The Return of Jericho (Possible spoilers)

[Crafty_Pat]

I always thought that one of the main fortes of Alias was its ability to move on just when things were starting to get a bit stale. So while I'd be inclined to agree with you on the revelation point, sometimes it's necessary to reveal and move on to get longevity.

Completely agree - in fact, it's what worked so well for Heroes Season 1. They had a pacing to their reveals and didn't allow themselves to linger too long on any one thing. The SD-6 collapse could have worked for them, had what happened afterward been even remotely as interesting - and if the network hadn't forbade them from dealing too much with Rambaldi, hands down the best part of the show.

[VisualStatic]

Some folks are only interested in the reveal, while others groove on the journey, and still others like a combination. Personally, I love a good reveal, but I also realize that it would essentially kill most things I love to reveal everything about them. Since I would prefer they continue so long as they journey's good I prefer they keep some stuff to themselves until the time is right. It's a rough balance. Some shows get it largely right (Lost, Heroes Season 1, X-Files Seasons 1-3), while others don't (Alias - at least, past the fall of SD-6, most of Heroes Season 2, Dead Zone, Millennium, X-Files Seasons 4+).

I think most of the reason some folks, seemingly like yourself, want answers even if it ends the show - please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here - is that a lot of showrunners aren't very good at entertaining until the answers are provided, or they lose their way before they get to them, or the studios make stupid decisions that interrupt, abort, or force changes to the answers. I can understand this, but TV is still a serialized medium, and IMHO operates best when exploited to maximum effect. The shows that manage to keep their shit together all the way through and reveal everything at the proper time are magical, and really, if you can, why shouldn't you shoot for magic?

Kind of, but for me I just fine the spy/intelligence stuff more interesting, and when I saw the premise of the show, the what happened and who did it was far more interesting.  I, personally, hated most of the character interaction except for Jake and the FBI guy.  They and their backgrounds were far more interesting and what kept my interest. 

Since I've always liked shows like 24, Alias, LaFemme Nikta, NCIS, I Spy, The Saint, M:I, the aspect of the show that dealt with that shady or shadowy aspects are far more interesting.  The private security company was even a far more interesting then some of the stuff in Jericho.

But again, my tastes.  I"m not knocking anyone the likes the show.

[Crafty_Pat]

Ah, I stand corrected. Yeah, I never got the impression that Jericho was trying to be about the backstory, not exclusively anyway. It was about how the backstory impacted these people in this town. I bought into that premise and the show hasn't failed me yet.

[Crafty_Pat]

In the first of what I assume will be many articles about Jericho's weak return ratings -  - we find out that the three cities they were thinking of setting the original Season 2 in were Cheyenne (home of the new U.S. government - well, the largest one at least), New York, and our little town of Jericho.

"One interesting tidbit from today's Jericho coverage: If the show's second season had been a full 22 episodes, we would have gotten to see the seat of government in Cheyenne -- and life in New York, which survived the attacks thanks to Hawkins' intervention. Now we'll just have to be happy with one truncated second season, and nothing after that."

Wow. That's a much bigger scope than I'd originally envisioned. Gotta aim high, I guess.