Discussion thread on the underrated sci-fi TV show "Jeremiah"

Hi everyone. I just finished watching the short-lived (1 season - 19 episodes) and well-done TV show "Jeremiah" on DVD. The show starred Malcolm Jamal-Warner (as Kurdy) and Luke Perry (as Jeremiah), and focuses on their adventures in a post-apocalyptic America. 15 years prior to the events in the show, a virus ("The Big Death") had wiped out almost all people past the age of puberty (older than 12/13), leaving the remaining children to fend for themselves.

I found the show very interesting and well thought-out, and it really captured my imagination more than many other sci-fi TV shows:

Here are some of my thoughts on the series (SPOILERS BELOW):

* The idea of a virus wiping out everyone over the "age of innocence" (as quoted from the opening sequence) and leaving just children to take care of themselves is truly chilling. Since many children are ruled more by their emotions than adults (in some cases), and with no adult supervision/control, there would be mass chaos, as evidenced in the show, especially the flashback sequences.
Conversely, some of the children would probably take care of each other (big kids taking care of babies and smaller children, etc.)

* I find that most of the after-effects/results of "The Big Death" that you see on the show are very well thought-out and plausible: Mass breakdown of society; Very little or no electricity/running water (all the adults who know how to run these things are gone); the uselessness of money as a form of commerce (as seen in the episode when the pool-hall owner had a huge amount of hundred-dollar bills stapled to his wall in hopes that the money would someday be worth something again); The return to a primitive barter/trading system; the proliferation of mauraders/gangs/violent splinter groups (there is no law anymore to keep them in check).

* One of my favorite episodes was the one where Kurdy and Jeremiah went to the library in Denver to look for technical manuals, and Kurdy stopped that gang who wanted to destroy the books. In this day and age, I think people are reading less because of: The Internet, Cable TV with 100 channels, cell-phones, palm pilots, etc., but if none of those things are available, then it would make sense that some people would turn back to reading books as a form of entertainment (Kurdy is an avid reader on the show).

* It's interesting that some adults did survive the virus, including that group of priests in the last two episodes (as they said, a virus is not 100% fatal to 100% of the population), and the other group at the Valhalla Sector (including Jeremiah's father).

* The last episode screamed for a second season, since there are so many questions left unanswered: Will the group in the Valhalla Sector come back and take over the country/world (since it looked like they wanted to stop any kind of organization by Marcus and the other communities)? Will the virus come back? Was Jeremiah's father just an unwilling pawn used by the Vallhalla sector group, or was he more involved than we thought? Did Theo survive the attack at the meeting in St. Louis? What was Ezekiel's (Jeremiah's adopted brother) connection to Lee Chen?

* If a second season ever came out (though I doubt that will happen), I would also like to see a lot more of what happened in the years following "The Big D" - maybe there could be some episodes focusing on Kurdy and Jeremiah (and some other characters) in the first year after all of the adults were gone; Theo made reference to some of these events in the first episode, when she said that "Little kids were fighting big kids", etc.

* The show is based on a series of comic books by a European writer/artist, but I've never read/seen them, so I don't know how closely the show follows the comic - but, if I ever find this I will read it, since I liked the show.

If anyone else has seen the show and has any thoughts, post them here - Thanks.

 

Great news about the second season. I had no idea, since I don't watch TV (I don't have cable), and also since only Season 1 is on DVD I have no way of watching Season 2. Hopefully it will come out on DVD at some point, even though there won't be a full season.

 

I was hoping it was a new series. Sounds interesting.

 

I liked this show, and Odyssey 5. After those two were not on anymore, I hardly ever watch Shotime anymore. Just Penn & Teller, and that's about it.

 

Was it Showtime that originally aired this? I think I remember seeing it on the lising once and was curious about it....

 

From what I saw of it, Jerimiah appeared realy very interesting.

I liked the interaction between the 3 major characters. Luke Perry, Sean Astin and ...that black guy from, Cosby, Malcome and Eddie and Listen Up and all of that stuff.