Season 8, 6-8AM: I FORGOT!!!!

There I am, bracket busted to pieces like Jack's shooting this season, blithely watching Duke and Butler in a classic final, down to the last 30s, feeling happy that I'd get to watch this fine game, then catch 24 at 9, when I flip to Fox during a time out.

What!!!  That's Jack!  And Chloe.  And a robot trying to defuse a dirty bomb.  But it's only 830!  What's going on?!?!?!?!

Oh, I'm such an idiot.  I'd been looking forward to this 2 hour, get-24-fully-on-track this season all week, but March Madness musta hit me big time.  And here I missed sunrise!!

So, OK, Duke is up by 1, Butler has the ball, they've been turning the momentum their way for the last 3 minutes, and I just don't know who's gonna win, and I can catch 24 on-line later.....

But who cares?!?!?!  I'm watching Jack.

Then the phone rings.  OK, if I'm taking Jack over the last 10s of one of the best college basketball games ever, and the game's still on the line, you know it better be an important phone call.

And I'm back, to catch the last 4 minutes of the 1st hour.  I'll leave the phone call to your imagination.

Now I'm thinking the bad thing about 2 hours back-to-back is I miss out on one chance to see of scenes of next week's show.  On the other hand, I used to think the "Previously on 24" scenes at the start of the second show in a back-to-back were pretty stupid.  Not anymore--boy, did they come in handy this time 'round.  I felt all caught up, and I got to see something you don't see everyday--a president conking Jack on the head (also finding the bomb and Ethan being alive and President Taylor playing whack a mole, er, slap a weasel--more on the mole in a moment).  Probably a bad omen for the Islamic Pres, though--you can't bop Jack and get off scott free.  But as it took less than a minute to get caught up, it made me stop to think just how little substance these shows have.  Those writers have such a cake job--find hackneyed excuses to add suspense to pad the hour, then punch the clock and go home.  If you manage to advance a plot, so much the better, but don't go too far--you still have 8 hours left to fill this season.

Speaking of cliches, lucky you--you might get two posts from me this week, if I catch the hour I missed.

After coming up to speed with the Previously scenes, I'm ready to rock and roll.  We get a few gratuitous suspense moments, just to wear out that circuit, then Jack, Chloe ("if it was a snake it woulda bit me"), and Renee team up to track down the mole.  With the best agents in the world on the case (Freddy can be excused because he has other thoughts in mind for her), Dana doesn't stand a chance, especially when it's late in the season.  She's a sharp tool in the shed, though, now that she's shed her flaky persona, and she makes a good run for it, but once she's surrounded in the parking garage, she doesn't stand much of a chance, even after blowing through 2 clips, and seemingly having more ready to pop in (maybe I'm tiring of this "realism": if they have limitless numbers of clips, how's that different from never running out of bullets?), especially when she doesn't have a mole of her own helping her out (like she did for Tarin, which only led to the best car crash of the season--Tarin zooming is big SUV at Jack, then off the roof of the garage, nearly earning a perfect 10 from the judges for the twisting flip--Chloe says no one could survive that fall, and except for her forgetting what Jack did last season--"this is gonna hurt!"--she's right).  Especially when Freddy, betrayed Freddy, heads to the garage.  Freddy shoots out her tires as she's speeding at him, she crashes and survives--nice plot device those air bags--Freddy confronts her, but CTU takes her into custody when she says, "I'll talk, but only to Jack."

Never woulda heard that from a terrorist in seasons of yore!  Then, Jack was always one little excuse away from causing a lot of pain on anyone he suspected of being bad.  This season, grandpa doesn't doesn't even explain, "she won't talk, torture won't work on her" anymore.  He goes right to bargaining.  Don't we all fondly remember Michelle (wasn't it her?) getting drugged up in a CTU holding room?  Why not try the same on Dana this season?

No, we're better than the terrorists finally.  So much so that we don't even have to say we won't stoop to their methods.  Hmm, maybe Renee of a season ago got through to Jack in the same way he got through to her.  He tries to call Dana's bluff ("once the terrorists kill Islamic Pres, you have no leverage"), but Dana sees that as a bluff, and calls right back.  Jack caves and calls (President Taylor), bargaining immunity for info. And all those other immunity deals Taylor did when Jack asked have worked out so well that she buys off on this one right away (though she did try to weasel out of it on a technicality).

But don't think we miss out on torture and drugs.  Kidnapped Islamic Pres gets drugged to make his resistance lower.  He's still too tough for the kidnappers trying to coerce him into apologizing for his "crimes."  Kidnapper threatens to cut off body parts, but 24 doesn't do that anymore (not since one weak CTU agent lost a finger a couple seasons ago), preferring cleaner torture--electricity and more drugs.  As he's about to get shot up again, kidnapper changes his mind, figures he'll never cave, and decides to rant and rave on a "live" internet feed before slitting his throat.

So, now we got the live feed and Jack headed to the scene with a team.  He gives them a little pep talk, tells Renee he wants her with him rather than running ops (she's all, "Whaaa?" he's all, "it's against my instinct, but I need all the experienced agents with me."  I'm all, "Whaaaaa?  doesn't CTU have any good agents anymore besides Freddy?  And does this mean Renee's going down, too?  Say it ain't so!"  Oh, and nice touch by Wersching--she's headed to her assignment after Jack finishes his pep talk, then he calls to her, and she looks surprised--it's that attention to detail that makes this show so realistic).  They sneak in to the apartment building, Jack kills someone for not looking all that bright--fortunately Jack found a gun on him after the fact, that he quickly unloads and stashes on top of a fire hose cabinet--no kiddie's gonna look up there!  They find the right apartment, it has a quiet 6 year old in it (hmm, 2 strangers with guns come in saying they won't hurt me??  Yeah, I'm keeping my mouth shut.) and her mom.  Jack heads back, into the closet, Renee watches mom.  Good thing Renee has a roving eye and spots the platinum blond wig.  She's as quick as Jack at making the right inference (hidden blond wig + Arabic woman = danger!), and she blows away mom just as mom reaches into the sofa cushions and finds a gun.  Yeah, all terrorists hide guns in the sofas cushions for when company shows up unexpected.  Or was it, "I'm always losing things out of my pockets into the sofa.").

Jack finds Narnia, or is it a time hole (around 37s and 60s), and quickly shoots everybody, with terrorist still on line reciting the crimes of Islamic pres before killing him.  Only Islamic pres is dead (Jack didn't do it).  It's the Richard Pryor on Saturday Night Live trick, and Jack and all of CTU fell for it.

And that leaves us with Dana's immunity worthless (immunity expressly conditioned on recovering a live pres), the peace deal dead, and the only bare glimmer of suspense being something about the Russians--not the mob Russians we started with, but the political ones.  Although, is there really much difference?  That peace deal has always been more than it's cracked up to be, at least for me.  Is that what this season, now this series, has been building up to?  Peace in the Middle East?  (How West Wing again, like Ethan's heart.  Has this show really veered sharply left?)  And the best they can do to heighten it is to threaten me with ex-pres Logan showing up?  Is 24 going all On the Beach? Sphere: Related Content

We few (practicing embedding YouTube)

We happy few

Branagh's Henry V from YouTube, with a bit more than the Crispian speech.






Brief summary of what's going on and the text of the speech here. Sphere: Related Content

Season 8, 9-10 and 10-11: On further reflection

In an off-line conversation, I discussed whether Kant would busy himself with watching 24.  Notwithstanding my standing distrust of anyone who claims to know what another person would think based on published papers and reports (e.g., "Kant's response to Plantinga would be ..."), I think (those 2 simple words ameliorates my mistrust of myself; I'm not claiming I know what Kant would do; I'm clearly stating it's merely my opinion!) Kant would have a blast watching 24.  First, its exploration of the subtleties of blackmail, threats, lying, and torture--trying for all its worth to find a way that can justify their use would give him fabulous test cases for his Categorical Imperative.  I bet Kant's imagination, as brilliant as he was, never dreamed up the variations we see in just one episode!

Then there's the show's fascination with time.  It goes way deeper than "the events of the show happen in real time."  Or Keifer's voiceover "the following events occur between 10 pm and 11 pm."  We have the digital clock counting to the second before and after every commercial.  And throughout the show, in every episode, we're told how long at least on thing will take.  I'm not sure why the writers do that.  It adds very little to my viewing experience.  Maybe it's another example of throw-away suspense.  Maybe it's supposed to highlight that the show happens in real time.  All I think it does for me is remind me I'm watching 24.  Like seeing Jack's nervous twitches (come to think of it, he's not so twitchy this year.  Is it really him???  Now there's a plot-switcheroo that I'd never see coming!  Doppelganger-Jack!  He is posing as a German afterall.  But maybe it's just that he's been outta the biz for 4 years, learning to be a grandpa, and he's calmed down).  So Kant, such an incredible thinker, thinking such incredibly intricate, complex, interconnected thoughts, so time conscious (apocryphally, townsfolk set their clocks by his daily walks, which he missed only once after he got so excited by the ideas in Rousseau's Emile), probably would have eaten this stuff up (like a monkey on a cupcake?--words with "k"s in them--always funny, Sunshine)!

Now, on to what I didn't think to do last night.  Here's Branaugh's Crispin's speech in Henry V.  Cliffs says Branagh's version of Henry V is anti-war, or at least maybe as anti-war as you can do Henry V.  I'm not sure I see much of the anti-war, but I applaud him if he at least tried to approach it that way.  Still a rousing speech, applicable in fields far afield from war.

Then there's Chekov's gun, rather knife last night.  Let's play follow the knife.  Where did knife in the late Russian's neck come from?  Jack's belly.  Where did the knife in Jack's belly come from?  Renee's hand.  Where did the knife in Renee's hand come from?  Vlad's torso (I'll let "..." cover the over and over and over part here) ... Where did the knife in Renee's hand come from?  The floor.  Where did the knife on the floor come from?  The bread.  "What bread?" you ask.  The bread that Vlad asked Renee to cut for him and Jack.  At the time, it seemed simply Vlad showing his power over Renee and perhaps using the display to gauge Meier's (Jack's) reaction: "I see the way you look at her."  In hindsight, a pretty good use of Chekov (don't think the resemblance of the blog is anything more than superficial), maybe even the conflict becoming the solution, but of course with the 24 twist (that no one escapes the day unscathed, all are scarred for life at the end). Sphere: Related Content

Season 8, 10-11PM: Fish in a barrel for someone else

I'm not gonna do it.  Not even be disingenuous about not doing it.  Maybe doing it is standard for watching and following this show.  Maybe you can't avoid it.  But I'm gonna leave that to others.  Not gonna comment on the standard 24 story elements that seem missing.  Not gonna comment on the plot turns that seem to come in slow motion because you know they're coming.  Not gonna bemoan the sub plots that aren't doing anything.  Not gonna comment on the details that strain any half-brain's willing suspension of disbelief.  Come on, if you're gonna follow a story that happens in real time, you gotta forgive a lot.  Now, I wonder, what's that leave me to think about across an hour of 24 time?

Daredevil.

Frank Miller's first run on Daredevil.  20+ years ago.  Back when you could actually watch Miller develop into a comic book story telling master.  One of the best series of comic book story arcs ever.  Creating characters that still influence the Daredevil comic, still influence the Marvel Universe, and still resonate and tear your heart out when you read the stories.  Miller's first run on Daredevil made me realize for the first time the power of the sub-plot and minor recurring characters.  Watching how the same minor characters pop up for a frame or two now and again and contribute to moving the story or adding depth to the story, and 8 or 10 issues later finally they flower into a critical part of the story, adding a complexity, adding a fullness, that rounds out the story, makes it more satisfying, more complete.  Go get the Electra Saga to start to see what I mean, though that's not all of Miller's first riff on Daredevil.

And I only just this last month learned of how Falstaff and Pistol served that role in the plays culminating in Henry V.  I shoulda been reading those Cliffs Notes long ago.  Or maybe taken a Shakespeare course.  If you haven't seen Henry V, read the Cliffs Notes then watch Branagh's version, especially his St. Crispen's Day speech.  Wow.  But let's get back to the modern art form.

24 takes the sub-plot to another level.  All of its sub-plots serve a larger purpose in the intrigue.  So we complain about this sub-plot or that one.  And the writers are laughing at us.  And that's another reason I'm not shooting the fish anymore.  The writers know more than I do!!!  (Read Miller's Electra: Assassin--that last, 8th issue is worth all the frustration you build up in the first 7).

These 24 sub-plots are never throw-aways, never there simply to add a human side or a bit of levity.  How this season all fits together?  I have no clue.  I've agreed to ride this roller coaster, and not till it's over, not till I have the full picture (if I do even then!) is my opinion of the stories and story worth a hill of beans.  So, what about the characters?  They're fair game even now.

Renee is still way up there.  OK, so she finally cracked this episode.  It was foolish to hope she wouldn't.  Logistically, she couldn't continue to outshine Jack.  And Jack had been cooped up in the car for too long.  He had to be feeling perquacky, a bit third-wheelish, what with all the Vlad-Renee tete-a-tetes.  What better way to fix this problem than for Vlad to run out of his usefulness, at least in Renee's eyes, Renee to push him too far, Vlad to push back, Renee to snap, Vlad to smack, and Renee to brutally stab and kill Vlad and in the heat of the moment turn and stab Jack in the belly?  Leave it to 24--when it has a breakout moment, it pushes the limits. For a moment there I thought Jack was a goner, and Renee would be carrying the show the rest of the way!  Now that would be a plot twist to write home about.  But as I'm writing this blog, not my mom, you can tell that isn't what happened.  Or they could have, in classic comic book and 24 form, raised Jack from the dead.  But I'm not writing my old pastor or comic book store guy, so that can't be what happened.

No, Jack pulled the knife from his belly and threw it into the neck of the Russian coming (too late, so why'd he bother?) to save his boss, Vlad.  Pretty standard fare.  And after Jack grabbed a gun and shot (through the wall--he never uses the easy solution) the rest of the Russians as they ran around we seemed to be heading to a boring mop up operation of sifting through cell phone calls, without needing even Chloe to help.

Fortunately, more even Russians show up (it's a pretty big realm, by the way), and Jack sees his chance to get in with them by getting captured (I guess it didn't take much creativity to come up with that idea).  Never being one to ask for help (looking surprisingly chipper after getting beat up a few hours ago and just pulling the knife out), he all but tells Renee he loves her, then hides her in a closet telling her to shoot if anybody opens the door (was she really that out of it to need that piece of advice?  maybe we viewers were, or maybe the writers just thought, "why waste an opportunity to add some gratuitous suspense," kinda like a throw-away line.).  So he gets captured and whisked away differently from what he expected, and CTU loses him.  On the good side, Renee is back among the living, looking like she's ready to keep fighting the fight, and I'm happy thinking she's gonna stay a big part of this season, even as Jack now goes undercover (and boy, from the scene for next week, it doesn't look pretty).  Right now, I'm in it for you, Renee.

And those other plots are finally moving along.  Islamic pres is looking more and more unstable, arresting and torturing anybody who crosses his eyes.  I shouldn't be guessing here, but is his daughter next?  Will that be the nudge that pushes him away from the brink (now that he's already jumped off with both feet?).

OK, that plot really hasn't moved very far, but LBD finally started getting to the good stuff--she gave her ex the keys to a great score, he followed her directions pretty good, though he started looking a lot less capable than he has all season, making stupid, nervous mistakes.  Then his henchman started playing stupid games (again, writers using a throw-away suspense moment with a water pistol--what was that doing in an evidence locker?  Oops, and I wasn't gonna shoot fish anymore!!!), and finally they overstayed their welcome and had to "beat" a hasty and messy escape.  In her last scene, LBD got that look in her eyes that we--OK, maybe only I--have been waiting for.  Finally seeing that her ex really isn't bright enough to pull one over on her, finally getting fed up with his manipulations, finally seeing his incompetence next to her competence, finally showing resolve to take charge of her life, finally showing some range in her acting!  And next week's scenes give me hope that "the truth shall set you free!"  Would that more blackmail victims knew that.  (By the way, just why is blackmail illegal?) Sphere: Related Content