Below is a list of my favorite Season Two episodes from the CBS series, "ELEMENTARY". Created by Robert Doherty, the series stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson:
FIVE FAVORITE EPISODES OF "ELEMENTARY" SEASON TWO (2013-2014)
1. (2.10) "Tremors" - During a court hearing to determine whether he and Joan Watson should be kept on as consultants to the NYPD, Sherlock Holmes recalls the events that led to the shooting of Detective Marcus Bell.
2. (2.22) "Paint It Black" - Following Joan's kidnapping by terrorists, Sherlock and his brother Mycroft Holmes race to investigate the connection between her kidnappers and a Swiss bank executive in order to save her life.
3. (2.06) "An Unnatural Arrangement" - Sherlock and Joan investigate the attempted assault of Lieutenant Thomas "Tommy" Gregson's estranged wife, when their home is invaded.
4. (2.01) "Step Nine" - Sherlock and Joan travel to London to help the former's police partner, Inspector Lestrade, who has gone into hiding after threatening a murder suspect with a grenade. The pair also discovers that Sherlock's older brother Mycroft is living at 221B Baker Street, Holmes' former residence.
5. (2.17) "Ears to You" - Sherlock, Joan and the NYPD investigate when a former murder suspect receives a parcel with two severed ears in it, leaving the police to suspect that his "late" wife might still be alive and he might be innocent of murder.
Below is a list of my five favorite episodes from Season One of AMC" "TURN: WASHINGTON'S SPIES". Created by Craig Silverstein, the series stars Jamie Bell: FIVE FAVORITE EPISODES OF "TURN: WASHINGTON'S SPIES" SEASON ONE (2014)
1. (1.08) "Challenge" - Against the wishes of Abraham "Abe" Woodhull, one of the Culper Ring spies, fellow spy Anna Strong earches for enemy intelligence at an exclusive gentleman's party hosted by British spymaster Major John Andre.
2. (1.10) "The Battle of Setauket" - Mary Woodhull discovers that Abe is a rebel spy. Other members of the spy ring, Major Benjamin Tallmadge and Lieutenant Caleb Brewster, lead a raid on the Long Island community, Setauket, to save the local Patriot families.
3. (1.05) "Epiphany" - During the 1776 Christmas holidays, Caleb and Ben follow mysterious orders, while General George Washington's army crosses into enemy territory in New Jersey. Meanwhile, one of Anna's recently freed slaves, Abigail, agrees to spy for the Rebels after she is assigned to work for Major Andre, if the former would agree to look after her son Cicero.
4. (1.09) "Against Thy Neighbor" - British Army Captain John Graves Simcoe (at least the fictional version) ignites a political witch-hunt to weed out rebel conspirators in Setauket. General Washington assigns Ben to a secret mission.
5. (1.06) "Mr. Culpeper" - En route to New York, Abe is ambushed by a desperate patriot. Washington charges Ben with the task of creating America's first official spy ring.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.11) "Vox Popoli"
When I first read the title for this eleventh episode of "JERICHO", I found myself confused. I suspected that there was a strong reason why the series' show runners had given the episode this particular title. The problem was that I never learned any Latin.
Following my latest viewing of (1.11) "Vox Populi", I decided to make the effort to translate the phrase. It means "voice of the people". Considering what happened, I believe this particular episode was well titled. The "voice of the people"truly made an impact on this episode . . . not just for Mayor Johnston Greene, but also local criminal Jonah Prowse.
"Vox Populi" proved to be a strange episode upon first viewing. The episode merely picked up where the previous episode, (1.10) "Red Flag" left off - with the murder of local merchant Gracie Leigh at the hands of Prowse's second-in-command, Mitchell Cafferty. The incident not only proved to have far-reaching consequences, it also had a major impact upon this episode. While Jake Greene and Emily Sullivan continue to enjoy their renewed interest in each other, their budding romance is interrupted by Prowse's ragged appearance at Emily's home. He reveals that Mitchell had not only killed Gracie, but also framed Prowse for the crime. Another scene confirms this, by revealing Mitchell telling Johnston, Gray Anderson and the law that Prowse had killed Gracie. From that moment on, Gray switches to lynch mode and organizes a mob to find Prowse. Jake recruits Robert Hawkins' help to find Prowse before Gray's lynch mob can. Unfortunately, both Jake and Robert are too late. Gray and his gang finds Prowse and quickly place him in jail. A short period of time reveals Gray being sworn in as Jericho's new mayor. The "voice of the people" - at least those belonging to the town's residents - had spoken. Due to their resentment over Johnston holding back the food from China and especially Gray's capture of Prowse, they decided to vote for a new mayor. Unfortunately, Gray's victory and his continuing paranoia went to his head and he decided it was time to lynch Prowse.
Among all of this doom and gloom, some good happened in "Vox Populi". Dale Turner learned that he had inherited Gracie's store. And although Mitchell tried to extort goods from Dale, the latter dealt with the former on his own. Despite a few setbacks, Robert managed to find a way to click with his son, Samuel, and continue repairing his fractured marriage to Darcy. And as I had earlier pointed out, Jake and Emily seemed to be mending their relationship. However, the arrival of a group of newcomers that include Emily's missing fiancé Roger Hammond, seems destined to fracture that relationship again.
I must admit that this was a pretty good episode . . . much better than I had originally assumed. My original opinion of"Vox Populi" was that it was a bit too fractured, due to including Gray's election as Jericho's new mayor into the mix. It just seemed too out of place. But after my recent viewing, I finally understood that the situation regarding Jonah Prowse, Gracie Fields and Mitchell Cafferty played a major role in Gray's election. Jonah's arrest was the incident that got Johnston Greene thrown out of office. It was also the incident that encouraged Gray to consider lynching Jonah with the help of others. Jericho also found itself with a new mayor who was more willing to make the easy choices to placate the "voice of the people" and quell his own inner paranoia . . . instead of the hard choices that are morally right or would benefit others in the long run. However . . . Gray made his first correct choice as mayor in "Vox Populi". With Jake's urging, he ignored "the voice of the people" and his own inner emotions and made the choice not to lynch Jonah and allow the latter to leave Jericho.
If there is one thing about "Vox Populi" that I found disappointing was that Gray's election as Jericho's new mayor was never dramatized on screen. I realize that the episode's running time gave the writers little opportunity to show the actual election. Yet, I still wish it had been shown. Following Gray's capture of Jonah, the episode went into a commerical break. Then it returned showing Gray being sworn in as the the town's new mayor. I realize that Gray's election played a major role in the episode. Unfortunately, this method of showing it seemed disjointed to me.
"Vox Populi" featured some solid performances from the likes of Brad Beyer, Alicia Coppola, Clayne Crawford, April D. Parker, Sterling Ardrey, Aasif Mandvi, Richard Speight Jr., and Bob Stephenson. I was surprised to find Sprague Grayden as Heather Lisinski missing from this episode. It would have been nice for the episode's screenwriter to explain her absence, but I guess I cannot have everything. But for me, the best performances came from Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott, Michael Gaston, James Remar, Erik Knudsen, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed and Lennie James. As far as I am concerned, all of them knocked it out of the ballpark.
I must confess, "Vox Populi" is not a personal favorite of mine. But after my recent viewing, I must admit that it was better than I had originally assumed. Also, it did a good job in moving the series' major narrative forward, despite focusing on the situation regarding Jonah Prowse. More importantly, the episode ended with the arrival of new survivors to Jericho. One of those survivors turned out to be Emily Sullivan's missing fiancé, much to hers and Jake's consternation. Another survivor has yet to be seen. But that person's impact will be felt in the upcoming episodes to come.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.10) "Red Flag"
At the end of the previous "JERICHO" episode, (1.09) "Crossroads", Jake Green had approached his father, Mayor Johnston Green, about raising a militia unit for the defense of their town, Jericho. I could say that this next episode, (1.10) "Red Flag", is the result of Jake's idea. Instead, show runners Stephen Chbosky, Josh Schaer and Jonathan E. Steinberg decided it had another story to tell.
The episode began with Jericho's militia trainees hunting turkeys for Thanksgiving. The story immediately shifted when Jake, along with best friend Stanley Richmond, find a crate of food - from China - in the middle of a field. The episode soon shifted to the skies above Jericho when bomber planes drop crates filled with food, medicine and a generator upon the town's streets. Wary of receiving food from China, Mayor Green, Jake and Eric decide to hesitate in distributing the food and other supplies; until they can ascertain whether the material is safe or not. Unfortunately, standing in the Greens' way are three impediments:
1) the politically ambitious Gray Anderson's insistence that the food be immediately distributed
2) the group of criminals/survivalists led by Jonah Prowse, who wants to use the food and supplies for profit
3) Jericho's citizens who desperately want the food
In a way, "Red Flag" reminded me of the series' earlier episodes in which the plots focused on the basic survival of Jericho's citizens. Food supplies have been diminishing for weeks, despite Dale Turner's discovery of an abandoned freight train filled with supplies in (1.03) "Four Horsemen". I have mixed feelings regarding the Greens' reluctance to distribute the food to Jericho's citizens. On one hand, I understood their wariness to do so, considering that the food came from China, which had been a political enemy of the United States since 1949-50. On the other hand, this episode was set during the Thanksgiving holiday, which meant over two months had passed since the bombs were dropped. If China had been behind the attacks, the United States would have been under the control of an invasion force by this episode. I found it improbable that the Greens or Robert Hawkins never considered this.
I will give credit to the episode's screenwriter, Mike Ostrowski, for using the China supply drop for extending the series' main narrative forward. Johnston Green's reluctance to distribute the food led to conflicts between him and many of the town's citizens - especially Gray Anderson, who harbored ambitions to become the new mayor. While Johnston is too busy dealing with the town's survival, his wife Gail sees the writing on the wall and fears that he will soon be out of a job. Both the supplies and the generator leads to another conflict between the town and Jonah Prowse, who makes a grab for the generator. This, in turn, leads to Emily Sullivan surprising everyone with a quick recovery of the generator . . . and trouble for Jonah. His second-in-command, Mitchell Cafferty, murders storekeeper Gracie Leigh in an attempt to frame him - an act that ends up having far reaching consequences in the near future.
The most interesting story arc of "Red Flag" turned out to be the consequences of Eric Green's failing marriage to Dr. April Green. I must admit that Ostrowski and director Martha Mitchell in continuing the fallout of Eric's affair with tavern owner Mary Bailey and the end of his marriage with surprising maturity. The situation becomes increasingly heated after Eric learns of April's pregnancy. Those scenes that featured Johnston and Gail Green's failed efforts to convince Eric to continue his marriage to April were probably the best in this entire episode. I found them emotional, real and surprisingly mature, thanks to the performances of Kenneth Mitchell, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed and Darcy Stanchfield.
There were also pleasant aspects to "Red Flag". It featured another step in Robert Hawkins' efforts to re-bond with his family - especially his children. This story arc ended on a pleasant note when he founded a way to make Thanksgiving a positive experience for his kids and Jericho's other citizens, using the recaptured generator. And when Stanley is beaten by Jonah's men, while stealing the crate on his property; he is nursed by his current tenant, former IRS agent Mimi Clark. Not surprisingly, the pair finally acknowledge their attraction to each other and begin a romance.
As much as I admire how the episode's story arc propelled the series' main narrative forward, "Red Flag" is not a major favorite of mine. It is a pretty decent episode that featured one particular story arc - the Eric and April Green marital breakup - that really impressed me. Unfortunately, the food supply story arc left me feeling as if the episode had regressed the series on an emotional level.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.09) "Crossroads"
The previous episode of "JERICHO" - (1.08) "Rogue River" - left off with Jake and Eric Green returning home from a harrowing trip to a town called Rogue River with the medication needed to save their very ill father, Mayor Johnston Green. Unfortunately, Eric discovered that he had left his wallet, which included his identity, behind. Even worse, the leader of the Ravenwood mercenaries that they had encountered, John Goetz, had discovered Eric's wallet.
The series' ninth episode, (1.09) "Crossroads" focused upon the Ravenwood mercenaries' attempt to invade Jericho and rob the town of food and other supplies. Goetz made the mistake of leading a scouting party to the farm owned by Stanley Richmond, who did not hesitate to inform Jake and Eric about their presence. The two brothers quickly inform Jericho's other leading citizens, which include the two remaining lawmen, the mysterious Robert Hawkins and businessman Gray Anderson, about the potential threat of Ravenwood's arrival. The men manage to recruit of citizens to defend the town at a crossroads by barricading the road with trucks and cars. Goetz gives the citizens to remove the vehicles within an hour or his mercenaries will shoot their way through. The townspeople decide that the only way to defend themselves from the threat of Ravenwood is to blow up the bridge . . . with the exception of Eric, who fears that its destruction will cut off those citizens who live on the far side - including the inhabitants at the Richmond farm.
Meanwhile, both Emily Sullivan and Heather Lisinksi decide to deal with the stress of Mayor Green's illness with a walk and a few drinks at Mary Bailey's tavern. The two women meet Jericho's newest citizen, Dr. Kenchy Dhuwalia, whom Jake and Eric had rescued from Ravenwood. The two women spend their time drinking with Kenchy and listening to his horror stories about the road and Rogue River. And when Emily realizes that this day would have marked her wedding to her missing fiancé Roger Hammond, she begins to image what would have happened if he had never left Jericho.
I was surprised that the showrunners would immediately follow up from what happened in Rogue River. I figured they would wait for another episode or two before dealing with the aftermath of Jake and Eric's road trip. But it did not matter. "Crossroads" proved to be an interesting episode filled with tension, suspense and a little action. To be honest, most of the action occurred in a scene that featured the first confrontation between Jericho's citizens and the Ravenwood mercenaries. A few shots exchanged resulted in the death of a Ravenwood mercenary. Ironically, this only led Goetz to keep his cool and threaten the townspeople with more violence if they do not cooperate. But I got the feeling that "Crossroads" was basically a character study of three people - Jake, Eric and Emily. Did this bother me? No. But it left me feeling slightly deflated after the high level tensions of"Rogue River".
When I first saw this episode, I was surprised to see Jake and Eric at odds over whether to blow up the bridge. Even more surprising was that both Jake and Gray agreed that the bridge should be destroyed, while Eric opposed the suggestion. I found this surprising because Jake and Gray rarely agreed on anything. Also, Eric has always been the only member of the Green family that Gray genuinely liked. But the most surprising aspect of this conflict is that for once, Eric proved to be right. And he settled the matter in a way that not only surprised Jake, Gray and Jericho's other citizens, but also Goetz.
More importantly, "Crossroads" drove the series' main narrative forward. Like "Rogue River", it did not focus on the town's efforts to deal with the latest survival crisis. Instead, it pushed forward storylines that will prove to have a major impact later in the series. Near the end of the episode, a defeated John Goetz promised Jake that sooner or later, some kind of order will be restored. And when that happened, he would be back to cause more trouble for Jericho's citizens. Sure enough, he kept his promise in Season Two. But more surprising, the Jericho/Ravenwood conflict will have consequences that will take the town's citizens by surprise . . . later in Season One.
The subplot regarding Emily had originally struck me as nothing more than an episode filler. Watching her imagine how her wedding to Roger Hammond would have panned out did not strike me as particularly thrilling . . . or interesting. But after a re-watch of this episode, I realized that this subplot was really a foreshadow of Emily's future with both Jake and Roger. In fact, this "triangle" will prove to have a strong impact in Season One's second half. But what I really found interesting about Emily's visions is that she was finally able to face the fact that she was still in love with Jake. I am certain that many Jake/Heather shippers were upset with this revelation. I was not. As I have stated in an article for a previous episode, Jake and Heather had always seem more like siblings to me, instead of potential lovers.
I could not find a performance out of step in "Crossroads". Everyone did their job. The episode featured competent performances from Lennie James, Michael Gaston, Darby Stanchfield, Sprague Grayden, Pamela Reed, Alicia Coppola, Shoshannah Stern and Gerald McRaney. There were a few that stood out above the other performances. I thought Skeet Ulrich did an excellent job in conveying both Jake Green's bull-by-the-horn approach to any crisis and the fear that nearly had him shaking during his second confrontation with Goetz. Kenneth Mitchell was exceptional as a determined Eric Green, who is certain that Jake's decision to blow up the bridge was wrong. I was also impressed by Brad Beyer, who did a great job in portraying Stanley Richmond's determination not to abandon his farm even in the face of the threat from Ravenwood. Ashley Scott did an excellent and subtle job in conveying Emily's growing realization that she was still in love with Jake. I also enjoyed Aasif Mandvi's performance as Dr. Kenchy Dhuwalia. I thought he was very skillful in conveying his character's drunken charm, while conveying a sense of horror to Emily and Heather of his experiences in Las Vegas and Rogue River.
I also have to commend And once again, D.B. Sweeney managed to knock it out of the ballpark in his portrayal of the Ravenwood leader, John Goetz. I realize that many might find this hard to believe, but what really impressed me about Sweeney's portrayal of Goetz was the skillful manner in which he conveyed the character's cool. Goetz was a cold-blooded, ruthless and violent man. But he knew how to keep his cool. And Sweeney managed to convey all of these aspects of Goetz's character with great skill.
What else can I say about "Crossroads"? Although not as action-oriented as I had originally assumed it would be, the episode still proved to be a first-rate study of some of the leading characters. Thanks to screenwriter Robert Levine, "Crossroads" did an excellent job of driving the show's main narrative forward.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.03) "Four Horsemen"
The last episode of "JERICHO", (1.02) "Fallout" ended with Jake Green and the citizens of Jericho, Kansas seeking shelter from a rain storm that might possibly be radioactive. This next episode, (1.03) "Four Horsemen", picks up several minutes later.
A great deal happened in this third episode of "JERICHO". And much of it proved to have consequences in later episodes. The episode began with farmer Stanley Richmond arriving at his farm during the rainstorm, only to find his sister Bonnie, Jake Green, Emily Sullivan, Sheriff Deputy Jimmy Taylor and Sheriff Deputy Bill Kohler seeking shelter inside his basement from the rain. Jake contacts his sister-in-law Dr. April Green via walkie talkie on what to do about Stanley, who may have been exposed to radiation. Meanwhile, Jericho's latest newcomer, Robert Hawkins, dons a Hazmat suit and goes outside to move a large metal container from his truck to a storage locker on his property. In one scene that went no further than this episode, some of Jericho's citizens briefly witnessed a Chinese media broadcast inside Mary Bailey's bar, before the broadcast went dead.
Once the rain stops, Jake contacts his brother Eric, who is at the town's only fallout shelter, to see about releasing those citizens who are stuck inside the town's only salt mine. Later, Jake convinces his father to send a group of volunteers to search for news throughout the Kansas countryside. Those volunteers include local businessman Gray Anderson, who has ambitions to become Jericho's next mayor. Jake becomes another volunteer. He manages to stumble across a plane filled with dead passengers that was forced to make an emergency landing and its flight recorder. Jake returns to Jericho with the flight recorder and finds evidence that the plane carrying Emily's missing fiancé had landed with all passengers alive.
As I had earlier stated, a great deal happened in "Four Horsemen". One important scene featured Robert moving the mysterious container to his property. This container, which nearly played a part in the apocalyptic disaster that struck the nation at the beginning of the series, would have an important impact upon Robert's family before the end of the first season and an even bigger impact upon the series' narrative by the end of Season Two. Jake's discovery that Emily's missing fiancé may have survived the bombings ended up being played out before Season One ended. Gray Anderson made another attempt to broadcast his intentions to become Jericho's next mayor will end up having consequences down the road. After his boss, storekeeper Gracie Leigh, donated a good deal of her supplies for a town square picnic; Dale Turner stumbled across a stalled freight train with a large supply of undelivered goods that will provide conflict among Jericho's citizens and other characters. And the road trip that led Jake to the downed plane also sent Gray across the Kansas countryside. The results of Gray's trip would alert Jericho's citizens on just how catastrophic the bombings proved to be for the country. But despite all of the action that filled the episode, I found it disappointing after the last scene faded from my television screen.
I certainly had no complaints regarding the performances in this episode. Both Skeet Ulrich and Ashley Scott continued the skillfully acted tension between the Jake Green and Emily Sullivan characters in one scene in which the former tried to convince the latter to join him on the road. Another pair of performances that caught my attention came from Lennie James and April D. Parker, who did an excellent job in conveying the emotional tension between Robert and Darcy Hawkins. Tension between characters seemed to be the hallmark in this episode. Gerald McRaney and Michael Gaston had a fascinating scene together in which the latter's Gray Anderson openly chastised McRaney's Mayor Johnston Green for the lack of more than one fallout shelter in Jericho. On the other hand, Brad Beyer definitely provided a great deal of sharp humor in his portrayal of local farmer, Stanley Richmond.
But the despite the action that pervaded this episode, along with the tension between several characters and the continuation of various story arcs; "Four Horsemen" failed to completely satisfy me in the end. What was the problem? Despite the many story lines that filled the episode, it had no main narrative. "Four Horsemen" started out focusing on Jericho's citizens waiting out the rain (which may or may not have been radioactive) and ended with the so-called "four horsemen" hitting the roads of Kansas. In other words, the narrative or narratives in "Four Horsemen" simply sprawled all over the episode. The rain story line, in my opinion, should have began and ended in the previous episode, (1.02) "Fallout". And I also believe that screenwriters Dan O'Shannon and Dan Shotz should have focused this episode on the citizens' need to learn more news about the bombings - leading to the departure of the "Four Horsemen" near the end.
I suppose there is nothing else I can say about "Four Horsemen". It featured a good number of story arcs that proved to be relevant for the main narrative of "JERICHO". And it also featured fine performances from a cast led by Skeet Ulrich. But the lack of a strong or centered story line in this episode led to a good deal of disappointment for me.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.02) "Fallout"
It just occurred to me that this second episode of the CBS television series, "JERICHO" was aptly named. In a way (1.02) "Fallout" perfectly described the situation from the series' first episode, (1.01) "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours".
The previous episode ended with the western Kansas community shaken by the sight of an atomic mushroom and news that two U.S. cities had been devastated by nuclear explosions . . . and their sheriff and one of the deputies murdered by two escaped convicts on their way to prison. "Fallout" picks up the following morning with Jericho schoolteacher Emily Sullivan trying to hitchhike her way back to Jericho, when her stalled SUV prevents her from reaching the airport to pick up her fiance. She finally receives a ride from a police cruiser being driven by two deputy sheriffs. With the car low on gas, Emily suggests they seek gasoline at the farm of Stanley and Bonnie Richmond. By the time they reach their destination, she realizes that her two saviors are not lawmen, but possibly dangerous criminals.
Back in Jericho, the town's new resident, Robert Hawkins, hints of the possibility of radioactive fallout from the Denver bombing, in the incoming rainstorm threatening Jericho. He suggests that the citizens might have to either seek shelter in their homes or the town's two fallout shelters. While the Greens, Hawkins and businessman Gray Anderson struggle to help the citizens seek shelter; Emily tries to alert the deaf Bonnie that the new visitors are criminals. She also manages to sneak outside the Richmond house in order to send a message to Jericho, via the cruiser's radio.
After watching this episode, it occurred to me that the first three episodes of "JERICHO" might have been a three-part story depicting Jericho's initial reactions to the Denver bombing and its aftermath. I came to this conclusion after noticing that "Fallout" ended the story arc about the escaped prisoners, but failed to do the same for the "radioactive rain" story arc. The episode ended with the prisoners dead, but the citizens of Jericho inside shelters, basements and in the case for many, a salt mine. Not only did the rain continue to fall, but one of the community's citizens, Stanley Richardson, was no where to be found. Also, a new story arc regarding Mayor Johnston Green's illness began in this episode. And this story arc will have far reaching impact on the series that will last into Season Two. I now have the deepest suspicion that the series' creators must have planned their story with greater detail than I had originally imagined.
Another aspect of "Fallout" that I found particularly curious was that it seemed like a mixture of a television crime drama and a disaster movie. In fact, I was hard put to see the connection between the escaped convicts story arc and the plot regarding the nuclear fallout rain. The episode ended before the two story arcs could really mesh together. Not even Jake Green's rush from the salt mine shelter to the Richmond farm, following Emily's radio message, could really bridge the two stories. I think the reason is that none of the characters involved in the plot regarding the escaped convicts - especially Emily Sullivan and Bonnie Richmond - had no real knowledge of the approaching rain storm possibly containing a nuclear fallout. In fact, the two women will learn of the fallout in the next episode, thanks to Jake. Perhaps this is why it is best to view "Fallout" as a second chapter in the story arc about the initial response to the bombings, instead of a stand alone episode. However, despite my acceptance that"Fallout" might not be a stand alone episode, I do have one major complaint about it. In one scene, Emily found two Jericho deputy sheriffs - Jimmy Taylor and Bill Kohler - gagged, bound and in their underwear inside the police cruiser's trunk. If these same two convicts were willing to murder the sheriff and one of the deputies, why did they refrain from killing Jimmy and Bill? I never understood this, especially after they forced the two deputies to hand over their uniforms.
Although I could not seriously consider "Fallout" as a stand alone episode, I must admit that I still found it fascinating to watch. I have to credit Stephen Chbosky for writing a very taut episode. Between the danger surrounding the two escaped convicts and Jericho's citizens to seek shelter from a potentially dangerous rain storm, the episode was filled with tension, action and drama. I would not consider it particularly memorable or original if it had not been for that last scene. This episode marked the first episode that featured Robert Hawkins' new home and family - wife Darcy and young son Samuel. His daughter Allison appeared in the following episode. More importantly, the episode also featured the first hint that he knew the real truth behind the bombings. One scene featured him inside the sheriff's station, using a ham radio to receive information unknown to the audience. By the end of the episode, the audience learned what Robert knew - namely some of other U.S. locations that suffered a nuclear blast.
I certainly have no complaints about the performances in "Fallout". Skeet Ulrich continued his exuberant performance as lead character Jake Green. And Lennie James proved to be just as unfathomable as the mysterious Robert Hawkins. The episode also featured excellent work from Bob Stephenson, Richard Speight Jr., Gerald McRaney, Beth Grant, Pamela Reed, Michael Gaston, Sprague Grayden, Shoshannah Stern, Clare Carey and the two actors that portrayed the convicts - Jonno Roberts and Aaron Hendry. The episode also featured the first appearances of April D. Parker as Darcy Hawkins and Darby Stanchfield as April Green, Jake's sister-in-law. Like the others, they gave solid performances. But there were four performances that really impressed me. Two of them came from Erik Knudsen and Candace Bailey as teenage outcast Dale Turner and rich girl Skylar Stevens. The two actors did an excellent job in setting up the emotional and complex relationship between the superficially mismatched pair. Kenneth Mitchell, who portrayed Jake's younger brother Eric Green, shined in one particular scene in which the mayor's younger son resorted to scare tactics to convince a group of stubborn beer guzzlers at the local tavern to seek shelter from the radioactive rain. But the woman of the hour proved to be Ashley Scott, who did a marvelous job in conveying the ordeal that Emily Sullivan endured in this episode. I was impressed at how she managed to dominate the episode without resorting to any theatrical acting.
If I must be honest, I found this episode's handling of the two deputy sheriffs' fates rather illogical. And it is obvious that "Fallout" cannot really hold up as a stand alone episode. But thanks to Stephen Chbosky's transcript, Jon Turteltaub' taut direction and a standout performance by Ashley Scott, "Fallout" proved to be an interesting episode filled with tension, solid action and good drama.
"JERICHO" RETROSPECT: (1.01) "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours"
It took me quite a while to get over CBS' cancellation of the 2006-2008 post-apocalypse series, "JERICHO". Quite a while. But when I recently watched the series' first episode, "Pilot: The Seventeen Hours", my anger returned. Somewhat. After all, five years had past since the series' cancellation. And I know it will never come back.
Oh well. I still have my DVD collection of all the episodes. Watching "Pilot: The Seventeen Hours" brought back good memories for me. The episode not introduced most or all of the players that would have a major role in the series' saga. The episode and the story begins with the return of Jake Green to his hometown of Jericho, Kansas. Estranged from his family for five years, he only returns to to pay respect to his recently deceased grandfather and to claim the money left to him by the latter. Due to his estrangement with his father, Mayor Johnston Green and the latter's refusal to hand over the money, Jake decides to leave town again. While driving away from Jericho, he witnesses the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb in the far distance before colliding with an oncoming car.
That mushroom cloud, also witnessed by Deputy Jimmy Taylor's son and a few others. Mayor Green surmises that the bomb must have hit Denver, Colorado. However, his wife Gail learns from a local named Dale Turner that the latter's mother was killed in Atlanta, Georgia - the location of second nuclear attack. Realizing that a school bus full of children and their teacher, Heather Lisinski, is missing; Mayor Green orders the sheriff and his deputies to find it. However, an injured Jake ends up finding the bus. He saves the life of a young girl and manages to drive the bus back to Jericho with an injured leg. Unfortunately for the sheriff and one deputy, they are killed by a group of convicts that managed to escape from a prison bus following the nuclear attack.
"Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours" struck me as a pretty good episode. It did not allow "JERICHO" to begin on a sensational note like many science-fiction/fantasy television series I have seen in the past decade. And perhaps that is a good thing. Most recent serial television shows that begin on a high note have great difficulty in maintaining such a high level of quality. I am not stating that the pilot episode for "JERICHO" was terrible. Not by a long shot. But I would not view it as among the series' best episodes. Did "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours" have any flaws? Well, some of the crowd scenes featuring the good citizens of Jericho struck me as overwrought and cliched. This is the episode that tried to introduce the idea of Jake Green and Heather Lisinski as a potential couple. While some fans bought the . . . uh, "chemistry" between the two. It did not work for me and the pair has always struck me more as siblings. The episode also introduced Lennie James as the mysterious Robert Hawkins. While the screenwriters did a good job in establishing Hawkins' mysterious nature, I was not that impressed by the British-born James' American accent.
Despite these flaws, I still enjoyed "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours". Not only did the episode did a solid job in introducing the series' overall narrative, it also provided plenty of good action and mystery. Director Jon Turteltaub did a good job in handling such action scenes like the car accident that prevented Jake's departure from Kansas and the escaped convicts' murder of Jericho's sheriff. And although I had some trouble with one or two crowd scenes - especially the one in which the town citizens nearly panicked over getting their hands on available supplies. But there were some dramatic scenes that I enjoyed; including Jake's quarrel with his father and brother Eric, Jake saving the life of the young schoolgirl, Robert's attempt to offer his help to the sheriff and the fire chief, Dale Turner's revelation of a second nuclear explosion in Atlanta, and Jake's uneasy reunion with his ex-girlfriend Emily Sullivan. Despite the resolution of the missing school bus plot line, "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours" made sure that audiences knew that "JERICHO" would be a serial drama by leaving the following plot lines hanging:
*The escaped convicts
*Emily Sullivan's nighttime road trip to the pick up her fiancé from a nearby airport
*The emergence of businessman Gray Anderson as a future political opponent for Johnston Green
*The reason behind Robert Hawkins' appearance in Jericho
Of these four plot lines, only one will be resolved by the following episode.
The performances in this episode seemed pretty rock solid. My only complaints are directed at the extras and minor characters who portrayed the citizens of Jericho. The main reason I found some of the crowd scenes overwrought was that I found the performances portraying the citizens over-the-top. I realize they were supposed to be portraying the citizens in a state of panic. I simply did not find their performances satisfying. However, Skeet Ulrich expertly set the tone as the show's leading man. Lennie James injected that mysterious tone in his character right off the bat, even if I found his American accent a little shaky. Michael Gaston did a good job as Gray Anderson and I found Sprague Grayden's portrayal of Heather Lisinski rather charming. But there were three performances that really impressed me. One came from Gerald McRaney, who gave a commanding, yet sardonic performance as mayor Jericho, Johnston Green. Another came from Pamela Reed, who seemed to be the heart and soul of this episode as the mayor's wife, Gail Green. And the last impressive performance came from Erik Knudsen, who did an excellent job in setting up the complexities of the adolescent Dale Turner, one of the show's most complex characters.
Although not as impressive as other pilots I have seen from recent science-fiction/fantasy television shows. As I had earlier stated, "Pilot: The First Seventeen Hours" is not terrible, nor mediocre. But it is not great. However, this is not a problem for me. I have never demanded that the pilot of a science-fiction/fantasy series blow me away. All I demand that it does a good job in setting up the series' premise. And I believe that this pilot episode for "JERICHO" certainly accomplished this.
