What frustrates me about some high-concept shows is that they don't give you information until sweeps, but 'Jericho's' audience will get a large piece of the puzzle every week.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
But a lot of shows, they pose questions and they give you a puzzle where there's no solution.
I like shows that have some level of intelligence to them. When it's not as predictable, when you don't know what's coming at you.
I never try and do the same show, ever. The audience controls the dynamic of the shows. Sometimes they listen, and sometimes they ask a million questions.
People have really long attention spans, and they love complicated plots. TV series are giving the audience what they want.
I think there are ways in which shows can pop their heads up a little bit in the morass of everything you can watch.
People have to respond to the characters and respond to the situations that they're in. That said, it still has to be a compelling narrative that drives along and keeps people coming back week after week. So really, with any successful show you could name, there has to be a mysterious blend of both of those.
Every show is unique, some shows have the master plan and have everything figured out and that's just the way they do things. It's like high school. Some people write their papers the second they get their assignments, and some people write it the day after it's due. I am the latter.
Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you put it in front of an audience - and the enthusiasm for the show from the audience has been just incredible.
One of the great things about 'Jericho' that is a parallel with 'Over There' is, in this country, we tend to forget the news we don't want to know about. We're so oversaturated with media and other images that we can turn our head a little bit.
I'm not setting 'Jericho' up to be anything other than what it is, which is, you know, a piece of good, well thought-out, well put-together TV and entertainment.