Everybody Loves Saturday Night

Jack Bauer, Clark Kent, and Betty Suarez

-24 this week was absolutely ridiculous.  Jack saving people from a helicopter on a roof set the wacky tone for the rest of the hour.  I'm calling it now that Dr. Romano's kid is actually Jack's.  When Rena Sofer, formerly (and I thought currently) of Heroes, said "Give your father some time with his brother," I thought the Arrested Development "dun-dun-DUN" music was going to play (remember the music that would play around Buster when Oscar or George were around and someone mentioned father or uncle?).  I was hoping Donald Sutherland would play Papa Bauer, but Farmer Hoggett is a close second I guess (is it sad that when he was shown in the preview, I sang "If I had words" from Babe out loud?).

-Smallville/Buffy - It seems that Smallville is going to be the latest show to copy Buffy's "Normal Again" concept on this Thursday's episode.  Was Sunnydale all in Buffy the mental patient's head?  Was the Lost island all in Hurley the mental patient's head?  And was the whole Superman mythology all in Clark Kent the mental patient's head?  I'm not a comic book geek (and have yet to read one), but this seems blasphemous, not to mention lame since it's been done before.

-Ugly Betty is one show I have no issues with at all.  It's entertained me since the beginning, and I totally wasn't expecting who the mystery woman turned out to be. 

24: Are we breaking up?

Is anyone else watching 24 this season?  Don't read this if you haven't watched the first four episodes yet.

So far I have liked it much less than last season, when we had the love-to-hate President Logan drama.  Since then, I've also fallen hard for Battlestar Galactica, which makes 24's analogies to current foreign and domestic policies look sophomoric.  But what really made me consider not watching the rest of this season is the death of Curtis, known in our apartment as Blackjack.  It seems like a good codename for a field agent, and well, he's sort of a black Jack.  To have Jack shoot Blackjack was contrived and cruel.  At least let the character die in some heroic way. 

Another thing that annoyed me was Mr. Suburbia blithely carrying out the teenage terrorist's orders, even when it involved murder.  Has he never seen any action movie or tv show?  The people who follow orders to protect their families always end up dead, as do their families, barring some deus ex machina.  At least Mrs. Suburbia had more sense.

Am I being too harsh?  Stephen King said this season is the best yet.  What do you think?

too much fun

Right now, kippers are plotting to elope with a rat-arsed razor blade. My space alien is furry, and grandmothers that I work with may be fiendish.

I'm Federal Agent Jack Bauer, and this is the weirdest rubber ring of my life.

For more, click here.

 

News. Good? Bad? You decide.

Filling in the blanks with the Chicago Tribune TV-Blog...

• Smith is cancelled. (I haven't even watched last week's episode yet! I'll have more to say about this later. Supposedly.)
• Kidnapped is moving to Saturdays as of 10/21 and will wrap up its mystery in 13 episodes (so it's not all the way canceled? but it may still be?).
• Heroes has been picked up for a full season (I know y'all are happy about that, although I'm still not really sure how I feel about the show overall).
• 24 will have a two-night premiere Jan 14&15 with "Alexander Siddig, Dr. Bashir on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” will be part of the cast, along with D.B. Woodside, who’ll be back as Wayne Palmer. Also returning are Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe, Roger Cross as Curtis Manning and James Morrison as Bill Buchanan. Eric Balfour returns as contract worker Milo Pressman and Carlos Rota is back as Chloe’s ex-husband Morris.
  
  Other members of the cast: Regina King as lawyer “Sandra Palmer” (Wayne’s wife, perhaps? Just a guess); presidential advisors Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson) and Thomas Lennox (Peter MacNicol); James Cromwell snagged the prize part of Phillip Bauer, Jack Bauer’s “estranged” dad (is there any family member Jack is not estranged from?); Kal Penn, Harry Lennix and David Hunt round out the cast. By the way, last July Kim Raver told TV critics that she might be back on Season 6 of “24,” but I wouldn’t count on seeing her Audrey Raines too much, since Raver has a starring role on ABC’s “The Nine.”
  
  When Season 6 of “24” starts, 20 months will have elapsed since Jack Bauer was put on a slow boat to China."

24 update

Is it still a show or has it become a video game?  My boyfriend insists the writers are heavily borrowing from SoCom, while my little brother says it's all Grand Theft Auto.  Regardless, last night's episode had its share of laughable moments, especially Kiefer riding on top of a fuel tank. 

There are still many questions that remain:
-What happened to Pierce?  I don't think he's dead because he's an important enough character that he'd be killed on-screen and since 24 doesn't have any flashbacks, I think he must be alive.
-Why did Heller drive off a cliff?  If I were him, I'd want to make the bad guys take a shot so that people would know you were killed and not dead via an apparent accident/suicide.
-Who are the big bad guys?  I think Dr. Romano and gang must be representing an oil company.
-What is going on with Mike Novick?  The dude should get out of the crazy camp asap.

24 - What's going on?

What was the President's goal?  He said he was making the country safer, but was that happening before or after people died?  He seemed okay with killing everyone in that shopping mall, as well as blowing up the President of Russia and their wives.

Where is the show going to go in the next seven hours?  Will Secretary Heller be in on the plot?  If not, what will happen when he confronts him next week? 

I really hope the next subplot does not involve Kim.

The Executive Commander

Much of last night's episode was ridiculous, but the inanity probably won't be remembered for long.  For example, Evelyn refusing to give up any info to Jack & Wayne made no sense other than to delay the Big Bad reveal to the very end.  And what a reveal it was. 

The wimpering, praying, indecisive, puppet-esque President turns out to be a conniving terrorist.  Commentary much?  I was surprised by this turn since the creator of the show (Joel Surnow) is a major GOP supporter and Rush Limbaugh fan.

Did you see this coming?  Or consider it and dismiss it as impossible?  What do you think his main goal is?  And why didn't he or someone else take out Jack earlier?

24 - 8-9 p.m.

Lauren: Audrey - evil?  Could she have been so mad at the U.S. for killing Jack that she turned into a terrorist?  There were hints before that she could be bad, like when Christopher Henderson had something that was DoD-encrypted.  It seemed weird that no one brought that up as a strange thing.  But I thought that making Jack's former fling evil again would be so 2002.  Do you think she's bad or being framed?

 

Cassie:  I'm thinking she's being framed. But... there's definitely been some suspicious stuff going on with her though. For example, when she had the big confrontation with the Hobbit (sniff) and didn't get anywhere, that seemed like an appropriate time to put pride aside and call in a connection from Daddy. But her reaction was to go all "covert"? What else is she hiding??  That being said, I suspect there's something big going on in the administration that we are still unaware of.  What's with the big Homeland Security takeover?  Seemed like that was a plan all along, and the attack on CTU was a convenient catalyst. When Ms. Icy was talking with Minion #1, she discussed the official takeover as going into effect after the crisis was over...  So this is a permanent restructuring.  What's the point?  Is there some info that CTU has that someone wants destroyed?  Is framing Audrey part of some bigger plan?

Lauren: Will Desmond/German dude make Jack pay for a) making him look like an idiot in front of his buddy who he said he had intel for and b) taking away his woman/ blowing his cover?  He definitely looked pissed.  I thought the whole plotline with him was great.

Cassie:  I don't think we've seen the last of Desmond. And he fell for terrorist girl, whether or not he admits it to himself.

Lauren: Who the hell is going after Wayne Palmer (aka Principal Wood)?  It seems like it's tied to Henderson but that it also must involve the adminstration because those guys got past the martial law checkpoint. So... Leland Palmer, evil again?  Or someone else?

Cassie:  Wow, all these Palmers are getting complicated. I realize that I can not imagine Leland as not evil. Ever since he popped up, I've got his role defined as "evil vice president who's been sleeping with his teenage daughter and then killed her". I do realize that was not on 24 and I need to let go. Right after I go listen to Julee Cruise and have some pie.

Okay, I'm back. I've been waiting for more Wayne since his early appearance, because what could he have been doing all day other than combing through the 2 versions of his brother's book looking for the secret clues?  I'm figuring this is all part of the huge ugly secret that someone in the administration is trying to hide...  Maybe Tony and Michelle knew something about it???

Lauren: So many allegiances questioned, one gun under a skirt, and cheesy music-- sounds like classic 24 to me!

24 -- 7-8 pm

Lauren: So are they going to kill off all of our favorites by the end of this season? With Edgar last week, Tony this week, and the threat of Curtis (who I think should be the future of the series if Jack leaves) next, my heart's getting a bit heavy. 

Cassie: All I can say is that they'd better not kill off Chloe. She was genius-ly Chloe-like this week!

Lauren: Couldn't we at least sacrifice Kim?  Or know-it-all Barry (he's gotta be returning this season)?  Tony's death was not the greatest exit for such a wonderful and important character, but I hope that Christopher Henderson turns out to be an even better villain than Nina. 

Cassie: Sniff...  I was figuring that either Tony was going to piss us all off by killing CH, or that when Jack couldn't save the day that Tony would be the one to sacrifice himself. Either way I was prepared for some Tony related heartache. But this really hurt. And as the boy cleverly observed once I stopped yelling at the TV, wouldn't they have strapped CH down or something?

Lauren: I guess I should pay some respects to the Hobbit and whatshisname who was in the wrong place in the very wrong time.  Lynn was not evil after all, just insecure enough to lead to the death of many people.

Cassie: Aha!  I knew he wasn't evil!  I guess they ran out of money and couldn't pay the Hobbit enough to get him on any more episodes??

Lauren: The discussions about the secure rooms and clearing the air left me with little understanding of what was going on, but I was okay with the writers spending an entire episode on CTU saving themselves instead of others. 

Cassie: When nameless guy said goodbye to his daughter I started bawling. And I think that the scene of the Hobbit trying to hold his breath as he watched nameless guy die, and then finally give in and take a few breaths was just horrible to watch. Are the writers major stockholders in Kleenex? Poor Hobbit and his pride. 

Lauren: If the Homeland Security characters continue the satirical trend of the season, they should bring in some hysterical incompetence.  And maybe a new sparring partner for Chloe?

Cassie: Was it me, or was Mr. Homeland Security someone we'd already met?  I knit too much while I watch 24, I admit it!

24: It Made Me Cry.

Your regularly scheduled post about 24 (you know, mentioning what hour we're up to, with organized questions and answers) has been cancelled this week, due to excessive emotion on the part of your fearless reporters. Instead, I bring you some randomness while I go look for another tissue. Sniff!

(If you haven't watched, please avert your eyes now!)

Lauren is too upset about Edgar to come up with questions. She is not too upset to have noticed that the Cheney character is hilarious, many parts of this episode seemed to defy logic, and she is concerned about who Chloe will cutely spar with now.

This entire episode kept making me tear up. Tony asking for Michelle, the big red DECEASED on the computer screen when he searched for her, the photos of her body... I also teared up at the First Lady coping with the knowledge that her husband is spineless, and God help me, at Kim finding out Jack was still alive. I was a big teary-head. So by the time Edgar went off to look for Carrie (or whatever her name was) I knew where the writers were going. But still...WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! They killed Edgar! The Bastards!

When I wasn't tearing up, I noticed that Bill Buchanan's character seems to be loosely based on Tim Gunn. I cheered myself up a bit by adding "Make it work." on to the end of each line of BB dialogue. "Jack, how do you want to play this? Ok, make it work." "Chloe, initiate a lockdown. You've got one minute. Make it work." Try it! It's fun.

Hopefully next episode Lauren will save us from the randomness that is my mind...