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“Jericho”, the new CBS show, has a kick ass premise, but the execution is open to intepretation. In short, there has been a series of coordinated, planned terrorist attack on the country, with nukes being set off in major cities. No one knows what exactly happened, why, or who is responsible. The show itself takes place in the small Kansas town of Jericho, and is confined there for the four episodes I’m reviewing here.

The show stars Skeet Ulrich as Jake Green, a mystery man who returns to Jericho after a 5-year absence. Jake is, we learn, a major screw-up when he was a kid, and his decision to leave didn’t meet with his father’s approval. Gerald McRaney plays the dad, who is also Jericho’s mayor. Back in Jericho, Jake hooks up with old pal Stanley, ex-girlfriend Emily, and the show’s other regulars.

Soon, nukes are going off around the country, including a giant mushroom cloud over the city of Denver, visible over the mountains from Jericho. Jake and everyone else realizes that the country has been attacked, and must deal with it. But how, because communications beyond the town are no longer working, and people are getting scared.

Now that is a pretty nifty premise, and probably why “Jericho” is one of the two high-concept shows (including NBC’s “Heroes”) that can be officially declared “hits” in the 2006 season.

The pilot episode goes off like gangbusters, hitting on all cylinders. Jake Green is a fantastic character, and his mysterious background is intriguing. When people asks him where he’s been, Jake tells one person, “The Navy,” and another, “The Army”, and another, “Military school”. When someone sees Jake wiring a mine to blow and asks him where he learned how to do that, he replies, “I know a guy.” Obviously Jake Green has been around and learned lots about survival, which makes him a more than capable hero.

Other notable characters include Ashley Scott as Jake’s ex-girlfriend Emily, who spends the entire four episodes whining about how she’ll never see her fiance Roger, who was on his way over when the attacks happened. There’s also Robert Hawkins, an equally mysterious (if not more so) guy who claims to be an ex-cop from St. Louis, but throughout the four episodes, reveals himself to be someone much more sinister. Mark my words, this guy may not be responsible for the nukes, but he knows the people that were, and it wasn’t any pissed off Middle East terrorists. I smell an “inside job”.

While the episodes seem to be hinting at Emily as Jake’s love interest, they also introduce another woman, Heather. Personally, I like Heather much more, as she doesn’t spend all her time moping like Emily. Speaking of which, besides Heather and Jake’s mom, every other women in the show is really unlikeable. Most of all a spoiled rich bitch name Skylar, whose parents are dead somewhere, which apparently means nothing, because she still continues to live like the spoiled rich bitch that she apparently is. The character is so insufferable, and at the same time the writers keep trying to convince us she has layers that are hidden behind her constant “teen bitch queen” persona. Who care about the layers underneath when I can’t stand the surface?

What? Me, a cliched teen rich bitch? As if!

Overall, “Jericho” is pretty good. Sure, the producers does seem to be attempting way too hard to inject those serialized “watch as the plot thickens” gag that have been popular ever since “Lost” did it. This is most obvious with the Hawkins character, who crawls around in his basement building fake walls and typing on a laptop that, apparently, can still get the Internet. Hawkins is interesting for the first couple of episodes, but after a while it just seems like the writers are trying much, much too hard to string the audience along. I’d like to know more about him, but I don’t really care all that much, guys.

It’ll be interesting to see where “Jericho” goes, but I’m guessing the plots will probably be pretty limited. Soon, we’ll start seeing more further adventures of cliched teens Skylar and Dale and their oh-so-cliche High School melodramas and other cliched drama plotlines. I hope not, but I don’t see how the show can avoid it. It’s introduced so many characters, that it’s allowed itself to play with them. The problem with that is, 60% of “Jericho’s” myriad characters are just not worth following.

Give me more Jake and Heather and less Skylar and Dale, please.