If they say they nukes were set off by the Aryan Brotherhood of Blond Blue-Eyed Christian Fundamentalists - I'm gone. (They did something of the sort - changing the villains to politically acceptable neo-Nazis - when they turned Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears into a movie.)
I agree that the substitution of neo-Nazis in "The Sum of All Fears" was absolutely lame, and I've yet to watch that movie. I probably never will. If it's ever "free" on cable, I'll watch the nuke going off to see the SFX, and then change the channel.
In Jericho, the intentionaly vauge radio news reports and the joint session of congress that were heard and shown before the attack implies that it's "international terrorisim", most likely Islamic, or Middle Eastern of some sort, perhaps with the backing of a sponsor nation.
However, I get the impression tht for now, if not forever, who is responsible for the nuclear attack is moot, and that by keeping the audience in the dark as to the "whys" and "hows", we're all focused on the town's survival. And that way, we'll better empathize with how cut off they feel.
In a way, Jericho is trying to be the antithesis of the traditional "disaster movie" where you get an omnipitent view of the action, alternately following the terrorists, "ground level" survivors, the President, rescue workers etc., getting the "big picture".
The closest example I can think of is the movie "Testament", where the action focuses on a small far-flung suburb of San Fransisco that's pretty much in the same boat as Jericho. "The Day After" kept the action around Kansas City, but even then they jumped around the area a lot, and spoon-fed the audience clips stock footage of the US military going on alert, TV news about the "Crisis in Europe" etc.
So that's where Jericho, at least in premise, is "unique". The audience is given little info the rest of the characters don't have. So far the only things I can think of is that the Sheriff is dead at the hands of a convict from the prison bus, and what the mayor's son's been up to for the past few years& Otherwise we'll find out what's going on as the townspeople discover it. In that regard it's "realistic".
