Jericho

[Ryan Ruck]

Anyone else beside me heard about a new show joining the CBS lineup this fall called Jericho?

The premise of the show is about life in a small fictional town called Jericho, Kansas after some sort of nuclear event. The only thing we know about the nuclear event is that just prior, world tensions were on the rise and it isn't known whether this is terrorist related or state related. All that is known is that a nuclear explosion destroys Denver and (Spoiler alert! Highlight only if you want to read it!) later it is learned Atlanta as well.[END HIDDEN TEXT]

Even though the premier isn't until this fall on CBS (Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST), you can easily find the entire premier episode online through whatever file sharing program you prefer. Just do a search for "Jericho"…

I downloaded it and watched it and thought that it definitely has a lot of potential. I only had one gripe with it. The gripe is a little bit of a spoiler so if you don't want to read it, don't highlight the following text: They portray the owner of the only ham radio as some gun-toting kook who thinks that the attack is some sort of alien attack.[END HIDDEN TEXT]

To give you an idea about the premier if you don't want to download it (you should!), here's the picture that CBS has up on the show's page:


I'm definitely going to be watching it when it starts its regular season!

[American Patriot]

Are you trying to say something here about [BEGIN HIDDEN TEXT TO AVOID SPOILERS]gun-toting, ham radio, survivalist kooks[END HIDDEN TEXT], Ryan? If you are I might have missed the point.

[Ryan Ruck]

[HIDDEN TEXT TO AVOID SPOILER]I was just saying that I didn't particularly like how they portrayed the guy as some kook just because he has a gun and ham radio.[END HIDDEN TEXT] At least that is what I got out of it... Then again, maybe I was just looking too hard for something slamming conservatives in the show given See-BS's previous antics.

Also, Rick, changed some text in your post to avoid spoilers for those who haven't seen the premier yet.

The downside to talking about TV shows and movies is dealing with people who haven't seen them. With Lost and 24 I try to wait at least 24 hours before discussing any big details so that those who perhaps haven't had a chance to see it can without being exposed to spoilers here.

And, for anyone wanting to know how to do the hidden text trick, just use HTML coding to change the text color

< font color="#10375D"> Example Text < /font>

Just remove the spaces in between the brackets.

[Aplomb]

let's test it
Cool.
Now how does one make it stop doing this?

[Ryan Ruck]

Gotta close the HTML tag as listed above with a < /font> (without the space, no spaces in HTML tags!).

[samizdat]

You guys are lost in space.

[catfish]

Rya, this show sounds intriguing. I will be tuning in for sure. Also, thanks for showing us the hidden text, I have been wanting to do that for a long time and it is very conducive to this forum.

[Brian Baldwin]

I watched Jericho a couple times on the premium channels last summer. Has one of Cosby's TV kids in it right? Or did have. I didn't much care for it. Good storyline but poorly acted. Could easily go soap opera in the wrong hands.

[Ryan Ruck]

I don't think that was the same Jericho...

This is supposed to be a newly launched weekly TV show on CBS. So far as I know, outside of the premier being leaked to the internet (either intentionally or not), it hasn't been broadcast anywhere else.

Though, now that you mention it... I seem to remember seeing commercials for some show with a very similar plot line. I think it aired on the SciFi channel. A search of IMDB.com didn't turn up anything though...

ETA: Found it!! You are thinking of a series called "Jeremiah" that ran from 2002-2004. The "Cosby Kid" was Malcom Jamal Warner. Here is one plot summary from IMDB:

In a post-apocalyptic future, a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity. The only ones who survived, was those who hadn't yet reached puberty. Now a decade has gone by, and a man called Jeremiah (Luke Perry) is set on a quest to find a mysterious place his father spoke of, a place called Valhalla.

[Brian Baldwin]

Yep that was the one. So I guess I will see what Jericho has to offer and hope it's not just a rehash of other such plots. Like I said, it's a good story line and has lots of possibilities.

We'll see how it shapes up after the first season is under their belt.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wanted to bump this with a reminder that Jericho premiers this Wednesday, 9/20. Check local listings for times...

[Ryan Ruck]

Just a heads up but there are likely spoilers in this post…

So, anyone else been watching Jericho?

I re-watched the premier when it aired on TV (there were a few scenes not in the internet version) and I caught tonight's episode. So, far I am really liking the show.

I do have one nitpick so far and that is how they are portraying the radiation. While many programs can easily be accused of making radiation out to be something far worse than it is (The Day After), Jericho is (so far from what I can tell) making it out to be far less dangerous than what it really is.

From what it appears in the previews for next week, after the rainout in tonight's episode they just come out from their sheltering and seem to resume everything ho-hum.

This couldn't be further from the truth since they are directly downwind (according to tonight's episode) presumably about 150 miles from a nuclear detonation in which they could see the mushroom cloud. This means that in order to see the cloud from this distance, it had to have been a large detonation I'd estimate at least larger than 5MT. So I pulled out my "Effects of Nuclear War" to get a rough idea of fallout levels. Closest I could come was a 1MT so I am going to give a large margin of radiation rates. At 150 miles directly downwind from about a 5MT ground burst, compounded by the concentrated fallout levels due to rainout, they would be receiving anywhere from 900 rems/hr. to 3,000 rems/hr. As such, all those people above ground with low Protection Factors (i.e. those kids in the hallway in the house) would receive either lethal or near-lethal doses of radiation. This means a lot of people in the town would die.

The other thing is that the preview for the upcoming episode next week made it appear as though as soon as the radioactive rain stops, it is okay to come out. The truth is that if they were directly downwind from a 5MT ground burst and were receiving the radiation levels I said, they would end up sheltering for about 2-3 months until levels were near a "safe" level (1-10 rems/hr.). But, I suppose to keep an audience watching a new program, you couldn't really show people sitting around playing card games and sheltering for a couple months. In this same vein, while they grabbed supplies out of the town grocery store for those sheltering, they neglected to address what happens to all of those supplies after those shelter residents have processed them through their bodies… Again, I suppose that isn't really something to address on a primetime weekly show.

I will admit that I haven't seen any thing concrete about future episodes aside from the preview so, I will reserve ultimate judgment until then.

As I said though, so far I think the show is pretty good. It will be interesting to see what directions they take it in. Hopefully, they will be good!

[Malsua]

Ryan,

I also share your concerns about their portrayal of radiation.

First, that just touching you and you're dead. Not true. If you do get water with radioactive dust in it, you need to go take a shower and rinse it all down.

My next issue is that just being in a basement is enough. It isn't. You need to be in a shelter in the basement. You need to have as much mass as possible between you and the radioactivity. In the case of Jericho, it's the rain on the roof. How much radioactivity do you think some shingles, some drywall, insulation and floorboards stops? Answer; not much.

Next, they didn't mention, nor are they apparently going to follow the 7/10 rule. Meaning, within the first 7 hours, radiation will have dropped by 1/10th. Based on the show, the fallout is arriving about 24 hours later. This is good because the quick death amount is down alot, but it's still lethal. We also don't have any idea how many rads were present initially. It really depends on how dirty the bomb. If the initial fallout was 1000 rads per hour, it's going to be a month or better to get the dosing under half a rad(A livable dose). 7 hours x 7 x 7 x 7 = 2401 hours to get dosing to .1 rad. I.E. It won't really be safe for 75-100 days.

It did annoy me that everyone just taped up their windows and that was enough! Geesh! Ah well, I'll give it a few more shows, it may jump the shark quick.

[MinutemanCO]

Next, they didn't mention, nor are they apparently going to follow the 7/10 rule. Meaning, within the first 7 hours, radiation will have dropped by 1/10th. Based on the show, the fallout is arriving about 24 hours later. This is good because the quick death amount is down alot, but it's still lethal. We also don't have any idea how many rads were present initially. It really depends on how dirty the bomb. If the initial fallout was 1000 rads per hour, it's going to be a month or better to get the dosing under half a rad(A livable dose). 7 hours x 7 x 7 x 7 = 2401 hours to get dosing to .1 rad. I.E. It won't really be safe for 75-100 days.

Malsua,
Is this analysis based on a location hundreds of miles from ground zero but in the direct fallout line, as in the movie? Or, are the levels you quote based on more of an issue of timing beginning with the the time of the blast and the reduction in rad doses proportionate to this? I clearly am unschooled in this science. Rubber to the road... can we expect to spend 75-100 days in a shelter? That condition would be unlivable. Do you have any links that might help the lay folk understand this a bit better?

[Malsua]

Malsua,
Is this analysis based on a location hundreds of miles from ground zero but in the direct fallout line, as in the movie? Or, are the levels you quote based on more of an issue of timing beginning with the the time of the blast and the reduction in rad doses proportionate to this? I clearly am unschooled in this science. Rubber to the road... can we expect to spend 75-100 days in a shelter? That condition would be unlivable. Do you have any links that might help the lay folk understand this a bit better?

There are two things to remember here. Direct line of sight to the blast and fallout from the blast. I was talking about fallout. The radiation at the blast point was 10s of thousands of roentgens, truly, I don't know what it is. Fallout however is different. Time and distance or time as a factor of distance is really what matters.

In a huge megatonnage blast where you nearby and downwind, yes, 2-3 months in a shelter is right. In a small 10 kiloton or less and you aren't under the fallout footprint, you're probably ok within a few days. Figure 2 weeks in most cases. There's also issues of what kind of a bomb it is. If it's a Cobalt 60 nuke(none thought to exist, the were banned), we're going extinct.

Good place to start:
http://www.radshelters4u.com/

Here's a more specific link:
http://www.parowanprophet.com/Nuclea...nformation.htm

That nomograph is fairly interesting, I'd like to have clean one. It will answer you question as to how much time is required in shelter.

as a note, I am not endorsing these folk's views or their products. The science listed is pretty good thought.

[Malsua]

I created an animated GIF of the Nomograph.


You can find a copy of the original here:
http://www.geocities.com/malbor2/taa...-nomograph.jpg

[Ryan Ruck]

Saw last night's episode and liked it as well!

And, according to some ratings numbers, a lot of other people did/do as well. From what I have read, not only has Jericho held about 90% of its premier audience, the number of viewers has increased.

My only gripe is again with the radiation. I see that the writers sidestepped the issues dealing with radiation by showing that no fallout reached Jericho but, I am still confused. I'm confused by the fact that the rain supposedly left ashes of Denver (remember, the dark haired woman put her hand in a rain puddle and it was sooty) but, none of those ashes were radioactive. I suppose the "out" by the writers is that the ashes could be from the ensuing firestorm that typically follows in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation, and that the wind has simply changed directions to blow those ashes over Jericho while the fallout got blown elsewhere. As I said, I understand not wanting to deal with the radiation aspect as much since it would not make for interesting TV to show people sitting around doing little for 2-3 months.

Also, some more information about the blasts was revealed with the flight data recorder that was found. One pilot reported seeing a mushroom cloud about 68k feet high. I pulled out my copy of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, which is a very comprehensive book with much compiled scientific data from the days of our many real life nuclear tests (1962). I found the chart that shows "stabilized" cloud height as it relates to explosive weapon yield. An approximate cloud height of 68,000 feet, or 12.8 miles shows a weapon yield of approximately 1 megaton. So, I was a little too generous with my previous estimates of 5MT and as such, the radiation exposure from fallout would be much less (in the 900-300 REM range at about 150-200mi from 1MT ground burst). If it had been 5MT, the cloud height would have been around 19-20 miles high. Now, whether a 12.8 mile high mushroom cloud could be seen from 150-200 miles away (approximate distance of Jericho from Denver) remains to be seen. I don't know how to do the math to figure out curvature of the Earth versus height visible.

Also, we saw some new interesting things about Robert the "cop from St. Louis". I have seen the theories abound about his true identity up to and including that he is a terrorist sleeper and that he had a nuclear weapon in that drum of his. My personal theory is that he is a former government spook that was survival minded, saw the writing on the wall, and got his family out of Dodge (remember in the first episode, it was stated he bought that farmhouse with cash). Another aspect that lends credence to this is that he was able to distinguish just what specific type of Chinese (Mandarin) was being spoken in that broadcast seen in the bar. In addition to his understanding of Chinese, his knowledge not only of Morse code but, how he knew just what frequency to tune the receiver to pick up that broadcast. I'm not sure how many cops can distinguish between Mandarin and Cantonese let alone Chinese from any other Asian language, and understand Morse code. I did think it was interesting how they showed him with a hard case of AR rifles! And, as for the drum he wheeled from the storage lockup, I suspect that is either fuel (most likely) or water that he has stockpiled and was walling it up to keep it from being found out by less savory characters.

Speaking of the Morse code transmission… I had read elsewhere that the transmission read:

"code delta code delta 2 minute warning.

score remains scoreless."

Very interesting… I suppose someone here who knows Morse could easily verify that. The shows are all viewable on CBS's website.

By the way, on a note not directly related to the show, I highly recommend that if possible one should obtain a copy of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. As I said, it has about all the scientific data one could want/need on nuclear weapons. I have started reading it and am only about 102 pages into it and it is about 650 long. It is VERY dry and boring reading as it is does have a lot of scientific data and mathematic equations. But, it is not completely incomprehensible and the information contained within is very valuable. The only other problem is that a real copy of this book is not inexpensive! My copy set me back about $55 on eBay and it actually came with the little "Nuclear Bomb Effects Calculator" and single sheet instructions on its use. Because of this, the book should have cost about double what I paid.

Fear not though! You can still reasonably obtain the data within should you not want to pay the price for an actual copy of this book. Since the book is a federal government publication it is public domain and Princeton University has the 1977 revised version hosted online for easy download. Each chapter is in PDF format and it can be printed up and bound. You can find it online here – S&GS : The Effects Of Nuclear Weapons As for the Nuclear Bomb Effects Calculator, the previous link to the description of that calculator contains instructions as to how to construct your own!

[Ryan Ruck]

This past episode seemed a little slow to me.

There was one exception to this though, the increased mystery surrounding Robert. So, the question is, is he:

1. Part of whoever has detonated the weapons?
2. An ex-spook along with a group of other ex-spooks that knew what was going to happen?
3. Or, just part of a group of prepared survivalists?

I thought the rush to get fuel to the clinic generator was a little contrived as all life saving hospital equipment I have seen that are as modern as what they have have battery backups to keep them going if power is suddenly lost. Oh well, I suppose the episode would have been more mundane if they hadn't created some more drama.

We'll see what the next episode has in store.

[catfish]

Thought you all might like to know that I heard on the radio that CBS purchased a full season of this show.

[Ryan Ruck]

'Jericho' Gets a Full-Season Order

Crediting it with contributing to a night of solid ratings growth, CBS has picked up a back nine for the freshman drama "Jericho."

The Wednesday night drama, which features Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney has averaged 11.3 million viewers and a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49. In an 8 p.m. slot most recently occupied by comedies, "Jericho" has boosted viewership by 48 percent and the 18-49 demo rating by 36 percent compared to last year.

CBS will now have 22 episodes of "Jericho," which kicks off a night that has seen an overall viewership bump of 34 percent and a demo increase of 22 percent despite intense competition from the other networks, ABC in particular.

"Jericho," which focuses on the aftermath of a nuclear explosion and how one Kansas town is impacted, may not have premiered with huge numbers, but viewership has remained almost identical week-to-week, showing no drop against baseball on FOX or, this past week, the premiere of NBC's new comedy block.

The drama from executive producers Jon Turtletaub, Stephen Chbosky and Carol Barbee joins "Heroes" on the list of new shows receiving full-season orders.