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Jeremiah
"Do you think things were like this before?"
"Probably not."
"Yeah, you're right. Nothing probably ever broke before."
"Something did. Or else the world wouldn't look like this."
Episode 1.01, "The Long Road Home"
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Jeremiah, Showtime's newest addition to Sci-Friday and the latest offering from J. Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spiderman, Babylon 5), is a lot better than you might think. It's easy enough to dismiss yet another post-apocalyptic wasteland concept as tired and unoriginal. God knows we've seen enough of them. (The Postman, anybody?) So what sets this one apart?
Based on the comic book by Hermann Huppen, it's the year 2021. About 20 years ago, the Big Death wiped out 6 billion people - everyone past puberty. The Big Death is largely a mystery to the survivors, but all signs seem to point to a man-made virus gone wrong. (a la The Stand) It's a simple variation, but it's pretty interesting. An entire generation lost. How will the children who are left behind respond?
Essentially, most of civilization is long gone. People live together in small rural towns, trading what scraps of the old world they can find for survival. Jeremiah (Luke Perry) is a loner, drifting from one town to another in search of a place called Valhalla Sector. Nobody's heard of it, and he doesn't even know what it is, but he knows it's important. Or it was once, at least. His father made that clear to him before he died.
On his travels, Jeremiah befriends another drifter called Kurdy. (Malcolm Jamal-Warner) Kurdy is slow to trust anybody, but before long realizes that there's something different about Jeremiah. Jeremiah has something nobody's had in awhile - hope.
Jeremiah and Kurdy both end up in a town that's ruled by an autocratic government led by a woman called Theo. She keeps the peace and protects the denizens, and even has a little group of scientists trying to figure out the secrets of electricity from text books and spare parts. On the surface, things seem to be on the up-and-up in this town. Theo, however, has a hell of a mean streak.
When two mysterious strangers are found to be hiding a truck with gas in the city outskirts, she tortures them in attempt to get information. She demands to know where 'the end of the world' is. They say it doesn't exist. 'The end of the world', by the way, is supposedly a place where things still work. Running water, electricity, heat, etc. But most people, including Jeremiah, think it's just a myth. But that truck had to come from somewhere...
Jeremiah is taken into custody by Theo when he's suspected to be one of the strangers' group. During a cleverly-inspired riot, however, Kurdy manages to rescue them. One of the strangers has died from wounds, but Jeremiah, Kurdy, and the other one escape in the truck. Unfortunately, the other stranger doesn't make it too much further, either, and before long it's just Jeremiah and Kurdy. But before he died, he gave them a message: "Go to Thunder Mountain, and tell them it's coming again." Jeremiah promises they will.
Kurdy's first impulse is to sell the truck and get rich, but Jeremiah keeps his promises. Especially after his failure to keep his only brother alive after he'd promised his father he'd look after him. So despite Kurdy's lack of approval, they take off in search of Thunder Mountain. Luckily, Jeremiah's a smart one, and remembers that Thunder Mountain used to be the nickname for NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Facility. (coincidence, or a nod to MGM/Showtime's Stargate: SG-1?) So after a couple of days, they get there, and find out that 'The end of the world' is no myth. What they find is a small thriving community with hydroponics, weapons, technology, etc. They're led by a guy called Marcus Alexander. By all appearances he's a natural leader, but he's not quite willing to risk what they've got for sake of saving a few outsiders. Not until Jeremiah shows up, anyway.
After Jeremiah and Kurdy are interrogated for showing up with the truck of two now-dead members of the community, Marcus finally decides they're stand-up guys. But Jeremiah pretty much calls Marcus a coward for keeping all this to themselves. There's a group of Neo-Nazi's just 20 miles away preparing to execute some minorities, and Jeremiah is adamant that they should do something about it. Marcus ignores him at first, but eventually his conscience gets to him, and they set out to rescue the prisoners.
Naturally, the rescue is successful, and this makes Jeremiah and Kurdy more than obvious candidates to join the secret society inside Thunder Mountain. Their jobs - go out and find out all they can. The mysterious message about "it coming again" can only mean one thing, and if it's true, the last scraps of civilization will surely be lost forever. Jeremiah accepts their new jobs, on the one condition that they help as many people on the outside as possible without giving away the location of Thunder Mountain, or the fact it even exists.
The story itself is nothing really groundbreaking. It's the execution that makes this show stand out. The writing by Straczynski was predictably good, with lots of little touches that give it personality. Jeremiah, for instance, writes letters to his father, and then immediately burns them, as there's no mail delivery system, and more importantly, no father to send them to. The acting is solid. I freely admit I've always thought Luke Perry was talented, and he doesn't disappoint here. Malcolm Jamal-Warner also does a fine job as Kurdy, the sometimes less-than-ethical friend with a heart. The direction is also fairly stylish, as well it should be. Helmer Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) has always been a favorite of mine, and always lends a few interesting camera tricks to whatever he's working on.
I sincerely hope Jeremiah finds an audience. Like I said, it's easy to dismiss this one, but give it a chance, and you'll find out it's remarkably decent. I'm certainly curious to see where the series goes.
Episode Rating: 8 out of 10
Ultra Magnus needs to know what the hell Valhalla Sector really is.
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