Jericho Review

There is one element that was missing in last night's premier of Jericho that was on the previews.....the nuclear related special effects.

From the preview it was edited in such a way that you saw the flash of the mushroom cloud and you heard a bang. In no scene last night did you hear any sound of explosion when the mushroom cloud was in camera view.

There were no other explosions in the opener other than the main one supposedly in Denver and the other heard on from a phone call originating in Atlanta. From the previews or early previews you got the impression that there might had been blast damage from the nuclear explosion. This certainly wasn't evident in the opener.

EMP

from http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400�500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.

So, in theory a bomb detonated in the area of Denver would have knocked out most electronics in Jericho had it been an air detonation. If on the other hand it was a ground detonation then the EMP would have knocked out all electronics within the burn/blast zone the size of which is dependant upon the yield of the weapon.

Question... How long after Denver is knocked out would the power grid continue to operate? That all depends on how much generating capacity is located in the Denver area that is destined for the power grid and not used in Denver. Remember that a single lightning strike started what became a cascading blackout throughout the NE US and Canada.

So far it seems that the producers of the show have edited out some of the inaccuracies that were found in the early previews. Let's hope they keep the program to reflect some level of plauability.