|
|
Okay, so I am going to repeat here some of what I have posted already in the discussion forums, so apologies for the repetition.
This show continues to draw favourable and lucid comments, four or five years after its demise. That has to say something good, I think.
In my view it is a real shame that an intelligent show with such a potential story arc was not allowed to flourish, while the nonsense bubble-gum shows seem to go on forever.
J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) got hosed with Crusade too, didn't he? That was a show that took a while to warm up but it had built quite a clutch of characters and subplots by the end of Season 1 that you just knew a second season would have been worthwhile, from a story-telling and artistic point of view.
After the success of Babylon 5, you might think that the TV companies would learn to trust JMS just a little bit to deliver the long-reach payload of characters and story-telling that is needed for a several-season run.
The Intelligent Audiences are out there (I want to believe) and while they may not be the biggest audiences they are probably the least fickle. But no, the snotty-nosed execs who have inexplicably been given the helm clearly are keen only to leap-frog from one quick buck to another, giving up on the long-term dividend.
A TV show is just an TV show, I know, but I really felt for the story that was Jeremiah. I read about it at the IMDb web site and found out that he show had been axed prematurely. Yet, knowing this, I took the time to get hold of it, because the concept was so cool from a sci-fi point of view and the reviews were so interesting. So I watched it all (in late 2008 and 2009) - and then, even, knowing in advance all that I knew about the abrupt ending of the partnership between JMS and MGM, I still felt irritation as I reached the final episode of Season 2, because I knew it could have been so much more and because so many threads were left dangling.
The writers clearly did a champions' job of bringing the story to a sort-of close, but they left a whole lot of questions unresolved, presumably because of the possibility of a third season after the departure of JMS. The long passage of time, now, since the end of Season 2 hammers the last nail in the coffin of hope for such a reprise, and we are left with what one might call an unfinished masterpiece.
Jeremiah was one of the most compelling sci-fi dramas that I have ever seen. (And I did not even know much about Luke Perry beforehand!)
Addendum 2009-09-12
I'd like to add something. I don't want to take away anything of what I wrote above. I do appreciate, however, that my initial review comes across as a bit of a whinge.
What I would like to add is that I think that the series Jeremiah had heart - a whole lot of heart. It built structure, it built plot and it made story arcs and depth that could have been mined easily in a third series. But most of all, it had heart and depth. I really felt for these characters. I mourned (in as much as one does for fictional characters) for those that died and I felt pain with those that were left behind with their various losses.
I appreciate that the formula of the show required something new in each episode, but it would have been nice to have seen the reprise of a few of the earlier story lines and if various characters from earlier episodes had turned up again. I suspect that these production considerations might have been given oxygen had the series survived into a third season.
Despite my criticisms - and I have a few - this is a series I would recommend to any serious sci-fi fan. It has heart, you feel for the characters and you want the best to turn out for the good guys.
This show is not an easy ride. It is quite adult in places, which restricts its audience, but it is a great ride and deserves to be counted among the Classic, Kick-ass Sci-Fi shows. Is there such an accolade? There should be.
score 9/10
james-collett 24 February 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2028408/ |
|
6-12-2020 12:05:24