(Warning: Mild spoilers follow, but less than your average review. Just don't say we didn't warn you.)

The nuts have it next week when Jericho fans get what they demanded from CBS and their favorite show makes the unlikely return from the dustbin of cancellation next week. Like the residents of the small town from which it takes its name, the fans of Jericho would not go quietly into the TV night when CBS unceremoniously cut the action series from its fall 2007 schedule. Playing off a major plot point in the first season finale when a character responds to the demand for surrender with the word "nuts," Jericho fans deluged the network with actual food product. As far as I know that's a first, but it should allow for some creativity when future shows get cancelled. (Maybe if we send bananas to Fox, they'll bring back Arrested Development.) Anyway, the plan worked and now we get closure to that season one cliffhanger and a slightly new direction for the show without losing what fans loved about it in the first place. The second season of Jericho doesn't feel like a reinvention like it might have been for another series in the same position, but more like what the creators had planned all along. It just took some action on your part to make it happen. Now, don't let it get cancelled again.

We open season two with "Reconstruction," an appropriate title because that appears to be the theme for at least the beginning of the sophomore chapter. If the first season was about isolation, fear, and confusion, in the second season it feels like we'll know a lot more about what happened and where the citizens of Jericho stand in the world. How do they pick up the pieces after the gunfight with neighboring New Bern and move on from the tragedy that followed? Can Jake handle a world where the killer of his father hasn't served justice? "Reconstruction" takes up shortly after the cut to black at the end of season one and we learn that the human toll from that battle was much higher than just lives lost. Vigilante groups have formed and tried to enact revenge in Jericho and it takes the newly formed government to keep things in order.

While Jake tries to decide what to do about his perceived lack of justice in the new world order, everyone tries to pick up the pieces after what happened in season one. We know that Heather (Sprague Grayden) is still alive and she makes it back to Jericho and looks like she might play a major role in the new society. Mimi (Alicia Coppola) and Stanley (Brad Beyer) are getting closer and trying to deal with issues that stem from before the attack on America. Meanwhile, Robert (Lennie James) knows that his location might have been tracked and fears for the people who could be knocking on his door any minute now. All the while, Jake and his brother deal with the death of their father in the way you'd expect them to - planning their revenge.

The second season of Jericho makes it clear that even if the world has more shape and less confusion than it did in season one, it's not going to be any easier on our favorite characters. Violence is still a constant threat and the new country, which is only made up of states west of the Mississippi, is clearly going to have its share of problems.

CBS made a mistake by letting Jericho take a long hiatus near the end of its first season. Too many viewers didn't come back and they were forced to cancel it. Now, everyone's been given a second chance. Viewers who may have ditched the series during that hiatus but are curious about the "nuts" phenomenon may have caught up on DVD or on iTunes. To be honest, you could jump right in with the premiere of season two and instantly see why fans are devoted to the series. For me, the show sometimes still gets a little too melodramatic and soapy, but the storytelling keeps it consistently interesting, asking and answering the right amount of questions every episode. Jericho wasn't a great series in its first season, but it was better-than-average and certainly interesting enough to merit a second one. The season premiere for season two feels like something that should have happened all along. It will feel like home for Jericho fans.