Brad Beyer, Jericho
In last week's episode of Jericho (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET, CBS), "Oversight," a gun-toting Bonnie Richmond (Shoshannah Stern) went out in a blaze of glory, fighting to save her family home. The image of Bonnie's big brother, Stanley — played by Brad Beyer — cradling his sister's lifeless corpse was a heartbreaker. Here, Beyer shares his thoughts on how Bonnie's death will propel Season 2's final episodes, the fabulous Alicia Coppola (who plays Mimi), a Jericho movie and why violence can sometimes be, well, funny.
TVGuide.com: To paraphrase the South Park guys: "They killed Bonnie!"Brad Beyer: I know. It was unbelievable.
TVGuide.com: What did you think when you read of Bonnie's fate?Beyer: I was very sad. Working with Shoshannah Stern has been one of the best experiences that I
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Question: You said recently that last week's episode of Jericho would be "a pivotal one in the battle between the town and the sinister Jennings & Rall." After watching it, all I can say is, "Yawn." I am one of those casual fans who only started watching Jericho in the summer repeats on the Space Channel here in Canada. I was surprised when Gerald McRaney's character was killed off, but this latest "kill-off" of Shoshannah Stern left me more disappointed. I know you have talked about this in the past, but if the "big surprise" of killing off characters is the best the writers could come up with, it shows that they don't really have enough imagination. It seems more and more producers get rid of characters as a shortcut to get a ratings spike, rather than inventing interesting plot developments. Some shows have done it well, like 24, when Nina Myers murdered Teri Bauer, and, to a lesser extent, Lost's dwindling cast. But it has become just too common now, I think, and writers had better ...
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Question: Doesn't the problem with Jericho this season lie in the shortened miniseries format? It seems like the writers of the show know that they're not going to get any more episodes ordered, and that these seven episodes are all they have left to wrap up the loose ends. With that in mind, the conspiracy story arc/mythology of the show is being compressed into these seven (and likely final) episodes in order to end the series with some kind of resolution or closure. Imagine trying to wrap and finish Lost by squeezing the remaining stories into only seven episodes. I'm sure things would feel rushed, character development would be left out, and the overall quality would suffer.
Answer: All very true, and a number of fans made this very point in responding to my earlier criticisms of this season, which many (no surprise) found to be unfair. But this is the hand Jericho was dealt to secure its against-the-odds comeback, and my critical take is that it resulted in a lesser show, one with
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Bonnie is dead. Who would have guessed that Bonnie would be felled by such a tragic fate? Oh wait, I could. For those of you who have read my previous blogs should have noticed that much of my focus was about Stanley, Mimi, and Bonnie. I felt that their lives were too perfect and they lost the inner conflict that once made them interesting characters. I also commented that despite the strength of the bond between Stanley and Mimi, they were far more interesting as individual threats to the new government. I even went as far as to specifically speculate that Mimi should use her new position as a Jennings & Rall accountant to uncover any criminal activity. With enough analysis to television shows' writing formulas, every viewer has the ability to subjugate any doubt about different characters' motivations. However, showing viewers the tranquility of the Richmond farm WAS necessary to evoke the appropriate response from Bonnie's death. My complaint lies from the previous episodes, ...
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Question: I have a dream: Kristen Bell joining Heroes for a third season, a third season of Jericho, a fourth season of Supernatural and a new Star Trek series within my lifetime! How possible is this dream?
Answer: That's actually several dreams, AJ, but the good news is that I'd say 65 percent of them are possible. Scale back the first, don't count on the second, and rejoice in the fact that the third has already come true. (BTW, the four post-strike eps of Supernatural start airing on April 24.) The last dream, of course, is as infinite as sp
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Alicia Coppola, Brad Beyer and Skeet Ulrich, Jericho
Question: Last year, I was one of the avid Jericho fans who petitioned for its return. I thought the idea of a show based around survival in an apocalyptic society was intriguing. I loved watching the scientific as well as the emotional sides of the situation, and I overlooked much of the mediocre acting in doing so. But as it started to turn into a complex espionage-laced quagmire, I became very disenchanted. With all of the procedural military, FBI and police shows out there, why couldn't they leave well enough alone and let the average viewer watch as a town relearned how to get out of the fetal position and organize itself? When I watch it now, I find myself confused by the many new characters, acronyms and conspiracies. Is there hope that it will someday get back to its roots, or is this what we should expect for as long as the show can survive?
Answer: Given the lackluster ratings upon its return (last week's ratings spike probably had something to do with NBC's unfortunate
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The build-up from the previous episodes culminated in one of the finest hours yet for Jericho! In last week's universally praised recap, I questioned whether the abbreviated season left Jericho ample time for their characters to progressively develop. These same concerns must have been going through the writers' minds as well, because both of the Jake/Hawkins storylines encompassed the majority of the screen time. (The chronicles of Stanley, Mimi, and Bonnie only ate up a small portion of "Jennings & Rall." I really hope something catastrophic happens to one of these characters, because I have grown increasingly bored with their story.)In Season One, Jake rallied the leaders of Jericho to rush its people to safe enclosed locations to avoid radiation poisoning from the fallout in Denver. As the season progressed, civilization devolved to a point where it became somewhat akin to the Wild West. Dale turned his grocery store into a trading post, and hired actual muscle to prevent h...
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Lennie James in Jericho by Greg Schwartz/CBS
Jericho fans would be nuts to miss out when executive producers Carol Barbee and Jon Turteltaub (along with cast members Lennie James and Brad Beyer) sit for a panel discussion hosted by TV Guide's Craig Tomashoff this Sunday at the San Francisco WonderCon. "I will discuss alternate endings for the [current] season and look beyond to what could happen in Season 3," Barbee tells us. "I will also tease the death of a major character that will occur in Episode 4."What's more — "and bigger than everything" — Barbee notes, "I will give clues of the identity of the person who masterminded the initial nuclear attacks on the USA."The Jericho panel will be held from 1 to 2:30 pm/PT, at Moscone Center South.
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Question: I read your columns every week and am always interested in your opinions about TV. But I respectfully disagree with the concluding words in your recent Jericho review: "Condensing a season into seven episodes thankfully leaves little room for padding — or, sadly, for anything beyond the most shallow character development. Jericho is more a victory for fans than a triumph of the imagination." Clearly, Jericho's producers, cast and fans would have preferred more than seven episodes. A careful review of Season 1's 22 episodes will reveal a very creative and credible development of characters within the major mythology of the devastation of nuclear bombs, a disturbingly believable account of what could happen should such an event befall our country. Quality in television drama is mercurial and often unsustainable because, generally speaking, as the basic characters and environments remain static (i.e. the White House in The West Wing, Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives, Seattle ...
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My Three Sons - Season 1, Volume 1 courtesy CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment
New releases announced today, February 21:Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes - Season 1 will be coming out May 20 Jericho - The 2nd Season has been withdrawn from the release scheduleMy Three Sons - The 1st Season, Volume 1 has been withdrawn from the release scheduleVisit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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