Meh, I just don't know

thekaj

The premise is certainly interesting enough. A small town seemingly cut off from the rest of the world as civilization itself might have gone up with a mushroom cloud. It's a story that has been effectively told in the book Alas Babylon and the miniseries The Day After. Those are big footsteps to follow in, and I'm not too sure this show can do it.

For one, the characters all seem too artificial. We have the wayward son, the bullheaded father, the strong "glue" mother, and the brother who stayed loyal to dad. There's also the standard 2 girls for our hero to fall for: beautiful woman with past history, and hometown girl who can fix machinery. Plus there's other characters like the stranger who knows how to do everything (while apparently 98% of the rest of the town can't understand concepts like how to start a generator or how bad radiation is), outcast boy who pitches in to help, snotty rich girl who spurns outcast boy at first but is won over by a can of pop, and a host of other one dimensional characters with a single role to play, which is usually just to provide a way for the main characters to highlight their knowledge or show how heroic they are.

Like I said, the premise is sound. I want to know who or what caused these attacks. I want to know how wide spread it is. I want to see how the town survives. I'm just not at all convinced that I want to see the story unfold through these characters. I'll give it a little more time, but most likely I'll just stop watching and read up on the storyline if it survives the year.

score 5/10

thekaj 27 September 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1488011/