MovieChat Forums > Jericho (2006) Discussion > Mistakes and unrealistic things about Je...

Mistakes and unrealistic things about Jericho

posted 16 years ago by vanillion
166 replies | jump to latest

Okay, maybe there are already dozens of threads and posts about this, but i don't really care and i don't want to search.
I started watching all the episodes of jericho again 2 weeks ago and now have reached the final of season one.

So.. heres a quick list of things that bugged me the most:

-- First off, the terrorist, anarchists or whoever "blew up" those cities used 20kt bombs (repeat: 20 kilotons! thats about as much as was used in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and those cities only had about 150,000 to 200,000 people each!!!) for their attacks. Those bombs could NEVER EVER take out a city the scale of Chicago, New York, Denver or Los Angeles. Washington DC might be another story because its much smaller, but not even Washington would be "wiped out" as it was stated in the series so often.
You can check the effects here: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html. Set your yield, chose your city or pick your coordinates from google maps and go. You will see, a 20kt bomb would barely take out Manhattan...
I'm not considering radiation or fires from heat radiation here (which, in ground burst of a yield that low, would most likely be not that destructive)

-- Second. A nuclear air burst creating an EMP burst so powerful to take out the whole United States teritory has to take place in about 200 miles height. No terrorist plane could EVER reach this height, and i highly doubt that the terrorist got their hands on one of the ICBM silos. Because in that case, they could have really wiped out those cities in the first place ;) (taking into consideration that most of modern ICMBs carry MIRVs, that can similary strike on up to 10 targets each.
However, it might be possible that the EMP burst attack was some sort of counter attack by North Korea or Iran. Not very realistic, but still possible...

-- Third. More like a funny mistake the crew made i think (don't know if its on the goofs page, was too lazy to look it up). After the electric power, food and other ressources run out, everyone is using candles to make light. Apparrently, Jericho has an unlimited stock of candles or some kind of hidden candle factory, as they never run empty in those two months ^^ (and they use plenty of them in every room)

-- Next thing.. if the rain from the fallout was really radioactive, so must have been the crops, the earth and everything else the rain came into contact with. The rain of course must not have been (highly) radioactive because Stanley survived beeing exposed for about 20 minutes. But IF IT WAS, all plants, crops, the top layer of earth and clay and, in the worst case, even the ground water would have been polluted.
This is not that bad, as you can just wash the dirt away from the buildings (with radioactive water :D) and carry of the polluted earth. They just should not eat the crops. Oh well...

Well, i can' remember any more points to add right now, but feel free to add yours, comment or flame me down because i challenged fiction again...

[–] cashlife 16 years ago

I was always bugged about the fact that only one guy in a town of 5,000 had a Ham radio. Especially in this part of the country I would expect at least 50 people in that size town to have some type of amateur radio equipment. There should have been at least that many with a shortwave radio. So the lack of outside knowledge is very unrealistic.

Also where is the Walmart, McDonalds, Lowes, Home Depot, regional chain grocery stores, etc... With all the new homes it didn't make sense to see nothing but one little grocery store.

[–] JakeFromJersey 16 years ago

>>Also where is the Walmart, McDonalds, Lowes, Home Depot, regional chain grocery stores, etc... With all the new homes it didn't make sense to see nothing but one little grocery store.<<

Gotta give you kudos on that one. They also implied early on that there was only one gas station in town, and when Stanley, Jake and Heather were driving the tank of gas to the generator at the med center, they had to take yet another dirt road between the two.

But if you remember on of my personal favorite lines, from the finale of season 1, after Hawkins told Johnston about his satellite, Johnston responds, "I am about to go to war with Newbern, Kansas, home of the nearest Costco. This day is already about as weird as I can handle. I'm not asking any more questions."

----
But Dad, it's Smokey!

[–] chambersjad 14 years ago

Never been to a small town have you? 1000 - 5000 in population... average would be 1 or 2 gas stations... Maybe 1 chain franchise restaurant... 1 grocery store (either with pharmacy, or there will be a separate pharmacy in town.) Never a Walmart, Lowes, or any kind of large box-style store unless it is a county seat or totally centralized location completely surrounded by 2 deep rural counties on either side (which would mean the pop would be up over 5,000 anyway.) Jericho seemed pretty realistically rustic.

"Who built this f#(%!^g police station." -- Leon Kennedy

[–] poeboy7 13 years ago

My hometown is 1529 citizens, in northern Minnesota. We have four gas stations (one's a co-op), one grocery store, one drug store, one hardware store, two bars, one liquor store, nine churches, a Dairy Queen, an A& W, and a Subway. We also have one hometown cafe, a movie theater, a dollar store, an auto parts store, a veterinary clinic, two chiropractors, a hospital, a library, a fitness center, a motel (Yes, just one), and a handful of other small stores, like clothing stores and furniture stores (one of each), etc. If you want to get to a big box chain store, like Wal-Mart, you have to drive 45 miles. There is an Alco, but that's still 30 miles away. We also have exactly one intersection with a traffic light, and it sits on a highway.

We also do not have our own police department. We contract with the county sheriff to provide police protection.

We do, however, have a metric buttload of guns and gun nuts around here. I found Jericho to be appropriately small-townish.

Sometimes I could kiss your mind, Roy.

[–] Barbarossa41 16 years ago

It didn't bother me because I loved the show A LOT but one thing that I always thought was funny was the people of Jericho drove around in gas guzzling F-trucks all the time. Not the best thing to do if fuel is in short supply. Lol.

[–] zeta1983-1 15 years ago

"How the hell do you set up a Texas embassy when the separate countries aren't even completely formed yet? How can a school text book be revised and mass printed in a couple of months? For me these were not little things, although I loved everything about season 1. But season 2 asked too much of me to suspend my disbelief and I think it is brutal, the show was cancelled at the right time."

I disagree these were plotholes. The history books were more than likely printed before they carried out the attacks. Remember the ASA's plan took many years in planning. Soon as the attacks went off they were ready to go. It wouldn't take long to designate an embassy. The ASA had already been in power awhile before the residents of Jericho were aware.

[–] JakeFromJersey 15 years ago

**************

"How the hell do you set up a Texas embassy when the separate countries aren't even completely formed yet? How can a school text book be revised and mass printed in a couple of months? For me these were not little things, although I loved everything about season 1. But season 2 asked too much of me to suspend my disbelief and I think it is brutal, the show was cancelled at the right time."

I disagree these were plotholes. The history books were more than likely printed before they carried out the attacks. Remember the ASA's plan took many years in planning. Soon as the attacks went off they were ready to go. It wouldn't take long to designate an embassy. The ASA had already been in power awhile before the residents of Jericho were aware.

***************

The producers and writers had to do in seven episodes what the originally was supposed to be 20 or more episodes. In a full season, Jennings and Rall's presence would have occurred further into the season. Had the season panned out as originally envisioned, the books and all that other stuff would have been arriving months, not weeks, after the arrival of Beck and the 10th Mountain.

Unless I am mistaken, I don't think it was ever made clear that J&R people were directly involved with the attacks. Rather, they stepped into the void left behind. If that is the case, J&R would not have been prepared with post-attack materials.

----
But Dad, it's Smokey!

[–] perrycoins 15 years ago

J&R senior leadership were the main ringleaders in the conspiricy. They had inplace a ready made military and "FEMA". Much like DynaCorps, KBR, Anderson or Halliburton. All of these organizations have armed security forces that are trained by the US military, various Federal and State Law enforcement agencies; built in logistics groups to send in food and humanitarian supplies, professional grade communications capabilities with full sat-com gear at the ready.

http://www.b5tech.com/

[–] tinus42 15 years ago

-Trying to fire a mortar from the main cannon of an M1 tank. Mortars are propelled by a spring coil, not fired by a firing pin. So even if it would fit in the barrel it wouldn't work. Yes there are mortar tanks, but this wasn't one of them.

[–] FourDeuce 15 years ago

Which mortar is propelled by a spring coil? I worked with US Army mortars for about 12 years(hence the screen name FourDeuce ;) ), and none of them are propelled by any spring coils. The 4.2" mortar(107mm) and the 81mm mortar are both fired by firing pins in the base of the mortar tube.
If they jury-rigged a mortar round to be fired from the main gun of a tank, it would need a firing pin of some sort to do it. It would have to be one of the newer M1 tanks, too, since the first M1s came out with a 105mm main gun tube, which would be a bit snug for a 107mm mortar round. The later M1 switched to a 122mm main gun.

I've never seen a mortar tank, but there are tracked vehicles(M113 series) which were built to carry mortars and their crews.

[–] stanleyrichmond 15 years ago

you know its a tv show right?

besides which most of what we "know" about nuclear attack is in theory. only two nuclear bombs have been dropped in history and they were 3 months apart in different cities.

we don't really know for sure what would happen if 23 cities were nuked... and just because its not an airblast doesn't mean it wouldn't destroy the city... your argument is lame. yeah hiroshima and nagasaki only had 200,000 people but that was 60 years ago, population density has increased since then. 20 kilotons is plenty to destroy a major american city... even if it wasn't completely leveled the fallout and everything else that goes with such a blast(think lots of fires) would basically destroy the city. Entire cities have burned to the ground before from a fire that was started.

The fact that Jericho had a lot of candles... well its a tv show, and im not sure an episode about the candle shortage would of been too entertaining... I don't know maybe they just went to all the stores that had candles and used them up. Think about all the stores in your town that would have candles on the shelves after a blast that everyone could go use, plus they only used them at night obviously. I dunno it would also be pretty hard to film a show in the dark... just a thought.

There are without a doubt fictional things about Jericho... but then again, it is fiction! There is no TV show that is 100% realistic... in fact Jericho is more realistic than most "reality tv"... Look at American Idol people who are that terrible at singing dont wait days in line to embarass themselves on tv, it's just people who were hired to make the show funnier.

[–] vin-dibenedetto 15 years ago

The rain was not radioactive. Remember how Stanley was in the rain for twenty minutes and nothing happened to him. Also, Hawkings shows Jake a map of the fallout projection from Denver which showed Jericho beyond the fallout with an untainted water supply.

If the terrorists could get 25 nuclear bombs and have 23 set off at the same time I'm sure they can get EMPS and a plane, also remember who is the master mind.

[–] FourDeuce 15 years ago

The rain in Jericho turned out to be not radioactive, but that's the way it would happen in real life. Rain washes out fallout in some areas and concentrates it there, and comes down fairly clean in other areas.

[–] Jake_Zero 15 years ago

I like how the sun was always shining at the beginning. Even being a few hundred miles away from Denver, the blasts would have thrown so much dust into the atmosphere it'd take years before it all cleared out. The dust clouds would block the sun, making it pretty cold for quite a while. Hence the term "Nuclear Winter".

And the EMP never made a lot of sense. The terrorist group never mentioned airborne delivery capabilities nor anything about an EMP. And if it was whatever country the US sent the missles to, they wouldn't have bothered with detonating a nuke in space when they could just send the nuke to the ground.

One thing I wished they'd done was give more info on what other countries were doing. What was Canada doing all this time? NATO? Mexico? Did they get nuked in the subsequent missle exchange or did they get spared?

If you like post-apocalypse stories like this, a really good book is called "Swans Song" by Robert McNammera(sp?). Probably one of the most realistic books as far as what the climate would be after a nulclear holocaust that I've ever read.

Build a man a fire, he is warm for the night. But set a man on fire.....

[–] skipvt 15 years ago

First off let me say I love the show. I guess it’s the post-apocalypse thing. I think the characters Hawkins and Jake are well written and well played. I also like the Gray Anderson character, not only is he a complete douche, but as mayor he consistently makes the wrong choices. I think the writers made a mistake by making him a stand-up guy in the end though.
But there are a few goofs and oversights I’ve noticed. The major one I’d say is if they have “the largest salt mine in 400 miles” why are they not the economic superpower? Or why hasn’t someone come along and taken it over, way before New Bern tried? A word about candles, I realize they need to light scenes and all, but really, where did Jericho find the 3 tons of wax they’d need to make all those candles? Was there a Yankee Candle warehouse in town? And all the kerosene and batteries to light those lanterns?
There are a lot of other things that could be attributed to artistic license and the fact this is a TV show and not reality, but here are a few things I’d say they just missed from season 1…

Episode 1.02
Why didn’t Emily not recognize the two sheriffs as being phonies?
When calling for help over the radio Emily says Jericho police instead of sheriff once.
The portable radio the phony sheriff is carrying isn’t a two-way, but a scanner.
Heather keeps calling the electric motor brushes brushers.

Episode 1.03
Jake wouldn’t let Hawkins go out on the scouting mission because he has kids, but Shep went and he had a kid (he was carrying her after Jake brought the school bus back).

Episode 1.04
When they find Victor in the pharmacy, why didn’t they call for an ambulance?
Dr. April Green puts the O2 mask on Victor upside down.

Episode 1.05
Transformers are fused, so the FD would have gone to the next one and pulled them, thus isolating power to the library.
The fire hoses are connected to a pump truck with a water tank. It wouldn’t be affected by the loss of city power.
Why was Dr. Green at the scene of the fire? She should have been back at the Med Center.
Why didn’t they immediately transport Emily to the Med Center?
Heather should have known better than to touch a door handle in a fire.

Episode 1.07
Gray Anderson comes back and all of a sudden the doves are hawks, and the hawks are doves.

Episode 1.10
Jake closes the wrong eye when aiming at the turkey.

Episode 1.12
Hawkins drives vast distances in very fuzzy time frames.
Cell leader tells the drivers that the bombs go off at 8:05, really he should have said 2005.
Why didn’t they take the refugees to the Med Center?

Episode 1.13
Johnston Green could not be retired Army, the numbers don’t add up.
If Hawkins disappeared (undercover) for four years before the bombs, why did April need a restraining order, and how did it get served?

Episode 1.14
A pack of feral dogs is pretty dangerous, country people know that, so why didn’t Jake and Stanley scare them away? And if they were really hungry, why didn’t they shoot them to eat?

Episode 1.16
With Stanley being the biggest farm owner in the area, why did they let him go to New Bern to work? Wouldn’t getting ready for spring planting be more important?

Episode 1.17
The 50cal on the tank was loaded (wasn’t used later).
When Hawkins meets the buyer at the warehouse the puddles aren’t frozen.
When Gray was shot, all the sheriffs run out of the building.

Episode 1.18
Jimmy turns on an electric light in Hawkins basement.
Sean and Bonnie don’t tie up the horses after getting off.

Episode 1.20
Electric lights on in Bailey’s?

Episode 1.21
Why didn’t the truck driver speed up when he saw Jake and Eric chasing on horses?

Episode 1.22
They unload 30cal machine gun rounds at Stanley’s house, but where are Jericho’s machine guns?
Satellite images displayed on Hawkin’s computer are from the wrong angle, should be from overhead.
They know they’re going into battle, why didn’t they have medical staff in close stand-by?
Why did the army helicopters, in route to quell a skirmish, ignore a tank near the battle?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] poeboy7 13 years ago

Episode 1.13
Johnston Green could not be retired Army, the numbers don’t add up.

Explain, please. My dad was retired from the Army at 60. He enlisted at 20 and served 20 years active, and 20 in the Reserves. Johnston Green has a son that was 32 at the start of the show; it's not a reach to think Johnston is 60.

Sometimes I could kiss your mind, Roy.

[–] barrybater2001 15 years ago

One of the more unrealistic things I noticed about this show was that they claimed several things happened (Washington, DC being detroyed, several neo-governments rising up to fight for control, etc.), and those things DIDN'T actually happen. Like, I was in DC a few weeks ago, and it's totally still there, and nobody I've talked to even knows anything about a new government based in Cheyenne, or about companies called Ravenwood and Jennings & Rall. I might try to stop into Jericho, KS next month when I'm in Topeka, but at this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if that's not even a real town!

________________
"...at this point the writing is on the wall..." -Tucker Max

[–] 15 years ago

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