May 22, 2006
WELL, I'M STOKED:
Jack Bauer Must Stop President in Season Finale (Diane Clehane, 5/22/06, Fox News)
It's hard to believe there are too many more we-never-saw-it-coming plot twists, but that’s just what producer Evan Katz is promising in the adrenaline-pumped, two-hour season finale of "24."“Confrontations that have needed to take place that haven’t yet happened will happen in a really explosive way,” teases the producer.
“There are three characters in conflict: Jack, Henderson (Peter Weller) and President Logan (Gregory Itzin). In the last two hours that’s all going to explode. I think people’s faith in the show will pay off. It has a serious climax in every way. The action is bigger, the surprises are bigger. I know it sounds obnoxious, but it’s really going to be a mindblower.”
We’ve heard that kind of hype before from television producers. Our questions are more direct: who lives, who dies and who gets what’s coming to them?
Katz wouldn’t spill, but Jean Smart, who plays nutty First Lady Martha Logan, offered up some intriguing clues.
“You’ll see a helicopter, a flag and a coffin,” said Smart.
Please feel free to discuss tonight's occurrences in the comments below. As for me, it's time for The Checklist: Popcorn, check. Remote, check. Insanely conspiratorial frame of mind, check. It's Bauer time.
Posted by Matt Murphy at May 22, 2006 7:23 PMoj,
24, first season, episodes 1 & 2, idiocy to never be observed again. This show really sucks!
Must be a generational thingy!
But, I really like other network offerings:
Bones
Cold Case Files
Without a Trace
Medium
Numbers
NCIS
Maybe because these programs have protagonists who are, in someway, believable as well as plot/story lines that are equally real world.
I know, Medium is a stretch here, but the acting and characters more than make up for the lack of logical realism.
Regardless of what the blogosphere decides, 24, BSG and Firefly really suck!
Mike
Jack's on a slow boat to China. Stay tuned.
Posted by: erp at May 22, 2006 10:56 PMerp:
There's a term for what happens when you're Jack Bauer and you get kidnapped and boarded onto a torture ship bound for a dictatorial foreign country: "minor setback."
Posted by: Matt Murphy at May 23, 2006 12:02 AMAlthough, since all the action always takes place in Los Angeles, one does wonder how they're going to advance the plot with Bauer in a foreign country. Perhaps he escapes and goes after al Qaeda?
Posted by: Matt Murphy at May 23, 2006 12:05 AMChloe will rescue Jack and overthrow the PRC in the process. They will embrace on the Great Wall.
Posted by: jim hamlen at May 23, 2006 9:34 AMMatt, quite so. It reminds me of an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger," when a bystander foolishly expressed concern because Walker was confronting 14 or 15 heavily armed deranged bad guys. Trivett (sp?) says, Yeah, well they should have known better than to mess with Walker. Likewise those billion Chinese should know better than to mess with our boy Jack.
Monday nights won't be the same.
If Fox had any guts, they'd put this shown on Mondays this fall, just to put Monday Night Football (now on ESPN) out of its misery. (Then again, I've never watched either, so what do I care?)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at May 23, 2006 11:51 AMRaoul, '24' is really fun. If your heart can take it, wait for a rainy weekend then pick up the DVD's of the first season and watch it right through. I believe you'll enjoy it very much.
Football. Boring waste of time but otherwise harmless activity for fans.
erp:
What a fantastic finish that was last night. FYI, a friend of mine introduced me to the show last year. The ripple effect was such that now my dad, my apartment roommate, and myself are completely hooked.
I almost felt sorry for the bad guys when Jack entered the compound during season four when they had captured the SecDef (boy, William Devane is a great actor). Sixteen terrorists versus Jack Bauer just isn't an even fight, as Jack proved.
PS Football: Maddeningly enjoyable game, particularly at the collegiate level. One of the few things other than "24" that gets me in front of a TV set.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at May 23, 2006 8:38 PMLate I know, but I can't resist posting this line from post #33 at this Lucianne.com thread for anybody who might still be reading this:
Jack Bauer saves the U.S., but now he's Chinese Takeout.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at May 24, 2006 10:50 PM