Jeremiah

Jeremiah is an American and Canadian funded television show, set in the USA and follows the tale of an end of the world scenario. The main cast are survivors of such an disaster, as they fight to survive. Luke Perry is quite an actor in this show, and really gives a great endearing performance. There is also quite a varied Canadian cast to the show also, who really stand out and who portray their characters well. The premise is quite an original one, due to the fact the genre of post-apocalypse fiction and drama isn't really a big one. The characters draw you in, with their back stories before the disaster and you feel for their struggle to survive. If you are a fan of Jericho, BBC's Survivors, The Tribe or even The Walking Dead then Jeremiah is a great addition.

I'm not exactly an expert on Sci-Fi shows and Jeremiah would be one of a handful that I've watched, and although I'm normally turned off by anything that has to do with Sci-Fi I decided to give this new Showtime series a chance. I wasn't disappointed with Jeremiah's pilot episode at all, it had a promising start and will hopefully maintain its level of originality. Luke Perry & Malcolm Jamal Warner's chemistry seems a little iffy at first, but they work well together. Theo's character is certainly a refreshing villainess that I could see myself loving to hate and the actress does a wonderful job in portraying her. Hopefully the ratings will be sweeter to Showtime in this venture than they were with Leap Years, although this time around I think they've conjured up the right formula to see that happen.

I must admit that I like Sci-Fi, but what I don't like are fairy tale sci-fis (Star Wars) or Techy-Sci-Fi (Star Gate, Star Trek-Franchise). I rather enjoyed Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 and Jeremiah (which is thought out by the very same Jay Michael Strazynski) has everything of a good classical drama: Action, structure and plot items (short per episode plots and longer plots over a whole season).

In the two seasons filmed (I think they cancelled the show afterwards and even the ending of Season two was rushed!), JMS has again shown his capability of handling TV series in theatrical fashions. We have the classical 3 tiered system of Exposition, Climax and Ending with the weapon showed in the Second Act (I am not going to reveal that one).

The show lacked financial support in the first season, but the second one showed what could have been possible. And I especially liked the focus on an anarchic world trying to find itself and the two major themes: the generational conflict between new and old in the first season and the exploring of fascism and totalitarianism in the second season.

Wow. For anyone out there who is a die-hard sociological and/or post-Apocolyptic scifi fan, this series is for you. An excellent rendering of what, sadly, everyone calls a 'comic book,' this translation of a 'graphic novel' is captivating. The characters are believable, which makes the scenarios believable. Most importantly, we are drawn into the times, and we have heroes to root for. Jeremiah is intelligent and thought provoking, which will no doubt be unappealing to many. No, there are no fancy special effects, so that will disappoint many also, and every now and then we run into continuity questions, but the story-lines well make up for that. Luke Perry and Malcom-Jamal Warner deserve kudos for their acting skills (and made me forget their origins), as does anyone who plays a major or minor part in this series. For anyone who likes a good, intelligent story, a good drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat and rooting for good to best evil, you will relish this series. Yes, I gave it a 9 out of 10, as that is well-deserved.

There are very few programs on television that are allowed to cover gritty aspects of the world in such a detailed manner. For the team that puts together "Jerimiah" however, they have the opportunity to do so because they have given themselves a new world to base these realities out of. By carefully keeping the series ever-real, and not allowing cheap humour to overtake it like so many programs have, they leave themselves with quite a credible piece of work to their name.