When one hears the phrase “American Pie” it conquers up images of an idyllic life, Mainstreet USA, fourth of July BBQ’s and houses with white picket fences. “He (or she) is as American as Apple Pie” harkens back to someone who seemingly embodies what it means to be American and a wholesomeness that everyone deep down seeks to find. This was never more true than in the cult classic TV show Jericho, which aired on CBS.
Jericho was in many ways an uncomfortable show to watch, at least in the beginning. This was mainly due to the subject matter that it tackled so freely and bravely. The world that the town of Jericho entered was very different than the one that came before it. In the late ’90s, the television world was populated by the likes of Seinfeld, Saved by the bell, Frasier, 90210, and Full House. Then came 9/11 and we saw an increase in shows like 24, the conspiracy thriller was in, as were terrorist dramas and the fearless agents who stop them.
Jericho was as much a show about “American Pie” as “American missiles”. Its showrunners and writers wanted to tell a story about what America is made from and its birth, by retelling it in a post-apocalyptic setting. Indeed the series bears many of the hallmarks of our nation’s history from the American Revolution to Civil War all the way to World War II. The show embodies the ideals of “Truth”, “Justice” and “Freedom” in its storyline while being almost totally apolitical in how it tells it.
Jericho sought to explore the idea of “What is America” the science fiction and post-apocalyptic genres are often used to delve into society and what makes us human or animal. Jericho sought to do this, by telling a colorful story that was seeded with ideology and political philosophy
A Tale of Two Americas
In Jericho, post-attack, we are shown two versions of America, we have the “Allied States of America” (ASA) the “Columbus Government” (CG), and the “Independent Republic of Texas (RoT). The Columbus and Texas Governments through separate believe in the same things politically and end up allying themselves at the end of the show. Jericho was very much going back to the debate the founders engaged in at the founding of our nation, the battle between The Federalists and Anti-Federalists which was generally a conflict between founders such as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. However, it spilled over to various people and factions that began at the constitutional convention and culminated in the American Civil War.
This political battle was over the idea of “What is America?” The Federalists saw American as a unified and powerful superpower, with a strong and large majority federal government that controlled the minority states below it. The Anti-Federalists saw America as a smaller nation that was centered on personal liberty and the protection of minority rights from a bullish majority. Jericho very much puts a spotlight on this conflict by dressing the two founding factions as new factions (abet of course with more flair). The Allied States of America took the role of the Federalists and Texas and Columbus the role of the Anti-Federalists.
Jericho frames this conflict in the light of the formation of a new nation, not unlike the debate between the United States Constitution and the Articles of Confederation, we see the ASA as they say the Constitution is outdated and needs to be updated, while the CG and RoT hold to the old Constitution, which brings them into conflict.
What “Is” America
Jericho much like Thor Ragnorok tells us that American “Is not a place but its people” and no villain or bomb can destroy that spirit that lives in all of us. The showrunners wanted to tell a tale of two Americans, one that values freedom and one that values power and control but uses the flag of freedom to cover it. When one looks back on the Founding of our nation, one will see that the bill of rights, constitution, and declaration of independence, were not worth the paper they were written on, the words had no power. The power was in the people who wrote them and the citizens who fought for them.
In much the same way, in Jericho, the United States as we have known it has vanished, yet the ideals exist within the characters of the show and we see them fight to overcome and preserve America as it lives on within them. In the end, Jericho showcased how fragile the idea of “America” is and that we as a people must fight for it, for example, the character of Stanley sees his sister gunned down, a victim of “Ravenwood” a villainous military contractor being used by the ASA. This creates a debate in the show, as Stanley wants to go on a bloody revenge spree to get justice, but others want to preserve Americans’ ideas of justice and due process. We see the dark path Stanley goes down as he kills the man responsible but in doing so brings down much hardship to the town. This subplot goes to show how it is easy to uphold ideas when times are easy, but when hard times come that is when the ideals of “Jericho’s America” resolve are tested.
Jericho’s America
At the end of the day, Jericho was at once political and apolitical, it championed the rights and ideals of the Founding Fathers, but also showed its audience that America “Is” who we are as a people, and the showrunners told a story that showed that if we want America to be a bastion of freedom and goodness then we as a people must be good, the ASA may LOOK like America but at its core the people like Valente and Tomarchio who lead the ASA are evil and thus the ASA itself is also evil. The author Alexis de Tocqueville once said
“America is great because America is good. If America ever stops being good, it will stop being great.”
This quote is never more true than in Jericho, the show was very sadly canceled too soon, as the showrunners said there was much more story to be told, with the future seasons focused on the second American Civil War as it ignited in the S2 finale. Which would have been framed as a battle for the soul of America and its people. Jericho’s America and its ideals would have been pitted against an America (The ASA) that was rotten to the core, one that was corrupted and controlled not by its people but by corporations and greed! It would have been a wild ride!
However even though Jericho ended prematurely, we still got to see what its writers wanted to showcase about what their vision of America is and can be if we are willing to fight for our ideals, and for this I am grateful!
