24, Day 6, Hour 6: 11am-12pm

The following takes place between 11 am and 12 pm.

We are in hour six of 24 we have reached that stage of 24 that weighs so heavily upon every loyal viewer: soap opera subplot land. It is usually around this time every year that the plot slows down a bit and the minor characters get some development. Sometimes it is good; sometimes it is more painful than the torture. This season is a mixed bag and we got it all this hour with very little Jack and even less terrorist.

Subplot number one is quite good and could be a show unto itself. This plot involves the President’s two senior advisors squaring off over how best to defend the nation. One is a full martial law type of guy and the other is a civil liberties girl. I side with the civil liberties side, but martial law did make one very valid point tonight. He said something like “when the founding fathers wrote the Constitution the worst weapon could only fire three times a minute. Today you can kill thousands in a second and the Constitution never expected to have to deal with that.” He makes a good argument, but I still must always default to retaining what it is we are fighting to protect. I never understood those people who put plastic on their sofas. Why buy something and be afraid to use it?

Subplot number two is decent, but is barely a worthy distraction from Jack and the nukes. This one involves a suspected terrorist cell in a detention camp and an informant wearing a wire who just became part of the circle. It is bringing up some very important issues that are relevant in today’s world. For the last two episodes the group has appeared very suspicious and I was convinced they were up to something. As today progressed and the informant began to actually get information it turned out they were just people talking about what was happening. They had current news because one of them had a cell phone the guards did not see and was checking the news. The writers tricked us into supporting the infringement of another’s rights because they fit our profile of a terrorist. Curse them and there cleaver moral lessons!

Subplot three is more of subplot number two, but from another perspective. This one involves a CTU agent of Arab descent who is on a watch list now because of her heritage. Every move she makes in doing her job is now monitored and every request must be double checked. This subplot is just slowing everything down and I get the point. I got it from subplot number two. Now the writers either think we are idiots and must be spoon fed an important point or they just have nothing else to fill our time with. Where oh where is that damsel in distress of a useless daughter Kim when we need her?

On the bright side of everything we did get to meet Daddy Bauer and we did get to see Brother Bauer turn on Jack and Daddy. Brother Bauer has revealed it was he who was behind it all without the maniacal evil laugh and had Jack and Daddy taken away. The last ten minutes were a decent pay off for an otherwise painful hour.

Sorry for the lame summary, but the episode did not give me much to work with. It was mostly set up for what is to come later and we are in for a few hours of subplot intensive episodes I fear. Let’s pray they concentrate on subplot one and leave it at that.

24, Day 6, Hour 5: 10-11am

For the first time in I do not know how many seasons of 24 I am actually all caught up. I know this is only the second week, but you must understand that the first week was four hours worth. That is an entire month’s dosage in just 48 hours. I was in severe danger of a full over-Bauer-dose.

If you do not watch the show than you must understand that one hour of 24’s assault on your nervous system is like every rollercoaster you have ever been on at the same time. The only break you get is when a commercial is on and those only frustrate you because, unlike other shows this one’s clock is still ticking during the breaks. That means things are happening while we are learning about Taco Bell’s newest constipation inducing concoction or seeing the actor who played dead President Palmer’s ads hawking All State or some other car insurance. Last seasons those ads were really distracting because he had just been killed and there he was telling me about life insurance. Talk about irony.

Tonight’s episode covered 10-11am after, well I can tell you now I suppose. The last ten minutes of last week saw a suitcase nuke explode in Los Angeles. The show had always come close to a major attack and has even had numerous successful small attacks, but this was the first time the terrorists ever fully got one off. We learned in this hour that at least 12,000 are dead with hundreds more at risk of radiation poisoning and there are still four more somewhere out there. Jack, having just shot a good friend to protect a suspect, had quit CTU and collapsed on the ground as the mushroom cloud was seen in the distance. I told you it was an intense ending.

Tonight touched on some of the initial chaos that such an event would unleash and focused more on the White House and how they were going to handle telling the American people and what to do next. The military wanted to bomb every suspected country with three nukes each. “If they want to live in the stone age we can put them in there” or something like that was said. Others wanted to arrest all Muslims living in America and place them in detainment camps and suspend the Constitution for a time. “I want to save my country from extinction and, if fear will do that then yes, I will use fear.” The President had the luxury of a television show reality and wanted to take it slow. “We will respond, but it will be the right response and to the right people” or something like that. I am usually better at quotes to be honest.

This is why I so love 24 to be perfectly honest. I would actually be just as happy if the entire show just focused on 24 hours of how the government would respond instead of the James Bond superhero thing. It is this aspect that forces me to confront my liberal leanings and see where I honestly stand when push comes to shove. 24 will give me the situation and it makes me wonder what I would do. What liberties would I give up if I knew the full details? Is there a place for torture in today’s world really?

24 will present a compelling argument for internment camps only to follow with an Arab family helping a total stranger. They will show you the camp and make you feel safe only to show you the terrorist cells recruiting while in the camp and innocents being beaten and tortured. No matter your political stance on every issue, 24 will make you think and question every one of your beliefs.
As far as the Jack Bauer goes for this hour, he was not much of an element in it. There was a major soap opera inspired twist ending that brought us back to last season for a moment, but I will not say much more on that until later. I am still very happy about this season and invite you to come along.

24, Day 6, Hour 2,3,4: 7-10am

I spoke too soon and jumped the gun. Jack Bauer is not back to form on 24 and the show has taken a major dramatic turn for it. This is not a complaint from me at all and as usual there will be no spoilers in this article. I have just returned from a three hour marathon at my Rent’s house and this season, sorry day looks to be the most intense yet and is bringing up some very serious issues.

24 is a show that has been synonymous with torture since its first season. The show has danced a very fine line between supporting torture and condemning it and the writers have really allowed the viewer to decide for themselves what the show is trying to say on the subject. Torture on 24 is a main character, but is usually applied to the wrong person or produces no results. This would make it seem like the show is anti-torture, but Jack Bauer also always gets the information he needs through torture. It is almost as if the show sometimes says that torture works only if you use the right type. Jack does not think twice to rip a lamp out of the wall and use the exposed wires for some memory refreshment or to shoot a guy’s wife in the leg if he believes the guy is willing to be shot himself. He is very effective at it and the show plays on the Incredible Hulk quote “you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

This season we find Jack after he has been the victim of almost two years of torture in China and he is no where near as ready to get back into it as he once was. The torture king has found sympathy at the worst possible time. Just tonight he stops torturing a suspect because he believes the guy will not talk. Five minutes later after some cleaver knife play by another, the guy tells everything. Jack was affected by memories of China and what it felt like. Jack cannot do his job and says as much, but quickly get caught back up in the day’s events and the most surprising, shocking, and any other adjective you want to add ending to an hour of 24 I have ever seen.

I do not do spoilers here, but will say the last 10 minutes of the first 4 hours is a very clear message from the writers to us, the viewers. They basically said that the gloves are off this year and nothing is safe. We cannot rest on the “happy ending” we normally know will come at the end of the season. In ten minutes they changed all the rules of a show that has always broken the rules and shocked an audience that has come to expect shocks. The one-two punch it delivers is something I am going to need a few days to get over to be honest.

I promise to get into some of the other issues being addressed this season in the next update for 24. The ending really took quite a bit out of me honestly. The DVD is out for these first four hours and I really suggest getting it NOW! GO!

24, Day 6, Hour 1: 6-7am

I have been giving thought to how I am going to do this without ruining it. Tivo has certainly changed the way we watch television and I do not want to ruin anything for anyone who has yet to start, but I have to write about “24.” I am like a kid with a new toy right now and I am about to burst, but I also hate spoilers so this is going to be a careful dance for us both. I know, do not click to read more unless you WANT TO KNOW MORE. How’s that?

Still reading? I knew you would. I am the same way. I hate spoilers and still must read them. I think I hate surprises more than spoilers, but that is not an invitation to ruin 24 if you are ahead of me. It is ruined every other season by someone and I really want to get the same ride I got off the first season.

“The following takes place between 6:00am and 7:00am.”

The United States is undergoing its worst series of attacks ever. In the last nine weeks there has been eleven terrorists attacks (or was it 11 weeks and 9 attacks?) that has left numerous Americans dead and many more injured. The Office of Homeland Security has a suspect they believe to be responsible, but they are not sure how to find him. They have only one option and that is to bargain with another terrorist who will give him up, but for the ever present price. Today’s special is selling for $25 million and one Jack Bauer who is the agent who killed terrorist B’s brother years ago.

When we last saw Jack he was kidnapped by China and heading for a horrible fate, but this is “24” and he is the star so six minutes into the episode enter the military plane with a special package. The President has made some deal with the Chinese for Jack’s return only to immediately turn Jack over to terrorist B and his happy room straight out of the movie Hostel. You know the room: a single chair and lots of shiny metal sharp objects that two people are needed to play with but only one has fun. Jack was placed in such a room and we learned a little anatomy in the scene (there is a bundle of nerves right near your armpit that seems to hurt quite a bit when punctured with a knife) as well as the fact that terrorist B is the real terrorist and is setting up terrorist A who has lost faith in their cause. I was not prepared for the twists to start so early in the “day.”

Needless to say Jack partially escapes by pulling a Dracula on one of his guards (yes that is exactly what I mean) and unlocking his cuffs with the guard’s key. The first hour ends with Jack hiding in a sewer grate in terrorist B’s hideout.

Also within this single hour Jack Bauer was able to shave off two years facial hair growth, shower, change, be driven out to the middle of nowhere for the drop off, be picked up by the terrorists, tortured, and escape. That takes some serious suspension of disbelief. They are lucky they create a compelling show to be honest because it really requires an epic leap to follow some of their plots.

That is where episode one ended. Let me know if I ruined anything for you and I will not continue with the updates. The only schedule I can promise is I will write the next episode as soon as I return from watching it at my Rent’s house.

Jack Bauer is back and this year is going to be a great ride.