Season 8, 4-5AM: Women Rule!

Oh boy, I haven't cheered often at 24 this season.  But when Cloe called Renee to get her to track down Jack, I heaved a heavy, "YEAH!" almost dislodging the fat, round cat from my lap (no small cat, that one!).  OK, it was only 20 seconds of Renee, but seeing her possibly back in action got my hopes up.

Why is Chloe calling for backup for Jack?  Why can't Director Dopey do it?  Why's Jack need back-up anyway (he is, after all, very capable of taking care of himself, as Dopey mentioned).  Wow, you sure ask a lot of questions for someone who missed the best episode of the bunch this season!

Chloe called Renee because she's worried about Jack--strange, that, as she should know better than anyone else alive (or dead) that Jack can take care of himself.  But maybe she thinks he's lost his edge now that he's a grandpa.  CTU is down hard because of the EMP, and Dopey doesn't have agents to spare, especially because where he presumes Jack is is 3 square miles!  Too big to cover without CTU having its eyes and ears back.  Ah, here we learn another difference between traffic cameras and drones--with CTU down, the drones might crash into populated areas when they run outta gas--no such worries with traffic cams.

And, alas, Chloe calling Renee means that Tony probably really is permanently dead, otherwise Chloe would have surprised us even more by calling him.

Jack needs help because he called NSA to shut down all bridges and tunnels once CTU went down (here I am worried about all those commuters at 415am, but no one mentioned them--or the panic that shutting down the city like this would cause--isn't that always the reason for not doing things like this?  The writers must have tired of the trick we discovered earlier this season of having characters notice the absurdities of the plot and thereby defuse our disbelief), then went to the only place left for them to cross the U235 into the city--the East River!  Duh!  When he gets there, with Freddy and two red-shirts (I'm still hoping they make it!), both he and Freddy find their phones don't work when they call for back-up.  Are you surprised to learn that from this observation it takes Jack all of 15s to figure out they've found the terrorists?  He slams it into reverse, taking immense fire, and slams it between to shipping crates.  Good thing those CTU SUVs are fully armored.  So now we have a fire fight between 4 cornered CTU agents and uncounted terrorists.  With Jack one of the agents, this fight should be over in about 20 s, right?  Oh, here's where those clever writers surprise us again--Jack misses every time he shoots!  I've never seen him miss so many times.  Just to show you how much he misses, he runs out of ammo, announces it to the world, then reloads to miss some more!  The only reason he has to reload is for the writers to show us that this show is not so unrealistic.  The reload was otherwise insignificant to the plot.

Jack gets a chance to do more than miss, though, when he spots a land-line across the road.  If only there weren't so many baddie snipers (they're not shooting any better than Jack, by the way).  This gives Jack the chance to go all McGyver again, and to show off his classical learning.  I'm not sure where he found the armored plates (removed from the SUV?  Without a blowtorch?), but he fashioned them into something of a phalanx (sans spears) so the 4 of them could move (slowly so as to not break the formation) to the land-line (fully confident the baddies won't figure that out and cut the line, if they haven't already).  Naturally the most experienced of the red-shirts gets scared and impatient and breaks ranks and gets shot.  The rest make it, but the shot agent writhes in pain, taking occasional fire (somebody's seen Full Metal Jacket), drawing the heartstrings of the younger red-shirt who disobeys Jack to retrieve him.  Almost back to shelter with impatient agent, young red-shirt takes fire, and Jack and Freddy drag them to cover.  Youngster asks if oldster is OK.  Freddy shakes his head no, but Jack (no fan of Immanuel Kant) lies to youngster as he tries to tend to his wounds (looks more like he's choking him, but we know he's not as he keeps imploring him to live even though we're all better off with him dead, what with the baddies repositioning, and Freddy having lost one or 2 of them).  Youngster finally dies, too.  Oh, well, so much for hoping to be surprised.  This show is so predictable....

Jack decides he has to draw the fire to give Freddy a chance to reach the land-line (not much hope for Freddy either, though, as the land-line is a call box with no cover, but nobody notices this inconvenient truth). Jack maybe gets one baddie, one baddie has a bead on Jack and somehow misses.  Jack keeps missing all the baddies he shoots at, finally takes a few rounds to the vest and goes down.  Freddy gets to the phone and dials the operator.  Baddies take a bead through the 'scope on Jack's head, about to go all melon in The Day of the Jackal (at about 1:23) on him, and then you see why I've given all this detail of the plot--I'm cheering like I did when the Millennium Falcon pulled Luke's fat out of the fire in Star Wars!

Renee!!!!  Now we have real talent at work.  Not only does she find Jack in that 3 square miles of waterfront (probably not all that hard with all that automatic weapons fire), she sees there's only a couple snipers (all on the ground now, after some were a couple stories up earlier), and she takes them both (where are the others?  Jack couldn't take these 2 out himself?  Well, not when he's shooting like this.  Musta been a long day already) out with a couple shots just as they're about to finish off Jack.  Freddy yells, "Clear!" (I thought that a bit premature, but we had only 4 minutes left, by the clock).  Then she runs to Jack, tells him he's OK (just a few to the vest), he wakes up and believes her, and everything is right with the world.

Except CTU is down hard--or is it?  Jack sent NSA over to help (before his cell line was jammed), and wouldn't you know it, an egotistical engineer (anybody know any of that type?) shows up to save the day.  Chloe has her own ideas about how to get CTU operational, but engineer doesn't believe her idea will work and insults her even more than not believing her does--he actually has the nerve to insult her!  She gets to screw up her face a lot this episode.  Renee tells her to do whatever she has to, she then takes a gun to the engineer telling him--"you're probably a good guy when you're outside of work, and I see you wear a wedding ring, but leave now and let me have my way with the computers or I'll shoot you."  Wow, Chloe using her people skills--musta learned those from Jack.  He leaves, Chloe nearly saves the day in time, but Dopey breaks down the door with engineer in tow.  And here we learn the season must be winding down (only about 12 hours to go, I think)--Dopey does something right!  He gives Chloe her requested 10 more minutes!  Chloe doesn't electrocute herself or burn down CTU as engineer predicted (with that prediction, why wasn't there fire suppression folks nearby?), but she gets CTU back up and limping.

That leaves one woman of note unaccounted for--Dana.  She thinks the EMP has her outta the woods with parole officer Root, but even with this national security crisis, he won't go away.  Even with the EMP erasing all the systems and the backups (what the heck are the backups doing onsite????), he won't go away.  Even with him knowing how slimy Kev is, he won't go away.  He just asks for a meet with Dopey, and Dopey agrees (in 15 min)!!!  Dana is all flustered as always. She tells Dopey that Chloe's plan to get CTU back up won't work (he ignores her advice).  She finally tracks down parole officer Root (I've been wondering where this plot line is headed, kinda wondering what parole officer is doing still there) while he's waiting for Dopey.  And parole officer finally makes a fatal mistake--he tells Dana he knows she's lying, and unless she comes clean he's gonna make sure she takes the full fall.  Never threaten someone when you don't know all the facts (like how desperate Dana is).  Dana strangles him right there and hides the body behind a panel in the room.

Now, we're all thinking how can she possibly think she'll get away with this???  Won't it start stinking?  Won't there be just too much physical evidence for her to escape?  What'll happen in a couple minutes when Dopey (who's starting to make the right calls finally) comes looking for him?  And here's where 24 finally pulls the trump card we've been waiting for.  Dana makes a call, and says CTU is back up, and she's taking care of things.  What's so weird is that she no longer sounds unsure.  Yep, the moment we've been waiting for is good acting!  And on top of that, all the writers are laughing about all the complaints about Dana--she was just talking to the terrorists, not Freddy!  (Makes you think back to all the Kev parts of the plot, why she had to look so sad when psycho stabbed him, why she looked so unsure while tracking down Kev, but I'm not going there).  How quickly we forget there's always a mole in CTU!

And the highlight of next week's scenes?  We see terrorist say, "give me your answer in 1 hour."  That means most anything that happens will be meaningless because it won't be resolved till the following episode!  So, I already know I don't really have to pay attention next week! 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, 9-10PM: Why pick NYC?

Years ago an electronics store in New York experienced a meteoric rise and fall, in a story replete with intrigue and conspiracy and hype and bad guys and badder guys and guys you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley without a similar guy by your side and not so bad guys who weren't all that good either and family member turning against family member and greedy characters who are after as much money as they can get and greedy characters who are also after sex and well, you get the picture, pretty much the plot of 24.  Now, how did I realize that 24 moved to NYC this year to mine this mother load?  Because these characters this season, nobody beats them, they're IN-SAAAAAANNE!

I saw it first in Renee.  She's just barreling headlong down the pit of self-destruction.  That one was easy to see.  Wersching plays her so well.  I completely bought into the character.  And she walks the line spot on.  Just as those eyes are going dark, vapid, uncaring what happens, resigned to the path she's chosen (do anything to nail the bad guy--learned that well from Jack, didn't she), she still puts that flash in them, that wrinkling of the brow, that keeps me hanging on, thinking, "Wait, Renee!!!  That way lies madness (OK, too late for that, I guess).  I can see there's still hope for you.  I can help you.  I've been there.  I know what you're going through.  You don't have to go there alone.  It's not worth it."  Oh, wait.  Now I sound like Jack from last season.  And I don't think he's changed his tune.  As Snoopy once said, "You gotta admire the consistency."

But I didn't realize there's an epidemic of insanity till I saw Islamic President losing it.  Sure, he was nearly blown up by a manhole cover.  That would probably make me lose it, too.  I mean, sure, I could get used to living my life the target of suicide bombers, but now having to be on alert for every manhole cover???  Jeez, I can barely avoid the potholes around here.  But Pres, he was solid.  Sure he cracked down on dissidents back home like any prudent president in his shoes would, but he didn't go gaga (no offense to the Grammies) over it.  He was restrained, and he even listened politely to President Taylor's naive (not her fault--just the nature of the American president on 24: gotta be more vapid that Jack, but just as self confident) suggestion to "find the middle ground."  But that was only a facade ready to come crashing down.  All it took was his brother betraying him and his wife leaving him.  Now he's cracking down on his security chief's cousin--right there in the UN!!  Wow, this guy has lost it.  And we all believed peace was within reach!!!

Add to these two, Little Black Dress (LBD), the CTU analyst who is "Miss Perfect" according to Chloe, but who can't be anything but pawn to her manipulating ex.  She's conned CTU into hiring her by hiding her past, she's engaged to a top CTU field op already who must turn off his professional instincts whenever he sees her, she's got Chloe believing she's at the top of the game, she can rig up a 6 figure score for her ex while she's in the middle of a day of 24, and yet she can't out think her ex?  Sheesh.  It sounds like I'm carping on how unbelievable this show is.  But I'm not--I'm simply pointing out another insane character.  That's the beauty of this show--it's not black and white, only shades of grey--and black.  LBD is one more shade of the insane theme.  Hers is the insanity of a competent, powerful woman being manipulated by a nefarious man.  And, I truly mean it, pulling my tongue out of my check, so far this is the saddest, most disturbing thing I've ever seen on 24.  [Wow, contrast this scenario with Russian Vlad playing Renee playing Vlad.  Boy, this show is exquisite at exploring issues from multiple sides, showing the complexity of life.  Wow, I wonder what Kant--"act so as the rule governing your action were immediately a rule for all mankind"--would think about these situations.)

Who else is insane?  Well, Jack, of course.  Duh.  Who in his right mind would go alone to meet with 3 Russian mobsters on the word of Renee (he knows she's lost it--how do we know?  He keeps calling Director Dopey to tell him so!) just to make a $5M downpayment?  How can he not know he's not likely to get out of there with his life?  As soon as he transfers the money, one shot, and that's the easiest $5M they ever made.  But wait a minute, is he really insane?  Or insane like a fox.  Is is the Russians who are insane for thinking an experienced arms buyer, preparing to make the buy of a lifetime (U235, doesn't get any better than that) would go to the downpayment unprepared for shenanigans?  Or how about us viewers buying into that deception (just like we "bought" into "the old decoy car trick" last week?)?  Or the writers for thinking we'd fall for that this week if we didn't fall for it last week?  Anyhow, with Freddy Prinz as backup, sniping from a rooftop, Jack turned the tables pretty quick.  He even asked the surviving Russian, "Did you think I was that dumb?"  Oh, man, Vlad back with Renee was feeling pretty stupid, stammering into the phone to Jack, "Yeah, yeah, uh, sorry, uh, yeah, come meet me now, I really do want to do the deal [even though I don't know where the U235 is, and I'll probably be killed for making the calls I'd have to make to find it]."  But, man, when Jack goes all Clark Kent by putting those glasses on, boy is he easy to underestimate!  I guess somebody's been reading Action Comics!  I can't wait to see the look on Vlad's face when he sees ol' Foureyes has him over a barrel.  And if Vlad finds out Jack's a grandpa???  Just imagine what's gonna happen to his pants!

OK, going through the list of insane characters, oh, and the insanity of the whole day, would take me the rest of my day.  And I have a day job (maybe I'll have time to add another post while I'm there--we can always hope).  I hope you get my drift.  Maybe 24 has found a new home setting for a while.  Cause we know that good prevailed over bad Crazy Eddy.

I'd been a bit troubled by the timeline that got us here.  Something about Renee being undercover with the Russians BEFORE she met Jack.  The Russian work seemed to teach her about the ends justifying the means and the power of Jack's approach, the dark side.  But she seemed still uncertain of where she would come down, light or dark, during her previous day with Jack.  That dynamic (err, dramatic) tension was a driving force last season.  The writers seem to have ignored the inconsistency here, figuring it more important to give Renee undercover ties to the Russian mob so they could tell this story than be true to the development of the Renee character.  Just browsing other blogs, I found a similar observation (TV Squad Review).  I'm not so troubled as that reviewer.  I find it more an intellectual curiosity than a detractor from my enjoyment of the show.  Heck, this show's story barely makes sense, barely stays coherent, barely consistent, barely believable for one season (OK, not even for one show--what's LBD's commute, 5 minutes?  I don't think that's possible in NYC.).  It's fun enough that I don't have to buy in and think through even the major parts of the plot.  So, I'll give them plenty of leeway for consistency season to season. 

But I'm not completely mindless, completely uncritical.  I'm getting impatient.  Last week I said they have time to get this plot showing me the good stuff.  But I've had a week to think about it, and they're waaaay behind.  We're 6 hours into this day, 1/4 done, and the best conspiracy we have is to sell weapons grade uranium??  OK, that worries me on a, "boy I hope the bad guys don't get that stuff" level, but why are we sending Jack Bauer after them?  You send him in when large amounts of imminent death are imminent!  I got none of that yet this season.  Last season we already had planes falling outta the sky by now and a chemical plant on the way up.  Two years ago we had a shopping mall held hostage already.  3 years ago we had a prison break.  24 has been great about putting Jack in these "I can't believe they've put him there, how's he gonna get out of there" situations.  This year, he averted the manhole assassination via a phone call, and that's it!  Other than that, he's been in the car.  Wow, unless a manhole cover is about to get you (or you're talking on a the cell phone while driving), I'm yawning.  And that's not the only thing missing.  Where's all the torture?  (OK, nifty that Jack avoided torturing someone by saying, "Be glad I''m retired," and he almost begged Director Dopey to let him get his hands on Vlad to make him talk.)  Not that I'm wanting to see more torture--I truly hate it and am glad it's not playing other than a "comedic"/referential role this year.  But it's been a core value of 24.  As has blackmail--and we have only one blackmail plot going on now (and they're being way too Energizer bunny about it--most of their blackmail/do this or else plots are over in less than an episode).  And we don't have any real hidden conspiracy going yet.  Don't get me wrong, I love Renee even waay more than I did last season.  And Jack's still solid (though he's not even driven a car off a parking structure yet!).  So you still have my attention, and I'm still rapt for this plot line.  But to take this season to the next level, to where 24 can really go, these subsidiary plots and themes need some more depth.  So, come writers, my entertainment dollar is counting on you! Sphere: Related Content