Jeremiah.....RIP ??

[villarestall]

ok - so I just finished watching the entire season 1 DVD set yesterday (took me 3 days during my time off shift at work) - excuse my tardiness as I know it's been around for a bit, bt as I work overseas on ships my main way of catching up with my favorite TV shows is by buying the boxed sets...

anyway - like I said, I just finished season 1 last night, and boy was it good! So - I started hunting around online for news of season 2 being released on DVD, or whether there was any hope for the show to continue in any form - my searches however, were in vain... Have the fans laid the show to rest? that would be a crying shame I must say...

So - for my part I have to say - ENOUGH of forensic crime squad shows, tales of "desparate housewives" and shows where real people consume raw bovine genitalia in an effort to win enough cash to buy a fancy car!!! Enough I say!! -- Jeremiah was / is a show that hits me right in the belly with some of the stories during the first season. The scene in the episode where Markus asks Theo to tell him her last name - the look on Theos face as she thought about it, and told him brought a lump up in my throat, the likes of which I hadnt felt since I was 9 years old and watching ET on the big screen...

Anyway - in the hope that someone pays attention and reads this forum - heres what I want to find out...

1 Is Jeremiah gone for good from TV land...?
2 Anyone heard any news on a release date for season 2 on DVD as a boxed set...?

ttfn...

villarestall

[Jan]

Anyway - in the hope that someone pays attention and reads this forum - heres what I want to find out...

1 Is Jeremiah gone for good from TV land...?
2 Anyone heard any news on a release date for season 2 on DVD as a boxed set...?

Hi villarestall! The short answers to your questions are:

1 -- Probably.

2 -- No, I'm afraid not...so far at least. Which is a pity because, while shorter, Season 2 was even better than Season 1. Let's hope it happens at some point.

It seemed for a time that Season 2 wouldn't even have all episodes shown in the States. For whatever reason, ShowTime showed the first seven of them and there was a delay of (iirc) several months before they showed the 'missing 8'.

There didn't seem to be a big fan push to get a third season, possibly because JMS had said long before they showed the episodes that, even if there were, he wouldn't be returning to run it. When asked about it at the recent Wizard convention, JMS said in part:

àMGM was to creative notes as Auschwitz is to health spas. It was a terrible, terrible environment. What I sold initially was a show about rebuilding. I wanted to do a post-apocalyptic show about hope. Which is a kind of contradictory term, sort of like a submersible cat. The contexts donÆt really match up too well. I wanted to do it about empire building and world building. So it would have followed the rebuilding of society over the course of many years. Which rules do you keep and which ones do you throw away from the old world. Those were the questions I wanted to ask. MGM wanted T&A.

I agree that Jeremiah had SO much potential, it was a shame what happened to it. If you can find anybody who taped the second season, though, do watch it. There were new characters and a whole different direction and it even had a pretty satisfactory ending.

Glad you found us.

Jan

[villarestall]

re: jeremiah.....RIP?

Hi Jan

well thanks for the reply (this has to be one of the more civilised sites I've come across in recent years i must say...) - and thanks for the info, even if the answer isnt all that bright...

sadly for me, with living in canada, most of the cable channels where I might find shows like Jeremiah running in their entirety are illegal to view up there, as they are US based (shame!) - we do have "space" though, and I'm fairly confident that seaon 2 will pop up on there sooner or later - as I'm still pretty much the "anorak" of the family, even at the ripe old age of 35, none of my friends tend to watch shows of that nature (they're all fans of the shows I referred to before!!)

I guess I shall have to be content with what I can get in the end - I've always tended to favor the shows that never hit the mainstream though, and disappear before their time (Millenium & Harsh Realm for example - heck, when I was a kid back in the UK, and all my friends were watching Knight Rider, I was the one watching Street Hawk, which only lasted for 12 episodes i think.... but I digress, seeing as they arent really "on topic" for this site, LOL!!)

Anyway, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on whats happening in the B5 / Crusade universe in the coming months - it'd sure be nice to see that back on the screen again...

ttfn

villarestall

[Jan]

villarestall,

Actually, as I recall, the Jeremiah second season was shown in it's entirety on a Canadian channel before it was here in the States on ShowTime. I don't know which, possibly it was the Space channel. Possibly they'll rerun it?

Seems a shame that Jeremiah was filmed up your way and it's so hard to see.

Jan

[AaronB]

Hi villarestall! The short answers to your questions are:

1 -- Probably.

2 -- No, I'm afraid not...so far at least. Which is a pity because, while shorter, Season 2 was even better than Season 1. Let's hope it happens at some point.

It seemed for a time that Season 2 wouldn't even have all episodes shown in the States. For whatever reason, ShowTime showed the first seven of them and there was a delay of (iirc) several months before they showed the 'missing 8'.

There didn't seem to be a big fan push to get a third season, possibly because JMS had said long before they showed the episodes that, even if there were, he wouldn't be returning to run it. When asked about it at the recent Wizard convention, JMS said in part:



I agree that Jeremiah had SO much potential, it was a shame what happened to it. If you can find anybody who taped the second season, though, do watch it. There were new characters and a whole different direction and it even had a pretty satisfactory ending.

Glad you found us.

Jan

Jan,

Thanks for that tidbit from JMS about what really went down with Jeremiah. It's a real shame that the studios don't really get that people want stories and plots first and then T&A somewhere after that. Although I am generally lothe to compare anything to what went on in Europe during WW2, Joe once again does it with grace and knowing when not to push the envelope.

[villarestall]

Jeremiah..... RIP?

Hey everyone...

It figures that i would probably miss the shows if they were screened in Canada - from sept 6 2004 to may 29th 2005 I was only actually home for a grand total of 21 days, and they were taken up with family stuff.... oh well...!

Totally agree on the opinions about the companies though, even though I thought the stories were excellent, the t&a that seemed to be so prevalent in some of the episodes must have been at least partly due to some mucky muck exec at the network saying "I know what'll bump up the ratings..."

Ahhh well...... guess I'll have to bide my time for a while - I'm actually at sea working right now - but when i get home in september i'll be heading off to my local comic store to track down the graphic novels and see how they are...

ttfn

villarestall

[vacantlook]

MGM wanted T&A.

As does, seemingly, every other freaking network and production company in existance anymore. As I've started saying increasingly more lately, they should all just scrap the idea of having actual shows, and just show porn all day long: it seems to be all that they want anyway.

[Jan]

Totally agree on the opinions about the companies though, even though I thought the stories were excellent, the t&a that seemed to be so prevalent in some of the episodes must have been at least partly due to some mucky muck exec at the network saying "I know what'll bump up the ratings..."

Hard to tell without asking JMS about each. I don't think he'd've given in to too much interference but I imagine he'd try to compromise as long as the story wasn't hurt.

I can't think of any actual pointless T&A scenes, though there was plenty of nudity and sex. For instance, in the very first episode/pilot, there was not only the topless waitress but also at least one of the 'band' was topless as well. Obviously the waitress and Kurdy got together later on and we learned a *lot* about him in that scene that he might have told us but we probably wouldn't have believed if we hadn't seen it. That made his instant attraction to Elizabeth much more believable, imo. As for the band member, I think the point there was the same as was being made via the discordant music they were playing. We certainly knew we weren't 'in Kansas' anymore right away.

On looking at the episodes a second or third time, we see that every single character is scarred by what's happened to them. Not just the Big D, all of the things that happened after while they scrambled to stay alive. Theo's a good example. Her base isn't just *in* a high school, it *is* a high school society with the Jocks and Brain Boys and Cheerleaders.

Oh, now look what you've done! I'm going to have to watch the first season DVDs again!

Jan

[villarestall]

Jeremiah... RIP?

LOL!!

That'll keep you busy for a couple of days...!

Not that I'm prudish or anything, but I always wonder about the underlying motives when nudity is used in TV shows - having said that, I have thought that in a world like Jeremiahs┤, nudity would probably be even more visible than we saw in the show - the lack of parental "guidance" (or rather, the imprinting on the children of the parents own psychological makeup where sex is concerned) would probably mean that taboos about nudity and sexuality would be almost nonexistent....

What is almost mesmerising for me though, is that every character has scars left by either or both the big D or the aftermath û and I can think of no better example than Theo.

From the start of the season, you see a character who seems to be living on the edge of insanity û someone who has built a little ôempireö around herself û you donÆt consider her a good or nice person, rather a bully who would not only steal candy from babies, but probably kill them for having ôherö candy in their hands in the first place! - but then, when she is trying to find a way out of thunder Mountain after almost being framed for theft, and Markus asks her what her last name is û you can see that it punches right thru that oh so unlikeable exterior to the scared, grieving child within.

For me, in that second, Theo goes from being the character most in need of a bullet between the eyes, to a sad, lonely girl, who for a second has the memories of a better life before the big D wash over her û and feels the longing for the world to be like that again û hence, I think, her ôempireö being a high school society (like you said), with all the recognizable figures one would expect in a high schoolà

Personally, IÆm not the deepest of people when it comes to TV entertainment, but itÆs moments like that, that make me watch a show like Jeremiah again and again û thatÆs what makes it all the more frustrating to see the show disappear. I suppose the American viewing public isnÆt ready for a show that, while about hope, passes through times and events of such sadnessà

shame reallyà

ttfnà

Villarestall

[Jan]

LOL!!

That'll keep you busy for a couple of days...!

Well...turns out I have to wait to get it back. I'd forgotten that I lent it to my sister.

Not that I'm prudish or anything, but I always wonder about the underlying motives when nudity is used in TV shows - having said that, I have thought that in a world like Jeremiahs┤, nudity would probably be even more visible than we saw in the show - the lack of parental "guidance" (or rather, the imprinting on the children of the parents own psychological makeup where sex is concerned) would probably mean that taboos about nudity and sexuality would be almost nonexistent....

My thought exactly. Sure, there were a number of survivors near puberty but if there's ever a time a kid's going to throw off parental teachings, that's the time! And the younger kids wouldn't have absorbed the taboos as much.

What is almost mesmerising for me though, is that every character has scars left by either or both the big D or the aftermath û and I can think of no better example than Theo.

None of JMS's villains are ever 100% bad. And they usually have a perfectly valid point of view. One we don't agree with, but valid nonetheless.

Personally, IÆm not the deepest of people when it comes to TV entertainment, but itÆs moments like that, that make me watch a show like Jeremiah again and again û thatÆs what makes it all the more frustrating to see the show disappear. I suppose the American viewing public isnÆt ready for a show that, while about hope, passes through times and events of such sadnessà

I don't require that kind of depth in my entertainment but it's certainly the quality that'll make me watch again and really appreciate both the writing and the acting skill.

With luck, though....JMS will be starting work on a new series this fall for a 2006 debut. Cross your fingers.

Jan

[b5finland]

Jeremiah season 1 and 2

Hi !

Does somebody know is there going to be R2 dvd release for season 1 and 2 ?

I asked from local dvd shops but they dont have a clue... Anybody ideas?

by the way this is very good entertainment


Sorry for the poor english...

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I seriously doubt that there will be an R2 release at any point, the way things are going.

With the R1 release of S1 having been out for, what, a couple of years now with no sign of an R2 release it seems unlikely that an R2 release is in anyones plans any time soon. If you have the facility to play it, though, the R1 release is well worth the money.

I don't know about the rest of Europe, but here in the UK Sky One showed S1, and due to lack of ratings (I assume) quickly bumped it to a late night slot. It was so unsuccessful that they have owned the rights to S2 for the last couple of years and, apart from one aborted plan to broadcast it back in Jan05, have given no indication that they are going to ever show it.

As far as the UK is concerned, I can't imagine MGM will look at that and consider a DVD release to be a viable option commercially.

What we need in the UK is for one of the terrestrial channels to pick it up and for it to become a big cult hit - I believe that would kick start MGM into a release over here. There was talk at one point that five had picked up the rights to both seasons, but when I contacted them recently they categorically denied that that was the case.

It is a real shame, because Jeremiah is a badly under-rated show that could have been something really special given the chance ... but then how many shows can we say that about!