Jeremiah - Why does it suck so bad?

[Gamebird]

We got Netflix recently and after spinning through the Smallville seasons, we got Jeremiah and tried to watch it. It's bad. Like ... really pretty bad. Like you make a sandwich and put all your favorite toppings on it but the meat had turned just a bit rancid and you didn't notice it and then you eat it and the taste is just off somehow, but you eat it anyway and then later you're in the bathroom having unpleasantness because you shouldn't have eaten it.

So. I had high hopes because Straczinski was really great for seasons 1-4 of Babylon 5 (I never understood why it fell down in season 5). Jeremiah isn't even set up well. The cast is very small, centering primarily on two characters with 2-4 backups. Not enough interaction to develop ongoing tension or story in the regular cast. Their goal is so vague too.

Did this show make sense to anyone else? Watching it, I understand why there was only one season of it.

[Glinelen]

You're right this show is horrible. It has no logic or sense. It's a waste of time.

[WampaX]

Straczinski, eh?
Here is a diagram for me as relates to Jeremiah.



----- my radar -----


Jeremiah

Brief synopsys? I'm lazy and don't feel like google/wiki-ing it.

[Gamebird]

Jeremiah was a one season show in 2002, written and largely directed by J. Michael Straczinski. The premise of the show was that a terrible disease had been let loose that killed everyone over the age of puberty, across the globe. The show was set 15 years after the "Big Death" as the now-adult survivors tried to put things back together.

The two lead characters were Jeremiah (white male) and Curdy (black male). The pilot involved the pair finding a group in a NORAD-like mountain fortress, entirely self-sustaining, with electricity, etc. This group (most of whom were children of the original inhabitants, who had died in the Big D) agreed to fund the two lead characters as the pair went forth and tried to spread the wealth so carefully hoarded for the last 15 years.

Further episodes involve the pair meeting different groups as they drive around the countryside. Most episodes involve at least one naked breast shot and I think the one season had three or four graphic, humping sex scenes (none of which contributed to the plot and none of which involve healthy relationships).

Some technological glitches are never explained - like why gasoline hasn't separated in 15 years. A lot of logistical things aren't addressed, like why everyone continues to make a living off scavenging for a living. Cans of food are still the ruling currency, 15 years later (as opposed to pounds of grain or jerked meat - I mean, haven't they eaten all the canned food yet?)

But aside from the lousy science (Straczinski was, after all, the man who said spaceships fly "at the speed of plot"), the show just wasn't any darn good. The lead characters were introduced with set character traits and then immediately the show sets about obliviating those traits. The self-righteousness was thick and impenetrable.... yet made no sense. Like in one episode, a man had learned a little medical stuff from his father and had his father's medical texts, equipment and medicine. The lead character first reviled him as a quack, then said he was the only hope people had, then bitched at him for not being able to work miracles, then consoled him about how it was impossible to save anyone. All in the same frickin' scene!

The acting was okay. The effects were a bit lame, but the main problem was the writing and the show logic. (Like, a running truck is introduced as a virtual impossibility, but then we see running vehicles in several episodes, plus no one looks twice at the heroes driving around.)