"Jeremiah" has a couple of things in common with the sci-fi cult hit, "Babylon 5" — both shows are set in the future, and both are created and produced by J. Michael Straczynski. But the similarities end there.
"This is, I think, overall, a much darker show, a much more serious show," Straczynski said of "Jeremiah," which premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Showtime. "The theory on this, and what brought me to it, was a chance to create a series which is a turn on what you normally see — a post-apocalyptic series about hope, which is like trying to design a submersible cat. You know, the two don't work together really well usually."
The premise of the show, which is based on a comic-book series by Herman Huppen, is that shortly after the dawn of the 21st century, a plague — called the Big Death — killed six billion people. Everyone who had reached puberty died, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Now it's about the year 2020, and once the adults were gone, 21st-century technology was too complicated for the kids to keep going.
"If you blow a transistor, you can't fix it yourself. You're screwed. And the higher level a society goes up in terms of technology, the more vulnerable you are if it all falls apart," Straczynski said. "So in our series, when the power goes off and the Palm Pilots don't work and the cars don't work and the ships aren't working anymore, it begins to gradually degrade over time."
Luke Perry ("Beverly Hills, 90210") plays Jeremiah, a loner who's searching for the mysterious Valhalla Sector, where his scientist father may have escaped to. He's joined by Kurdy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner of "The Cosby Show"), a funky guy who helps him navigate the strange new world where various groups struggle for control.
"We have one group that decides, 'We're going to run the world, and it's going to go our way.' The military, perhaps — what's left over from that," Straczynski said. "You've got a religious cult over here that wants to do it their way. You've got the Skinheads. You really sort of divide the culture up. And the essence of the show is what will the future world look like, and who will decide that."
What critics have seen of "Jeremiah" is dark and rather unappealing — Straczynski insists there's hope, but there doesn't appear to be much. Plus, the casting is weak — we're talking Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, after all. And, frankly, it's fairly dull.
(It's also very R-rated — which you've got to expect on Showtime — with sex, foul language and violence.)
But Straczynski insists it's not as dark as it seems.
"It's a show that's about beginnings," he said. "It's 15 years after the Big Death, and . . . those who grew up after the Big Death have been riding on the ashes of what was left behind. And now they either keep that decline going or they rebuild the world. And this cusp is where our story takes place. So it's about rebuilding the world and what that world will look like."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com