Jericho is a show that had everything going for it. The idea of exploring what would happen in small-town America after nuclear weapons seemed to have devastated the major cities seems brilliant in its simplicity. The possible story lines and the suspense level that such an apocalyptic event could generate is limitless. Unfortunately, Jericho comes off as a wasted opportunity in its poor writing and amateurish directing.<br /><br />One of the first things a writer must take into account in creating any story for television is the fact that commercial breaks are going to interrupt the flow. This is where the basic building blocks -- the rules if you would -- of television writing arose from, the most notable of necessities being that a significant motivating event must take place before the first commercial break. Writer Stephen Chbosky appears to have ignored this fact in order to develop too many characters in too short of a time. Whereas it would seem a given that the nuclear attack should occur fairly soon into the pilot episode, it in fact doesn't arise until almost the half way mark.<br /><br />What the audience is treated to up to this point are endless scenes of Skeet Ulrich's character meeting people he once knew and providing conflicting stories as to his whereabouts since leaving home. Curiosity of this situation could be achieved quickly, but Chbosky goes through the same motion time and time again with dialog that provides little character depth. The dialog in general seems to reach at times to artificially intrigue the audience, but with no back-story and situations that simply do not cry out for exploration, the dialog falls flat.<br /><br />To make matters worse, the direction by Jon Turteltaub in the pilot episode comes off as stale. Turteltaub appears to be completely unaware of the developments in episodic television direction in the past decade. To add insult to injury, the choice in cinematography gives the show a camcorder look at times, thus cheapening the overall experience.<br /><br />The only redeeming quality of the show is the acting ensemble, including Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reid and Beth Grant. Unfortunately, they're given little to work with in dialog, dramatic situations and direction, and thus appear to trudge through their work laboriously. With scenes that could be cut by a third in length to achieve the same effect, in the end, even proved performers cannot make steak out of sand.<br /><br />It is increasingly apparent that more and more networks are trying to replicate the feel of NBC's LOST. However, the impatient nature of production companies to get content out quickly rather than developing it to its maximum potential is resulting in a stream of uninteresting shows to be rushed out before given enough breathing space to mature from flash-in-the-pan neat to truly exceptional. And much of this stems from the creative talent involved.<br /><br />Writer Stephen Chbosky's only major credit previous to Jericho was this year's less than wonderful film adaptation of the musical Rent, a film which shared the same problems of poor character development, flawed structure and unmoving dialog. It is thus not surprising that Jericho shares the same flaws. Had Chbosky simply sat down and watched the pilot episode of LOST, a pilot that perfectly illustrates how to get a suspense drama off on a bang, he may have taken greater care to see whether the situations in Jericho were interesting enough throughout to make a worthwhile script.<br /><br />As it is, Jericho is long-winded and lacks stimulation both as a drama and a suspense thriller. The pilot holds little to draw an audience back for even a second look, let alone an entire season.