Jericho

One of the many 24-style series of the 2006-2007 season, wherein crucial plot points were revealed with exasperating coyness on a weekly serialized basis, and in which every single solitary character seemed to have something to hide, Jericho made its CBS debut with one of the most startling openers in TV history. As prodigal son Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) returned to his hometown of Jericho, KS, after an unexplained five-year absence, he spotted what seemed to be a nuclear mushroom cloud blooming on the horizon, hundreds and hundreds of miles away. At first glance, it looked as though the super-powers were at war, but it would later be revealed that the attack was the work of terrorists -- though how many terrorists, no one knew. Whatever the case, Jericho was completely cut off from the rest of the world, and no one had any idea what fate held in store for them: another bomb, perhaps; or starvation; or slow death from radiation? Jake's father Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), the mayor of Jericho, valiantly tried to keep the community together and to avert wholesale panic, endeavoring to maintain radio contact with the rest of the country and the world, and organizing searching parties to glean new information about the apparent nuclear holocaust. Meanwhile, Jake was uncomfortably reunited with two former lovers: Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott), now engaged to another man, and local schoolteacher Heather Lisinski (Sprague Grayden). Weaving in and out of the story was a newcomer to Jericho, the enigmatic Mr. Hawkins (Lennie James), who claimed to be a cop from St. Louis, and who somewhat suspiciously was a veritable fountain of information about nuclear fallout and post-apocalyptic survival techniques. Jericho began weaving its multitude of tangled plot webs on September 20, 2006.