Stream Of Consciousness TV Blogging: Jericho

[Vox really needs a cut tag.  Until then, consider yourself warned for spoilers.  On the other hand, if you haven't seen the relevant episodes, these stream-of-consciousness posts are going to make no sense at all.]

Is the Morse code at the beginning saying anything?

Character introductions feel forced.  I don't care about these people, at least not yet.  That's what sunk Invasion for me.

Just waiting for the bomb to drop.  If I were writing the ep, I'd actually wait until about 40 minutes in to do that.

Every conversation, they have to drop exposition in there.  I know they're catching up with him, but it's like they've all never met him and have to establish background details or something.

The nondiegetic music is too loud.  It's like a bad trailer, and the music (that Goo Goo Dolls song whose title I can't remember) is chosen for being a hit rather than being apropos.

Stole the "triple" line - was it from Maureen Dowd?

It's plodding right now.  I don't care about these characters; that's not what I'm checking out this pilot for.

He's leaving the eponymous town.  LIke he'll get far.  The show's not called San Diego.

Children's song - just like the LBJ commercial.  Even interposed with political speeches.

And all the radio and TV signals go out.  EMP?  Mushroom cloud points to yes.  And now the real show starts.

Did a shockwave hit the bus?  Apparently so.

Oh no, a kid on a bus may be hurt.  Um, if this was a nuclear attack scenario, how many people (including children) would be dead?  But of course they'll be ok.

Cut to commercial with the Lost drumbeat.

Unless something weird happens, it seems like they're focusing on the least important aspects.

Ooh, foreshadowing of postapocalyptic setting?

Creepy answering machine.  But would the line be working up to the point the receiver got blasted?

And he metamorphoses into Jack from Lost.  We still don't know his background, do we?

Wow.  They did kill a kid...

Or not.  MacGyver-style trachaeotomy.  I can't look.

I'm not sure what happened; did someone say "that's the wrong bus" before the guy got shot?

The tape again.  Would you be able to hear the rumbling before the shockwave hit?  Doesn't it travel at or faster than the speed of sound?

Cutting back and forth between equally dark settings is just confusing.

And the looting begins.  Because as we know from TV news, disaster -> looting.  Even in small, close-knit communities.

St. Louis cop is a total Gary Stu, the writers' go-to guy when they need the right answer.

Dude, that's where I know the mayor from.  Simon & Simon.  I'm a dork.

"Why are you turning on each other?"  Save it for the fanfic, guys.

And the mayor's kid drives in with a busload of kids and the mayor's approval rating.  Oh, and a love interest, apparently.

Oh, it was a prison bus.  That explains the shooting.  Are those yellow?  How do you mistake one for the other? 

Ooh, can we have a Botany Bay-style community of escaped convicts?

Shorter mayor's speech:  tune in next week.

Too-loud music again (Snow Patrol?  I guess playing Fallout Boy would be bad taste.) and a final sequence - cliffhanger?  What was on the ground around the blonde woman?  Time to check the recording.

Next week: invaders (the convicts?) and radioactive rain.