine, would you send your only children out to the unknown, where they could be killed or lost or made sick? I would think that since you might lose your husband, you'd at least want one of your kids to stay behind. Maybe send out one of your sons and someone else from the town.
I ask this because Gail sends both Jake and Eric to Rogue River to get the medicine he needs or he'll die in 12 hours...
Continue reading Jericho: Rogue River
Posted Nov 1st 2006 9:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho

(S01E07) So, it's Halloween in Jericho. You would think that every person would be scared enough already with, you know, the world possibly coming to an end, especially after Gray makes it back into town with the news that Washington, D.C. is no more. But nope, there seems to be quite a celebration, with all the kids in costumes and plenty of candy to go around.
But Jonah is also coming to town, and he wants to get Mitch out of jail.
Continue reading Jericho: Long Live The Mayor
Posted Oct 18th 2006 9:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E05) You know how NBC's Heroes does endings really well? Actually, they do everything really well, but their episode endings are particularly cool and intriguing.
Jericho is like that with their openings.
The power comes back on, and not only does an "Emergency Alert" sign come up on all televisions, but every home and business in Jericho gets a phone call from the Department of Homeland Security. It's a recording, telling them to stay where they are, help is on the way. This is an amazingly creepy, effective scene. You wonder if that's how it will be if anything like this really happens.
Continue reading Jericho: Federal Response
Posted Oct 4th 2006 10:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Jericho
(S01E03) "18 Hours After The Bombs."
That's sort of an odd phrase to use as an opening, "after the bombs." But I guess we know they were definitely bombs, and there were more than one. Sometimes I think we might be overthinking this show. Maybe we're supposed to understand that these were nuclear bombs directed at our cities, a war, and not (take your choice) an accident, aliens, a conspiracy, or something similar. I guess the mystery is in who did it, why, and how this small town will survive.
Continue reading Jericho: Four Horsemen