This Underrated 2000s Post-Apocalypse TV Series Has Way More Lore Than Just 29 Episodes

Every television show has lore. It’s an important part of the of the overall storytelling, the details, history, backstory, and sometimes internal rules specific to any one story or setting that makes even real-world based dramas work. Lore is especially important when it comes to sci-fi, however. Sci-fi stories aren’t just working with character relationships and history; they’re often setting the stage for how things work in a world very different than our own. Sci-fi lore can be expansive, too, particularly when shows or franchises go on for a long time (look at Star Trek or anything in the Star Was universe, for example.) But there is one sci-fi post-apocalyptic series from the early 2000s that might just surprise you with how much lore it actually had despite only airing 29 episodes on broadcast television.

Debuting on CBS in 2006, Jericho is a series that is pretty infamous when it comes to its off-screen story. The Skeet Ulrich starring series centered around the residents of a fictional small town in northwest Kansas — Jericho — as they deal with a radically changed world in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on 23 American cities. It had a fascinating premise and started strong but was cancelled after just one season for low ratings. Fans intervened, launching a massive campaign that persuaded the network to bring the show back for a second season only for it to be cancelled again after seven more episodes. The show remains a cult favorite to this day, but for many people, the story ends with that second season. The truth is that the story and the lore actually extends to multiple web series and a comic book series that takes Jericho’s plot into Season 3 and Season 4 giving fans so much more to explore.

Jericho Had an Extensive Online Universe That Functions as a Prequel to the Series

One of the more interesting and forgotten aspects of Jericho is its online component of which there were actually a couple of different facets. Beyond Jericho was the first, designed to be an online companion to the actual television series where fans could go to find stories about other survivors from the nuclear attacks in the series. However, after just one installment (that showed a man and a kidnapped women as the attacks happen and in the immediate aftermath) that webisode and its website were pulled by CBS before Jericho’s second episode and was replaced by more traditional “prequel” webisodes called Countdown. Episodes of Countdown followed Robert Hawkins (Lennie James) studying up on the impact and effects of nukes before his move to Jericho. The episodes don’t actually feature regular characters from the series and you really mostly see Hawkins in shadow watching various mini documentaries that offer various expert interviews about the effects of a nuclear attack. There’s some “dialog” offered up via text messages, but that is actually a function of the heavy AT&T product placement for the web series. Despite this, the episodes help flesh out that something about Hawkins doesn’t quite add up — and offers some interesting science as well. Oh, and it’s revealed that there’s a “shadowy military unit” of some sort hunting for Hawkins.

The online world extended beyond webisodes, too. In August 2007, CBS launched Tom Tooman, an alternate reality game (ARG) tied to the show. There was a strange letter posted on a website that was allegedly from a Tom Tooman of Lame Deer, Montana that also came with a series of bar codes, some of which contained Mayan numbers. Those turned into an IP address leading players to a second website, JenningsandRall.com, which was supposed to be the website for the corporation that has a major role in Season 2 of Jericho. It was all a twisty web of cluse for fans to follow and puzzles to solve and even ended up with a blog on the CBS website, but when Jericho was cancelled the second and final time, the game was abruptly cancelled and no resolution was given.

Jericho’s Real (And Best) Extended Lore is Analog

While the online universe was an interesting experiment in marketing, it’s the offline lore that is truly interesting when it comes to Jericho. Despite being renewed for a second season after fan demand, it was also cancelled and left things on something of a cliffhanger, with Jake (Ulrich) and Hawkins arriving in Texas where the seeds are being sewn for a Second American Civil War between what’s left of the old US Government and the newly formed Allied States of America Government. It completes the story in the sense that you know where things are going, just not the outcome. And that’s where comics come in. Originally published by Devil’s Due Publishing in 2009 and collected by IDW in graphic novel format in 2011, Jericho Season 3: Civil War picked up the storylines from the series, following Jake and Hawkins as they work to try to free a now-captive terrorist mastermind behind the original attacks who they believe can help in the fight against the ASA. The “season” finally answers questions about why the attacks happened and how.

Season 4, also from IDW, arrived in 2012, and was overseen by the television series’ original writing staff. Season 4 sees Jake and Hawkins make it back home to Jericho having succeeded at their own mission, but the world is still divided, still dangerous, and on the brink of revolution. Everything culminates with a high-stakes showdown as the truth behind the original attacks come out and the corrupt ASA government is exposed. Like the television series itself, the comics lore is a bit open ended with room for more stories to come, but also a component of closure knowing that the “bad guys” are finally being confronted.

The idea of expanded lore for a television series is certainly not new. Jericho isn’t the only series to expand its universe with webisodes (in the same general era, we see Heroes do this, too) and it’s certainly not the only show to continue its story with new “seasons” in comics. In particular, both Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been very successful with that. But most people only know Jericho for its cancellation history and it’s interesting concept, never realizing how much deeper the story goes than Jericho simply being an underrated series whose biggest claim to fame is the devotion of its fans.

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