It looks to me that the whole nuclear war angle is going to be a backdrop for lots of soap opera action, but I hope I'm wrong.
I'm guessing that after the initial setup, everything is going to "settle in" and focus more on interpersonal BS like love triangles and who-did-who in back when they were all at Jerico High while they stand in ration lines by the town's magicaly bottomless supermarket season after season. I'll be very dissapointed if the whole "Armageddon angle" is going to get 10% of the screen time, in a blatant attempt to give just enough to string the viewers along to keep watching all the soap...
It does look a tad bit more realistic in that they didn't have everyone bald and barfing like they did in "The Day After" which was a purpose made anti-Regan, anti MAD, anti Cold War film purposely designed to scare the bejezus out of everyone. After my own research and especialy Kearny's Nuclear War Survival Skills (Google it, excelent free PDF&) If you're not in a blast zone, and can stay completely out of the fallout for the first two weeks, and mostly out of it for a month, (Or, your town never gets any&) you're largely okay. Then as in any disaster, infrastucture privation, heat, food, water, medical, is really your biggest worry.
I blame "On the Beach" for the notion that a Nuclear War is somehow "different" from all other war and disaster and it magically "get's everyone in the end". Nuclear war isn't "good" by a long stretch of the imagination, but there are many volcanic events in just recent history alone that make most nukes pale in comparison, just for a little perspective. If you want real end of the world stuff, you gotta look to the comets and asteroids for that...
I'm hoping I'm wrong about the show, and that it moves in a concrete direction. The "mystery prodigal son" who lies to everyone about where he's been is a bad omen though. If I want to be strung along with little Twilight-Zone'ish crumbs as to "what's happening and why" with long breaks for interpersonal drama and flashbacks, I'll just keep watching "LOST"&
