Jeremiah (TV series)



"What did any of us ever do to you? What did the whole fucking world do to you that we deserve all of this? I mean, come on, the locusts and the death of the first-born wasn't good enough for you anymore, so now it's the death of the eldest? The death of heroes? You know what? Fuck you. Because we're not just gonna lay down and die down here. You want to finish off the job? Come down here! Do it yourself. You send the Angel of Death, you better give him one hell of a big sword, because I tell you what, we are gonna kick his ass all the way back to the great white fucking throne. And then we're coming for you."

- Jeremiah, to God

Jeremiah is a Post Apocalyptic television series that aired on Showtime from 2002 to 2004. It was (very loosely) adapted from the French-Belgian comic book series Jeremiah by J Michael Straczynski and starred Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. The series ended after two seasons when JMS quit, citing too much Executive Meddling on the part of MGM, and the network elected not to continue without him.

In the early 21st century, a supervirus known as "the Big Death" was unleashed across the planet: highly communicable, short incubation period and one-hundred percent fatal to anyone who had reached the age of puberty or higher. Within six months, the population had been decimated and the only survivors were the pre-pubescent children, who somehow had to rebuild a society they never fully knew. Fifteen years later, one such survivor is Jeremiah (Perry), who travels between the rural, low-tech communities that have cropped up in the intervening years and searches tirelessly for something called "Valhalla Sector", a place his father once spoke of as a possible refuge against the Big Death.

During his travels, Jeremiah befriends fellow wanderer Kurdy (Warner), colony leader Markus Alexander (Peter Stebbings) and possible prophet Mister Smith (Sean Astin), and gets caught up in an attempt to rebuild the United States of America, a brewing conflict with those who'd attempt to sieze power for themselves and a possible reoccurence of a new and even more dangerous plague.

This series provides examples of: "Jeremiah: So, er, what are you doing?
 * Action Survivor: Jeremiah, the primary protagonist and the show's namesake.
 * After the End
 * A God Am I: A very charismatic and intelligent man pulls this.
 * The Alliance: Much of Season 2 is spent building one of these centered around Thunder Mountain and then defending it against various new threats.
 * An Aesop: The entire series has a few overarching ones, the principle one being 'blind faith in anything is bad'.
 * Atheism: Kurdy, along with several other characters, but interestingly not Jeremiah himself. Jeremiah is actually a maltheist, a person who believes that a God exists, and that this deity is evil, and does not deserve to be worshiped but rather should be opposed.
 * Badass Normal: Kurdy.
 * Big Bad: Daniel is set up as one, although it's eventually subverted in that
 * Boot Camp Episode: "The Question"
 * Cargo Cult: In an episode of season 2, one of these is shown. They worship an old, precalamity house, and kidnap people to force them to live a prewar lifestyle while they watch on television. This is treated as a religious exercise by them, and they believe it will restore the previous world if they are dutiful enough.
 * Also seen in the 2nd episode, where Jeremiah and Kurdy drive past a bunch of cultists who are reverently holding vigil around a broken telegraph pole.

Cultist: Waiting for a call."

"Jeremiah Are you happy? Are you satisfied? That's how it works, isn't it? You set us up, you take someone like him, and you give him hope, so you can take it away again? What did he do to you? What did any of us ever do to you? What did the whole fucking world do to you, that we deserve all of this? What, the locusts and the death of the firstborn wasn't good enough for you anymore so now it's the death of the eldest? Death of heroes? You know what? Fuck you. Because we're not just going to lay down and die here anymore. You want to finish off the job? Come down here! Do it yourself! You send the angel of death, you better give him one hell of a big sword, 'cause I tell you what; we are going to kick his ass right back to the great white fucking throne! And then we're coming for you. We're coming for you. "
 * Cold Blooded Torture
 * Corner of Woe
 * Dawson Casting
 * Despair Event Horizon:
 * Deus Ex Machina: In "The Question", Mr. Smith offers one guaranteed miracle from God if Marcus, Kurdy, and Jeremiah ask for it and wait at an appointed place in time.
 * Note that, as with everything else Mr. Smith does, the question of whether this was actually divine intervention or not is deliberately left open.
 * Disaster Scavengers
 * Elaborate Underground Base
 * The Empire: Daniel
 * Fake Guest Star: Marcus is The Alliance leader and is in almost every episode of season 2, but isn't in the opening credits.
 * Foreshadowing: Mr. Smith seems to be aware of several characters' deaths before they happen.
 * Gender Is No Object
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: Daniel
 * Hey Its That Guy: Alumni from Beverly Hills 90210, The Cosby Show, and The Goonies. Also, a good chunk of people who turned up on Battlestar Galactica later, plus Warehouse13.
 * Jerkass: Theo, who is a strong contender for the least likable person in the series. She's not evil, per se, just incredibly unpleasant.
 * La Résistance
 * Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane: The religious group from "Journeys End at Lovers Meeting". Did they actually Ascend To Another Plane Of Existence? Or...
 * See also: literally everything related to Mister Smith. Every miracle or instance of divine intervention he witnesses always has a convenient mundane explanation, even if it's a somewhat unlikely one.
 * Mission From God: Mr. Smith, possibly also a Cosmic Plaything. "I'm just God's sock puppet okay? He shoves his hand up my ass and words come out the other end."
 * Mysterious Past: Mr. Smith, most likely a Dark and Troubled Past too."I have some issues ... One of thousands. Would you like to hear them alphabetically or in order of psychic trauma?"
 * No Name Given: Mr. Smith. "So if I was going to introduce you to somebody, I'd say, this is Mr. Mr. Smith?"
 * No New Fashions in The Future: Justified - the plague didn't exactly leave many fashion designers alive and kicking.
 * Non Indicative Name: Although Jeremiah, the character the show is named after, is a main character, he is by no means the only one - Kurdy gets as much screen time and dialogue as he does, and there's a whole ensemble of other recurring characters who get nearly as much face time.
 * Oh Crap: The look on Theo's face after angrily proclaiming to the rioting mob that they have no electricity, only for her team of kept geeks to choose that exact moment to test the electrical generator they built.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Played straight (Jeremiah's freaking point-blank gut wound) and subverted (Mr. Smith's arm wound making him permanently paralyzed there). Of course, given that this is Mr. Smith we're talking about, it's not subverted for long.
 * Orphans Ordeal
 * Parental Abandonment
 * The Plague, which is Only Fatal to Adults
 * The Pornomancer: Jeremiah himself, who manages to sleep with virtually every woman he encounters over the course of the series.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: One of the best ones ever, after a particularly heroic and innocent person dies. This rant is directed at Michaelangelo's Genesis:
 * Orphans Ordeal
 * Parental Abandonment
 * The Plague, which is Only Fatal to Adults
 * The Pornomancer: Jeremiah himself, who manages to sleep with virtually every woman he encounters over the course of the series.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: One of the best ones ever, after a particularly heroic and innocent person dies. This rant is directed at Michaelangelo's Genesis:
 * Rage Against the Heavens: One of the best ones ever, after a particularly heroic and innocent person dies. This rant is directed at Michaelangelo's Genesis:


 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Marcus
 * Refusal of the Call: Mr. Smith says this didn't go well for him.
 * Salt and Pepper: Jeremiah and Kurdy
 * Samus Is a Girl: Theo
 * Sassy Black Woman: Theo again.
 * Screwed By the Network: Season 2 was split in half by the network, with the two halves airing months apart (Initially the second half only aired in Canada). Fans and viewers were mostly kept in the dark about the fate of the remaining episode. Creator J. Michael Straczynski eventually got so fed up with the amount of control the network was exercising over the series that he declared he would not be involved in any further developments.
 * Star Crossed Lovers: Megan and Marcus, one of the worst cases when you think about it.
 * Stargate City: They even use the SGC as their HQ!
 * Superpowerful Genetics: apparently Mr. Smith's daughter also hears the voice of God.
 * Take Up My Rover: In the pilot episode, one of Thunder Mountain's scouting teams are killed; the leader, on his final breaths, encourages Jeremiah and Kurdy to take the rover back to Thunder Mountain in their place.
 * Teenage Wasteland, though the show shows what happens after those kids grew up
 * The Chosen One: Mr. Smith
 * Those Wacky Nazis: Specifically, neo-Nazis; several different groups of them are encountered over the course of the series, and it's mentioned in a throwaway line of background dialogue that one particularly powerful neo-Nazi group controls almost all of Montana.
 * Typhoid Mary: Megan; she even explicitly refers to herself as such at one point.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: Where the heck does Libby get all of those Fan Service outfits? Heck, where does all of Jeremiah's unlimited paper come from?
 * Walking the Earth: As much of it as can be reached from their home base on a single tank of gasoline, anyway.
 * Wicked Cultured: Sims
 * Woman in White: Megan
 * Woman in White: Megan
 * Woman in White: Megan