Jeremiah (TV series)

The Badass Longcoat Brigade

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 was 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.

Tropes used in Jeremiah (TV series) include:
  • 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. It ends with a little over a hundred daisy cutters going off under him.
  • 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 there is no Daniel, he's a computer-generated figurehead propped up by some as-yet unidentified shadowy figure.
  • Boot Camp Episode: "The Question"
  • Cargo Cult: In an episode of season 2, one of these is shown. They worship an old, pre-calamity 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.

Jeremiah: So, er, what are you doing?
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.

  • 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 episodes. 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.
    • He shows appreciation of fine wine, poems and kindness to a small girl, but is utterly ruthless otherwise.
  • White Shirt of Death: Megan.
  • Woman in White: Megan
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