‘Jericho’ blogging: “Condor”
(previous: “Reconstruction”)
Last spring I called Jericho the anti-24, a blatant rejection of “the kinds of values that 24 espouses -- torture, paranoia, suspicion, bigotry -- and it didn’t need to create some imaginary liberal paradise in which to do it.” That was sort of in the undertone of Jericho in its first season, but now, that is explicity. Things that would be presented as cool in 24 are here objects of horror, symbols of oppression, signs that America as we once knew it is truly endangered, if not actually dead and buried: “everything is barcoded” at Jennings & Rall; a criminal database that utilizes facial-recognition software and is cross-indexed with voter registration, the DMV, and the library.
And it’s not all fantasy, either. A reporter who is more press agent than anything else -- real journalists don’t exist anymore, he says, and seems resigned to it. A revisionist textbook that serves propaganda purposes, not educational ones. It’s all the upshot of “September 2006,” says the military administrator Beck, which sounds a lot like the refrain of “September 11, September 11, September 11” we hear as the excuse for every rollback of civil liberties actually happening in the here and now. That’s deliberate, of course. And it’s thrilling that there’s at least one show on mainstream network television that’s willing to address these things so head on, so matter-of-factly. Terrifying that it has to do so, but I’m glad someone is doing it.
“At what point is this a country we don’t even recognize?” “How does a government no one voted for change the Constitution?” I wish this was science fiction.
Random thoughts on “Condor”:
• Why does the president of the Allied States of America look like he’s 12 years old? Does he really believe all that “triumph of democracy over the forces of evil” nonsense? Is he merely a puppet for Daniel Benzali? Or is he in on the greatest crime in human history? Either way, the possibilities for drama are extraordinary.
• The Hudson River virus has jumped the Blue Line of the Mississippi! The Hudson River virus has jumped the Blue Line of the Mississippi! We’re all doomed!
• UN peacekeepers on American soil? Interesting...
• Do “people get the news they deserve”? Or do “people get the news they’re given”? Maybe it’s just me, but when the reporter and Jake go at it over the sorry state of journalism both before and after the bombs, I’m less inclined to be on Jake’s side of this, as much as I’m generally all “Go Jake!” But that’s one of the great things about this show, particularly now, in its second season: as idealistic as it is, it doesn’t deny that cynicism is sometimes the more realistic attitude. We need the idealism to temper it, but still...
(Next week: Viruses and vaccines and perfidy, oh my, in “Jennings & Rall”)
(Get a full recap or watch the entire episode at CBS’s official site for the show.)
[buy at Amazon (Region 1)] [buy at Amazon (Region 2)]
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comments
posted by Gwen (Wed Feb 20 08, 4:22PM)
Good review and I liked your insights into the episode.
I've put a summary and link in our Jericho news archive.
Gwen
Jericho-Kansas.com
posted by Clayj (Wed Feb 20 08, 5:56PM)
Last night's episode cemented for me a comparison I've been making for a while between Jericho and an old (1984) Whitley Strieber / James Kunetka novel called Warday, in which the US and the Soviet Union engage each other in a limited nuclear exchange which lasts all of 36 minutes and badly wounds both countries. Warday is written as if it includes excerpts from the journals of many Americans, as well as foreign nationals (Brits, Israelis, etc.) who end up coming to the US to help rebuild.
Warday includes elements such as UN peacekeepers on US soil, and even a new disease (the "Cincinnati Flu") which ravages America in the wake of the war. The similarities between the scenario in Jericho and Warday are numerous, with the only main difference being the source of the nuclear attacks.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warday for a synopsis of the novel... I think you'll find it compares pretty closely to Jericho.
posted by MaryAnn (Thu Feb 21 08, 12:43AM)
*Warday* is indeed awesome, but it's like *Jericho* only on the grand scale -- they take the same concept in very different directions, and have very different purposes.