I was not a Jericho fan from the beginning. I wish I could claim I was, but like many of my favorite shows, I discovered it later than most. The buzz surrounding the upcoming second season, combined with the fascinating story of how Jericho was saved from cancellation, made me curious about what I was missing. So I got the entire first season and, over the last two weekends, I sat down and burned through all 22 episodes.

My verdict? I am completely on board the Jericho train. It's a fascinating, intense drama series that is, most surprisingly, so much more than just a serialized mystery about nuclear bombs being set off on American soil.

When I first heard about Jericho in the summer of 2006, I was interested. The premise of a small-town Kansas town dealing with several nuclear bombs detonating across the country was fantastic. The casting of Gerald McRaney, fresh off a career high role on Deadwood, was the icing on the cake.

I watched the pilot and was largely unimpressed. There were some nice twists (Dale's mom being in Atlanta was a brilliant shock), but it didn't have the fresh, cutting-edge style of most of my favorites. Also, I'm sick and tired of seeing tracheotomies on TV. I casually watched a couple more episodes, but I was never invested enough to follow every detail. Then came the winter when CBS made the disastrous blunder of shelving new episodes for three months. By the time it returned, I had moved on.

But in the summer of 2007, a miracle happened. After the show was canceled by CBS, the fan support was so huge, they were able to convince the network it made a mistake. The “nuts” campaign redefined the power of loyal viewers. I'm a person who loves a truly devoted cult following, and the story of how Jericho got a second season was, in many ways, more exciting than the show itself.

So I owed it to myself to give it another chance, to put away about 16 hours of my life to see what could cause such passion in fans. That, and I really wanted to answer one question: Why nuts? Again, I was slightly bored by the opening episodes, but after powering through it, I saw the appeal.

First, the characters are all so rich. For me, the sign of a great show isn't the leads, but whether I grow attached to the minor characters. Over the season, I loved Jimmy, the overweight cop of the Jericho Police Department who takes in the Hawkins family. I cheered every time James Remar's name was in the opening credits, because it meant I'd get to see more of the brilliantly devious Jonah Prowse. I cried when Gracie died. I rooted for the Richmonds to find love, Stanley with Mimi and even Bonnie with that adorable idiot Sean.

Then there are the great stories. Another initial hesitation I had with devoting myself to the show was that I thought I would never get answers to the whole nuclear bomb issue. Color me surprised when Robert Hawkins told Jake Green the whole story in episode 18. The second half also brought the war with New Bern, which I thought was a much stronger storyline than the whole Ravenwood thing. It was also a pleasure to see an evil Timothy Omundson as New Bern's leader, compared to his goofy, straight-laced Detective Lassiter on USA's Psych.

Being able to watch all of these events unfold in one or two sittings made for a much better experience than waiting weeks or months for the next new episode. I suppose that's really true of any serialized show. It was a principal first tested with Lost season 2, when everyone who saw it on DVD loved it a lot more than those of us who watched it as it aired.

Now, I'm board. I can't wait to see how things are settled between Jericho and New Bern. I want to see Stanley propose to Mimi. I want to know how Gale will deal with her beloved husband's death. And most of all, I want to see how Hawkins will fend off the advances of the bald guy from Murder One.

As I mentioned earlier, this is not the first time I've arrived late to a popular cult show. The same thing happened with The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars and Weeds, all of which are now some of my favorite shows of the last decade, putting Jericho in very good company. So to all those out there who think it's too late to become a fan of Jericho, it isn't. And to all you who were fans from the beginning, I'm sorry for showing up so late to the party, but I hope you'll have me. If you refuse, I have just one word for you.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)