JEREMIAH (Complete First Season) -- J. Michael Straczynski, creator

©2002
studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
production company: Platinum Studios, Jeremiah Productions Inc., Lions Gate Television
creator: J. Michael Straczynski -- based on the comic books by Hermann Huppen
directors: Sean Astin, Mario Azzopardi, Holly Dale, Brett Dowler, Ken Girotti, Michael Robison, Brad Turner, Russell Mulcahy
cast: Luke Perry, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Peter Stebbings, Ingrid Kavelaars, Byron Lason, Kimberly Hawthorne, Robert Wisden, Sean Astin, Joanne Kelly
teleplays: Sam Egan, Grant Rosenberg, J. Michael Straczynski -- based on the comics by Hermann Huppen

In a post-apocalyptic future, a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity. The only ones who survived, was those who hadn't yet reached puberty. Now a decade has gone by, and a man called Jeremiah (Luke Perry) is set on a quest to find a mysterious place his father spoke of, a place called Valhalla.

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By the time that this series managed to catch my interest, it was too late -- I'd already given up on it.

Through much of the first half of this season, I was irked at the nothingness of the episodes. They reminded me of the old Planet of the Apes television series -- two men wandering around a future, post-apocalyptic United States, doing good deeds and freeing people from the petty tyrants that had taken control of their miserable lives.

It was quite tiresome, and just when I thought I was watching the last disc that I would watch, there came some intrique, and so I finished watching the season.

But the intrique aspects weren't clearly thought out in advance (or so it seems to me), and it wandered and sputtered about and I was grateful when the series was finally over.

I know that the series takes place in a depressing, end-of-the-world time, and that the name "Jeremiah" is associated with tears and sorrow and burdens, but if you don't have a hero who enjoys some aspect of life, why would we bother following that hero?! Can Luke Perry smile, just once in this series?

And Malcolm Jamal-Warner is a fine actor, and I know he has to try to shake the image of being a "Cosby-kid," but I just never believed him as the bad-ass black man who kicks butt and watches Jeremiah's back. In fact, his whole character was so ill defined that neither I, nor Jamal-Warner it seems, ever got a handle on just who the guy is.

This show lacked bite and enthusiasm, and it's no wonder it's off the air.

Don't bother with this series.