Sci Fi TV Genre Gems: Forgotten magic and hidden treasures from the worlds of sci fi TV
What Is It? Loosely based on the Belgian comic strip of the same name, this series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus (known as “the Big Death”) has wiped out almost everybody above the age of puberty leaving only the youth behind to pick of the pieces of a shattered world. The series starts fifteen years after the plague and focuses on a young man named Jeremiah who is traveling across the remains of the United States looking for Valhalla Sector where his father had told him there might be survivors who can help rebuild the world. Along the way he teams up with another drifter, Kurdy, and these two also join up with a group of survivors who have taken over the Cheyenne Mountain complex (“Thunder Mountain”), the former location of NORAD. Thunder Mountain plans to use their resources to eventually begin rebuilding the world and they use Jeremiah and Kurdy as well as other groups to scout out the country and find bands of survivors that will eventually unite with them.
Aired: Showtime, 2002-04, 2 Season Totaling 35 Episodes
Created By: J. Michael Straczynski
Starring: Luke Perry, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Sean Astin, Peter Stebbings, Joanne Kelly
Why It Stands Out: Jeremiah never received the acclaim of Straczynski’s Babylon 5, but it had many of the same strengths as that show and delivered a well-made, post-apocalyptic series with strong characters, interesting arcs, and some first-rate stories.
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi? Possibly, because it is a damn good show and fans of J. Michael Straczynski’s work as well as the post-apocalypse genre should find plenty to like about it.
The Skinny: In the early 00’s sci fi was still mostly anathema on the Big Four broadcast networks, but it was finding much more success in the syndication market and on cable. During this time, the premium cable channels did some experimenting with genre shows and Jeremiah was one of the ones that landed on Showtime (that network also produced one season of Odyssey 5 in 2002 and had produced the first five seasons of Stargate: SG-1 which began in 1997). This venue allowed the show to interject more adult themes than what the broadcast networks or basic cable channels could do because of FCC restrictions, and Jeremiah definitely took advantage of the freedom allowed to it. Not just by amping up the sex and violence (though it did do that), but also by presenting challenging tales that didn’t necessarily lead to the nice, tidy sort of wrap up that Prime Time television typically prefers.
J. Michael Straczynski was of course no stranger to these type of stories as he had already explored some of the same territory with his five plus year run on the Babylon 5 franchise, and he continued very much in the same vein with Jeremiah. The series began with more of an episodic feel (similar to the first season of B5) as it followed Jeremiah and Kurdy travelling across post-apocalyptic America. And it was in these episodes that Straczynski (as well as some of the other writers who contributed to the show) managed to deliver some hard-hitting tales rife with moral quandaries and challenging ideas (similar to the path that show’s like Lost, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones would later trailblaze). The second season was more story arc driven, but still offered its fair share of good episodes.
It ended after its second year, but Jeremiah’s managed to accomplish a lot in its two seasons and it deserves much more recognition than it has received since it first debuted. It is definitely worth checking out and since it does resolve its ongoing arcs, it will not leave hanging. But it will leave you wanting more.
Buy Jeremiah on VOD from Amazon.com
Cancelled Too Soon? Yes. The second season of Jeremiah changed the format up some as it became much less episodic, and the overall feel of the show seemed to shift as well. It became more story arc driven, but also less intense and less focused on the moral quandaries presented during year one. The show’s studio MGM had started tinkering with it which led to frictions between them and Straczynski, and that–along with less than spectacular ratings–led to the series getting cancelled after its second season. JMS had plenty of advance notice on the cancellation, though, so the series does resolve most of its ongoing arcs. But there was still plenty more story there to tell as JMS had originally envisioned a five-year arc for the show.
Should It Be Rebooted? No on the reboot, but a revival would be interesting. As mentioned above, the second season wrapped up the ongoing stories, but the show still had more potential. They could check in on the characters these sixteen or so years later and delve further into this post-apocalyptic world. Sadly, the recent passing of Luke Perry makes a revival that much more unlikely. But perhaps at some point J. Michael Straczynski could carry on the story in comics.
Interesting Facts: The show’s leads were both well-known young actors from the 80’s and 90’s. Luke Perry played Dylan Mckay on the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 in the 90’s, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner played Theo on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992.
According to IMDb.com, J. Michael Straczynski was so displeased with his experience working with MGM on the series because of the tight grip they maintained over the production that he claimed that he would never work with them again under that administration.
Where Can You Watch It? The series was released in two DVD sets, but those have since gone out of print are are fetching pretty high prices from third-party sellers. The second season is available for streaming on Prime Video, but you are going to have to pay for the first season VOD if you want to watch both from that provider. Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming for free (with ads) on The Roku Channel, though for some reason it indicates three seasons, breaking out the second into two batches of episodes.
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com
More from CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the ratings developments and the status of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Weekly Roundup posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.
I think this show was a tale of two generations and that is what mucked it up.
The whole story line would have appealed to teenagers because it was about kids and teenagers but it was too adult in the minds of censors and such to market it toward them.
Having been a teenager and up to far more than what society would consider appropriate, the past several generations of teenagers would have eat this show up had it been served to them and would have probably lasted a lot longer than it did.
In short it was a GREAT show and worth watching. A continuation would be a great thing but getting all the gang back would be problematical so a reboot with some sort of guarantee of wrapping up the story would probably be a more likely outcome.
Remember Roswell? Was out around the same time and it turned out well for its time….Had this show followed that path, it probably would have wrapped up as well.