Wednesday, September 20, 2006

How I Didn't Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I've never been much of a fan of post-Apocalyptic drama.

When all the other parents had to stop their kids from watching "The Day After" in 1983 because they were worried about the effect it might have on them, I already had no desire to watch anything about the world ending because of nuclear disaster. I guess being a child of the Cold War made me this way.

I've never seen any of the Mad Max movies all the way through; I've seen the original "Terminator" just once. Nightmares of futures in which the human race has nearly wiped itself out and the remaining few struggle just to survive has little appeal to me.

I had to read the book, "Alas, Babylon" in eighth grade (thanks a lot, Mr. Wong). Had a few nightmares because of that, too.

So, it was with great trepidation I tried to download the pilot of "Jericho" (CBS, 8 p.m.) off Yahoo! earlier today. A weekly drama about a midwestern coping after the rest of the world has apparently been wiped out via nuclear war was not very high on my to watch list.

What was on Yahoo! was a little misleading. I thought it was going to be the whole pilot; instead, it was selected scenes and half the time, my downloads didn't work (though the blame may lie with my work computer), so I can't really give you a positive or negative review.

Skeet Ullrich, Ashley Scott and Gerald McRaney are among the survivors in the town who now must band together after being cut off from the rest of the world. You may want to give "Jericho" a shot; me, I have enough trouble sleeping as it is.

WEDNESDAY'S BEST BET: I reviewed the pilot of "Kidnapped" a few weeks ago, and I highly recommend you catch the pilot (NBC, 10 p.m.).

Jeremy Sisto stars as a private detective who specializes in rescuing kidnapping victims. He is hired by a wealthy couple (Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney) after their teenage son is abducted. Delroy Lindo also stars as a veteran FBI agent who ends up on the case.

The cast is first-rate and the story is well done. "Kidnapped" is much better than the similar-themed but badly done "Vanished" on Fox.

3 comments:

This Girl said...

I like Kidnapped a whole lot better than Vanished. I didn't last past one episode with Vanished, while I really look forward to Kidnapped's resolution.

This Girl said...

P.S. I'm sorry I haven't been commenting. I hope your brother told you I switched to the new beta blogger and wasn't able to comment and you didnt' do anonymous posting, so I just read. I enjoy your blog alot.

Phillip Ramati said...

I think we have fixed the comments problems here. I gave up on Vanished after the pilot as well.

The second episode of Kidnapped is as good as the first. It focuses on the rich couple's oldest daughter, who is also missing. We also learn a key fact about the relationship between Sisto's character and Lindo's, done in a clever way.