Google Earth is one of my favourite timewasters. I love spinning that globe around and daydreaming. One of major pet-peeves with it though has been it’s rather illogical and spotty high-resolution coverage of this northern nation.

Sure, Stockholm was of course high-res, but the rest of the country wasn’t very logically resolutionized. Gothenburg, for example had no high-res coverage, while my old hometown of Jokkmokk had it. Gothenburg is a major city, Jokkmokk is not. There were also some funky strips of high-res out in the middle of nowhere, you could see trees upon trees and nothing else.

Umeå, the city where I live, had no high-resolution zooms. Zoom in and it looked like a giant green-gray-blue blob. Not the beautiful city that I enjoy living in.

That was until recently, I guess. I fired up GE about three minutes ago and noticed that Umeå is in glorious high-resolution! Yay! Now you can zoom in on where I live, if you know where I live

I did notice however that the high-resolution material is quite dated. I’d say they’re at least three or more years out of date, since several things that have been added in that timeframe are missing from the shots. Minor inconvenience, but I felt it should be pointed out to anyone who might be wondering. I don’t know the source of this material either, but it bears a striking resemblance to the aerial photos that Eniro provides on it’s mapping service.

My lovely girlfriend Ann-Sofie remarked the other day that I had become very grumpy and negative in my latest posts. As always she was quite right with this remark, and I decided to not write anything more until I felt more cheery and positive.

This proved a bit tougher than I initially thought. You see, she’s not here with me right now. She’s down in the south of Sweden visiting her parents and siblings, and I always get a little extra cranky when I’m without her. She balances my moods, bla bla bla, all that romantic crap. If you want a Hallmark card, go to the store.

Well, anyways. I thought long and hard and at last I found a subject that actually made me happy to write about. Ironically enough it’s something as shallow as a TV-series.

The last few years I’ve noticed and enjoyed the increasing trend of networks around the world actually producing TV-series worth watching. Sweden has a fairly long history of producing fairly high-quality shows, but now even the American networks realized that people were getting fed up with silly sitcoms or low-budget cop shows. I mean, how many times can you redo Ally McBeal and Law & Order? After a while it gets kinda old.

This all started with 24, a series I immensely enjoyed but haven’t watched the last season or two of. I probably will though, it’s just a matter of priority. Another show that captured my imagination was Lost. Unfortunately though, I’m rather ambivalent as to whether I will watch the fourth season or not since it seems the only lost people on that show are the freakin’ writers. A show that started off so brilliantly then got solidly shafted with nonsense plotlines and cheap gimmicks to make people keep on watching it.

But, I digress.

I like my TV-series like I like my coffee. Dark and broody, no sugar or milk. Or that would be how I’d like my coffee if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a sissy who likes lots of cream and sugar in my coffee. Never mind, I’m trying to prove a point here!

The first thing that these new shows had and which the old-skool ones were missing was production value. Lots of it. No cheap sets, no cheap effects. Just a lot of high-octane production value. This is evident on both 24 and Lost, but also on shows like CSI.

The second thing that started getting me hooked on the boob-tube once again was that shows started branching out in rather weird and unfamiliar territory. Plots were getting a lot more freaky, and creators started mixing genres like some demented bartender. Plots were crossing over between genres, mixing everything from western to scifi to thriller-mystery.

(Sure, there were a few shows before this “new wave” that also had that, but they lacked the production value and instead became quirky cult-favorites)

Which brings me to why I’m writing this post. I’m going to give praise to a show that was cancelled but thanks to dedicated fans have been renewed for additional episodes.

That show is Jericho.

I’d read about it a few months back, and read about it’s cancellation and the efforts of fans to bring it back. I’d never heard about it before, but the basis of it made me very intrigued.

I mean, a post-apocalyptic drama set in a small Kansas town (named Jericho) revolving around how it’s citizens cope with life after seeing a nuclear blast in close-by Denver, Colorado and later learning that several nukes went off all around the country. It sure made me perk up my ears, and I decided that I would do my usual test to see if it whets my appetite for more. I would watch the first four episodes and decide after that if it was worth my time.

I did the same thing with Heroes this spring, and both me and Ann-Sofie got completely hooked on that one. I promised that we would watch this together, and make it a “thing” we do.

Unfortunately, Sunday or Monday I got really bored, and since there were no movies or anything worth watching on I decided to be sneaky and watch the first episode of Jericho. After that it was all down-hill, and yesterday evening I watched the 22nd (and so far last) episode of that show. I had gotten completely addicted, almost worse than with Heroes, and definitely much worse than how I got hooked on 24 or Lost. Much, much worse. I had a hard time NOT watching it nonstop, the only thing truly stopping me from watching all 22 episodes in one go being that a binge-watching was probably not a good thing to force upon my already weak grip on reality.

So, I spaced it out over a few days.

At the risk of sounding like a complete fanboy, but Jericho is AWESOME. The only thing I didn’t really like was the reason behind the nukes, I would’ve preferred something… more chaotic. Not so “conventional”. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, especially not since I want to watch this again when Ann-Sofie gets home. That’s the only thing I didn’t completely like about Jericho. Other than that it’s an excellent time-sink for anyone with the inclination to spend 22 hours watching it.

Just make sure to drink your fluids and eat at least something every now and then. Other than that, go NUTS! (har har, that’s an inside joke!)