Jericho
CBS | Release Date: September 20, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
16
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 2 Review: The show itself, however, does much of its best work in the shadows, where nothing is that clear. Read full review
80
Boston GlobeJoanna Weiss
Season 2 Review: The world is well-constructed, down to the details: By the third episode this season, Ulrich's hair has grown into a messy and convincing frontier mullet. And the characters are intriguing; Esai Morales is notable as an Allied States Army major who might soon be convinced that his superiors are up to no good. Read full review
80
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 2 Review: In Season 2, the show, brought back by fans who vociferously protested its cancellation, has become more topical and even more intriguing. Read full review
80
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 2 Review: The second season of CBS' cult fave broadens beyond the first season's lawless action and family sentiment, even its rallying sense of community, to a wider and deeper purpose. Read full review
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 2 Review: From the three episodes I've seen, I'd say that even after all this time, Jericho still has something to say. Read full review
80
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 2 Review: There's a crispness to the series that was lacking at times last season, and it's impossible not to get caught up in the twists and turns that come in rapid-fire succession. Read full review
80
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 2 Review: The dialogue's still pulpy, but its action story is the bomb. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn
Season 1 Review: Jericho works when it sticks to the eerie surreality of a nuclear attack... The show, unfortunately, flops about in its first two episodes, leaning too heavily on the action-adventure stuff. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 2 Review: I predict those struggles for allegiance to be reflected in the microcosm of smalltown Jericho. Instead of “North and South,” we may be about to get “East and West.” Read full review
70
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: "Jericho" has a surprising ability to create tension from the unthinkable. Read full review
70
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: A gripping, one-of-a-kind drama. Read full review
70
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: There's enough human drama here to keep us occupied without having the walls fall down, too. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: What’s intriguing about the series is the absence of a visible enemy -- with a citywide communication breakdown, hardly anything is known about the status of the rest of America -- and the focus on keeping citizens from becoming their own worst enemies Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 2 Review: The story's too good to be undermined by a little woodenness. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 2 Review: Was this resurrection worth the effort? In a word, yes. Read full review
70
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 2 Review: Like "Alias" or "The X-Files," Jericho has enough wheel-within-wheels, double agents, and ad hoc alliances to draw in viewers who love a long-playing puzzle. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 2 Review: I'll never be a Jericho nut, but I'm all for performers like these [Daniel Benzali] who'll inject some cracked intensity into this grim fantasy. Read full review
63
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: It's not a bad scenario for a serialized drama, but be forewarned: The apocalyptic story unfolding on "Jericho" is, by nature, exceedingly gloomy, reviving memories of the Cold War and also serving as a reminder of the tense times in which we live now. Read full review
63
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Discerning viewers -- and anyone who's hooked on "Lost" -- will realize that "Jericho" is doling out hints to a very large mystery at a very slow pace, which is never a good combination. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: "Jericho" doesn't pretend to be artistically risky, but it's got a scary and gripping theme in an age of terrorism and nuclear thuggery. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Despite sharp casting, the real trick will be to develop Cold War-style fear while dribbling enough clues to elevate this above being just a post-apocalyptic "The Young and the Restless." Read full review
60
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: For at least the first two episodes, "Jericho'' works better than it should, and there are some striking moments and images. Read full review
60
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: The second episode is much cheesier and less suspenseful than the pilot -- nothing quite beats those mushroom clouds in the distance, let's face it. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: If the Awful Truth of the Global Meltdown is the big carrot "Jericho" dangles before you, it is no more compelling than the question of which of the available good-looking girls Ulrich is going to get close to. Read full review
60
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: What you do after surviving the end of the world as you know it is an intriguing premise, and when "Jericho" sticks close to that, it's one of this season's more promising new dramas. Read full review
60
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: There's something faintly retro about a show that tackles fears many thought died with the Cold War. Read full review
50
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: That morbid premise -- in addition to the so-so storytelling, devolving badly by the second episode -- sure feels morosely overwrought for 8 o'clock. Read full review
50
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: In Jericho, claustrophobia, paranoia and the threat of nuclear rain are merely an overlay meant to distract us from the mundane nature of everything else the town has to offer. Read full review
50
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: There's something missing from this postapocalyptic drama, namely, a realistic feeling of apocalypse. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 2 Review: The action is fast-paced, the plotting dense, if often simplistic, and the tension generally sustained, as long as you don't overthink the improbabilities of the cover-up over who's responsible for the bomb attacks. Read full review
40
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: It's an interesting approach, but despite well-drawn characters and the strong cast, there's a sense that the show is trapped in amber, a perfectly preserved relic from another age. Read full review
40
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: There's tons of trouble in Jericho, and that starts with T and that rhymes with D and that stands for dumb. Not flat-footedly, spectacularly dumb, just a little bit too dumb to live up to its premise. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: The creators of “Jericho” deserve some credit for beginning where most thrillers end. But they rely too much on melancholy pop music to paper over weaknesses in the writing and characters. Read full review
40
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: The fall's biggest disappointment. Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 2 Review: On paper, the idea of building a new democracy from the ruins of war while government contractors run amok--in other words, showing what would happen if the reconstruction of Iraq took place in our heartland--is just as strong as the original premise of Jericho. But the execution remains mediocre. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: It's not only about a bomb. It is one. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: That's a lot of story potential, but most of it is squandered in trite and predictable ways. Read full review
30
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: "Jericho" turns nuclear catastrophe into an excuse for a series of suspenseful "24"-like set pieces, and the result is a ham-fisted concoction overcrowded with incident and rigged thrills. Read full review
30
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: It might sound callous to say that "Jericho" has managed to make nuclear war look boring, but there you have it. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Downbeat and earnestly preachy about community and survival, this weird show is further hampered by glum Skeet Ulrich’s miscasting as the all-purpose prodigal hero. Read full review
25
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: Mostly it feels like an instructional film about disaster preparedness. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]
20
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: A catastrophic nuclear crisis never looked as boring and convoluted as it does here. Read full review
20
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: It had a weak pilot to begin with, but the second episode is even more of a tedious bore. Read full review
20
The New YorkerTad Friend
Season 1 Review: “Jericho” lumbers; its townspeople spend all their time in the bar squabbling--they know one another so well that they haven’t got room to grow. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL