Monday, January 18, 2010

24 Season 8: 6PM-8PM Quick Review

It was a tale of two 24s--

The first hour was tedious.

Hastings calling the leader of a foreign government would never happen in real life, or even an alternate universe where logic and decorum exist. Sorry, I can look past a lot of stuff with "24" but this one insults my intelligence. Could you imagine the leader of Iran trusting some mid-level American bureaucrat with an admission of an extramarital affair? Yeah... no.  And in spite of this ridiculous conversation, Hastings still insists on ignoring the very information that exonerated his suspect. I've seen and heard of stupidity, but this sort of behavior only exists in fiction. Wow.

Arlo is a sick puppy too. I know government employees can never get fired, but his level of sexual harassment is beyond believability. And how does one get to work at CTU and be that much of a screw-up? Wait, this is "24"- screw-ups get employed at CTU all of the time, that's part of why they disbanded the agency a few years back. Well, wash, rinse and repeat, people!

Cole (a.k.a. Chico Bauer, Jr.) brings the action hero stuff though, saving President Hassan from certain doom! That was a good scene, the best part of the first hour by far. He gets an entry in the ever-growing TheJackSack.com Dictionary!



The second hour kicked ass.

Hastings admitted he was a moron, Chloe was vindicated, they didn't drag out the revelation of Hassan's brother being the mole, etc. I was sorry to see Davros get killed so quickly. Whenever I photoshop a character, I hope they live longer than 3 episodes. Oh well... at least things are moving fast! And now a nuke is on the loose? Under the control of Transylvanian Russians? Hurray!

And then Renee Walker came back and shared her (odd) expertise in Russian mafia tattoos. But it was her steamy emotional scene with Jack Bauer that made this episode transcend the prior three hours. The first scene between Jack and Renee was more explosive than the missile attack on the helicopter and the attempted road bomb attack on Preident Hassan. That's what Annie Wersching and Kiefer Sutherland bring to the table- chemistry! I approve of this sort of thing! And then she had to go and cut that poor Ruskie's thumb off. This alone made Hour 4 the best of the season (so far).

And that's where we leave off- we got nukes, a dangerous undercover operation and some Russian mafia dudes causing trouble. Yep, this is shaping up to be a good stretch.

16 comments:

Sunny said...

My first comment is that 24 is not fiction, it is real. This is the best reality tv show evah. :)

Secondly, I believe Renee's cutting off the Ruskie's hand was her idea of foreplay. Jack is just playing hard to get.

TheJackSack said...

Some girls like to get flowers. Renee likes to cut off hands and then receive flowers. Classy!

She brought energy back to the show, I am over the first 3 sleepy hours already.

Brandon Kosto said...

You know they say about the crazy girls in the sack.

Anyway I think it's awesome that Jack Bauer is going to finally experience what it feels like to put up with Jack Bauer.

TheJackSack said...

@Brandon- hilarious & keen observation re: Jack putting up with the monster he created.

singingdoll said...

I agree with the observations here! I thought these two eps were great.

Adam, on a random note -- I tried to show someone "Tony's Got a Gun" and I saw it was gone. Any way we can get it back, or on another video sharing site? I promise I'd show this person the video once we got through all the seasons, but alas it is gone. :(

TheJackSack said...

Thanks for remembering our video. Yeah, YouTube got weird and flagged it as a copyright violation (which is not true, but that's a long story)-- anyway, AlmeidaIsGod.com reposted it at this link: http://tinyurl.com/okhvpj Enjoy!

Brian Pelts said...

Once again, the first few hours of a day of 24 show that Jack's serial retirements only cause more problems than they solve 'cause he has to waste time trying to get the new Desk Jockey In Charge at CTU to just STFU and let him kick ass. At what point do they not just always leave him credentialed but inactive, stored in a container labeled "In Case Of Shit Hitting The Fan, Break Glass"?

TheJackSack said...

Brian, I couldn't agree more. When Hastings was giving Jack a hard time in episode two, I was yelling at the TV "This is the guy who saved the country at least a dozen times- there would be no USA without Jack Bauer. Just shut up and put n a pot of shrimp gumbo, buddy!"

The first 3 hrs were just aggravating, and then Renee Walker arrived and all was right again.

Brian Pelts said...

I stopped expecting CTU directors to not be loathsome, road-blocking assholes years ago. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who was making Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. jokes.

It's even more frustrating now because, you know, JACK IS THE REASON ANY OF YOU HAVE YOUR JOBS. That crazy bastard single-handedly convinced President Pun'kinhead to bring CTU back. Gah.

Rickey said...

Rickey's favorite new character in the show would have to be Jürgen Prochnow. Dude's awesome.

BTW, the actor who plays the bald corrupt cop who beat up Bauer works out in Rickey's gym. He's surprisingly nicer in real life.

Oh and hats off to the commenter who pointed out that Jack Bauer is going to finally experience what it feels like to put up with Jack Bauer. Brilliant.

TheJackSack said...

Re: bald cop- yeah, Herc from THE WIRE- a complete dumbass on both shows. This guy better be careful or otherwise people will assume he's a moron in real life! Nah, he's alright, but his character in "24" was downright idiotic. Terrible writing on that one, people.

You really like Jürgen Prochnow's vampire Ruskie? It's comical, I guess... yikes.

Brian Pelts said...

I just mark out for Jürgen Prochnow in general. But yeah, I hope his character settles a bit and becomes less LOL WUT and more OMG BAD GUY.

And the tired meme of "stupid fat hump patrol cop/unsure honest rookie" seemed mailed in, but really, when in the history of 24 have uniform cops NOT been one-dimensional and there just to get in the way?

Rickey said...

Tony aside, since when does 24 have interesting bad guys? Marwan, anyone? Jürgen Prochnow works fine a scheming Ruskie...

TheJackSack said...

As long as Jürgen isn't Jack's long-lost uncle, I think we're in good shape. Family villains = fail.

Brian Pelts said...

Evil Daddy Bauer wasn't that bad, I just mentally added a "That'll do, Pig" to the end of every order he gave an underling.

TheJackSack said...

Pelty, you crack me up- that's great!

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