This is the thread where we appreciate '24' (now with season four SPOILERS!)

By the way, the mole is...

VERY MINOR SPOILERS - SPOILERETTES, REALLY
If it is we might have a British character who isn't a) evil or b) dead within half an hour.

Portugal. We've gone through four seasons of "Buffy" by now you know.

I love that little twist that you have at the end of each episode so that it can keep going.

I've noticed that this has broken down pretty badly in the 2nd season; Jack going "this is far from over!" and someone shooting someone that it was very clear they were going to off ain't exactly in the same league as the final plot twists in the first season (including its last episode!)

season 2- watched the first 5 or 6 hours before realising that the only character i enjoyed was jack. the others were just plain annoying. even kim's beauty couldn't make me watch the rest.

But I haven't.

TV show in tune-in-next-week shockah!

It's just like the EastEnders drum roll, but with bullets and bombs and cougars and stuff instead of Dirty Den's grumpy face.

"If there are any fans of the show "24" out there, I'm
honoring Robert and Grant with a little namecheck on
what will be episode six of season 4, which should air
in February of 2005. Little tribute, 'nuff said." [E.K.]

Season three was better than two because it has some of the best twists the series has ever done. The whole thing from the very first episode just documents Jack Bauer's descent from a happy, successful family man into a bumbling, clueless idiot who's been let down by his colleagues and daughter. I like it for that.

I have great hopes for season four, even if they're bringing back some of the lamest characters and still setting the show in LA, even though they'd promised not to. Also, rumours are that this'll be the last season. Which is probably a good thing.

http://img37.exs.cx/img37/3491/Season4.jpg

Whatever.

I think I'll go rent the next five DVDs or so tonight.

I love it, in the way I love hyperkinetic anime or dating people I know are bad for me. Delicious!

The only one who was miscast was that dumbass daughter. She sucks

http://troymcclurepage.tripod.com/big-phil.jpg

(Sorry Americans and sudry foriegners, I can't find a decent picture of Roland Rivron to post.)

-- Wooden (josephgoode...), September 15th, 2004 6:30 PM.

SUNDRY foriegners. 'Sudry' is not an obscure British insult, I promise.

Honestly. It makes me so glad I'm watching it on DVD so I can fast forward through all the pointless scenes of the terrible child actress screwing up her face and crying.

http://homepage.mac.com/csdesigns/24/S4trailer.html

I think they're trying to make you think she's really a goodie, therefore she must be a baddie, and her husband will be the one who turns out to be a double agent, or cracks and tries to stop their plan, or helps out Jack, or whatever. Despite him being a complete arse to the son.

Were episodes 3 and 4 any cop?

Starts 30th January in the UK, folks. Is this thread likely to have spoilers?

yes and anyone wanting to discuss plot points should note spoilers, and I'm a mod, so I'll change the title to note that there are season 4 spoilers contained within...UK folks start another thread when that happens, perhaps?

(SPOILERS)
My whole favorite bit was Jack having to rob the convenience store to keep the hostile in one place, it nicely reversed the good guy-bad guy dynamics, very intriguing!
(END SPOILERS)

Yes. Also, AISHA!!!!!!

I AM BAD!

all that aside, it usually takes until about halfway for things to really pick up, so I will keep watching. (also, no Kim = addition by subtraction, obviously.)

I like how the current season is influenced by both current events overseas (albeit shifted to U.S. soil) and 3 Days of the Condor (with that Andrew subplot).

Minus:
Teh son is teh annoying.

I meant the Araz son -- the actor is VERY stiff. I was hoping Mom would pistol whip him very being such a predictable drip.

Meanwhile, Richard Son of SOD is a horrible depiction of a privileged lefty brat, though probably accurate!

And why doesn't the government just give Jack a "let him do whatever he wants" card? He's already proven himself to be the only guy who knows shit about shit.

Seems like Jack was always getting held up by CTU, even when Palmer was President. First, there was killed-by-nuclear-bomb director, and then shot-in-the-back-of-the-head director. Both had it in for Jack and constantly got in his way. He never pulled out a card and said, fuck off asshole, I AM the government.

I liked the bit where Chloe called Edgar a geek too...

Seriously, that episode came close to jumping the shark in the first ten minutes, but the last five - minus that annoying Behrooz kid and the Secretary of Defense's retarded son and his shitty dialogue - more than made up for it.

Does anybody else think it's weird that CTU apprently just tortures people as a matter of course? I mean it's one thing when Jack does it; he's a "rogue." But the director of CTU is just like "hmm she might know something. Taser her neck!" as casually as if she's instructing her husband to rotate the bed. This gets at one of the main thrills of the show, which is that the protagonists - Jack, and everybody else - really does have a "do what you like" card - there are no rules except power. They've even started joking about it. When Audrey calms down Tony Almeida's girlfriend (TONY ALMEIDA!!!!!!!!! Anyone else think this show is precisely as good as however many minutes Carlos Bernard has on screen? When he comes in gunz blazing it's as good as this show's been all year! And then we get to see the inside of his house! I've always wanted to see the inside of Tony Almeida's house! Actually I've always just wanted to BE Tony Almeida.) - anyway when Audrey calms down this (idiotic, possibly evil!) girl, she's like "your boss will understand." "What if he doesn't?" "I can have him killed." And they both chuckle!!? This dynamic is a civil-service twist on classic dramatic dictum that protagonists must be members of the aristocracy for a drama to come alive. If the protags are bound by the laws and etc that bind all of us to our relatively powerless - in the scheme of "things" i.e. the big important national/political/death-dealing things - lives, then they can't carry out dramatic actions that are effective in overcoming the problem. So Shakespeare wrote about nobles without money problems. Scorcese made films about gangsters. NYPD Blue made TV shows about cops who could go to whatever length to solve problems. Oz was about prisoners with nothing else to lose. In all these situations the main characters get to use whatever tools are at their disposal.

TONY ALMEIDA. God he's even sourer than before! His (and George Mason's) clipped all-business low-keyness made the whole show for me in Season 2 (the only other one I've seen). To see him back is just great. Keifer barely has it together. He looks like he's hearing music in his head, or radio interference from a filling.

Gear, "PA" is kind of what I thought when she started talking.. (unless you're referring to Michelle!! Who was mentioned as working for district now! Given her proximity and the new revelations in her and Tony's backstory it will be a sore disappointment if she doesn't show up soon.)

I still miss George Mason. At least when he got in Jack's way you could kind of go "aw you loveable old coot." This new director is a fucking sadistic psycho.

A lot of the writing that seemed clever in the 2nd season now just sounds like it's there to tie up loose ends or explain previously nonsensical conflicts. i.e. Chloe's big "go rogue for Jack's sake" when Jack wants satellite tracking of his target's car. Chloe says she'll have to do it on the sly, and even then she'll have to wait in a queue for satellite imagery because all of CTU's resources are currently being thrown at... finding Jack and his target!

The last episode was the first one where I really was like "whoa" at something - i.e. the Big Kahuna getting offed by a mysterious sniper just as Jack and Tony apprehended him. The second series (the only other ones I've seen) was chock-a-block with moments like that.

Almost exactly like that, thoguh. Remember how they offed Syed Ali? It was the same, only it was a van instead of a helicopter and it was dark instead of daytime.

It was nice to see someone - the ethereal, incredible mom, who always looks to be somewhere between a gin stupor and nirvana - go toe-to-toe with Jack. Jack still comes out on the moral high-ground of course, like the snivelling, superior uber-male that he is ("does anyone doubt me??" I can hear him yelling. "I can sum up the plot more efficiently than ANYONE IN THIS ROOM!") but she put him right in his place. She got a pardon from the President (that I doubt she'll live to see) in exchange for.. what exactly?? She didn't really help them at all. By the time they got to the hospital it was too late and in fact it would have been 1000000x better had the kid stayed put right where he was. Idiot Jack.

And what of the porn analyst who got tasered in the neck, did everyone just forget about her? No wonder one of the nuclear plants melted down, CTU was too busy electrocuting its own people!

Who wants to bet that the SecDef's son does something supa-crazy to aid the terrorists as a result of his prolonged exposure to the CTU Rave Helmet?

TH OTM re secdef's son, we haven't seen the last of him. Maybe he and the araz kid smoke weed together.

Actually the kid is the one who was going to get the pardon, not the mom. She was particularly good in last night's episode, yeah.

I liked how this one ended, with the "Did you get all that?" line. Very effective.

I think that would be too clever. I'd like it if that was true, though.

The void left by David Palmer is starting to become apparent to me. Not that 24 absolutely needs a moral center, but in a strange kinda way, he made the US worth saving. The way the current President and the SOD ooze smarm and general creepiness just kinda make me feel "they get what's coming to them".

Mason was the best CTU director, hands down. I also liked Ryan Chapelle (not director) because he was so over-the-top bureaucratic.

this show's more unpredictable this season early on than the other three were.

Really, I'm beginning to think CTU needs more backup! And how many people work there in Field Ops? How many times has someone gone to an office with a suspect, only to be waylaid by shady characters? It's happened twice this season already! Body count's pretty high if you're in the field and your name isn't Bauer or Almeida.

The only cringeworthy moment was Behrooz picking up the gun and doing the inevitable... but the goatee baddie that turned up, I really want to know who he was. I like Curtis, I hope he doesn't turn into the sort of CTU agent that gets to go out into the field only to get offed at the first possible chance.

Maybe my IQ level dropped by 20 points, but I was genuinely mystified by that hour, and that's something that '24' hasn't done in a long time.

Also re: POTUS I's return... ARARGH, SPOILERS!

And Jack Bauer getting run over and hardly even flinching was so fucking cool...

Apparently episode twelve - eleven is next week - is the big one to look forward to. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, and I intend to keep it that way until I see it.

Surely she should know more shit than they've already asked her? Typical CTU interogation: "Do you know where the override is?" "No" "OK then, now we'll question you off-screen where you can tell us absolutely nothing that will come up in future episodes whilst we send Jack off on completely unrelated leads that just happen to come up trumps."

Teeny (& anyone for whom Dennis Haysbert is POYC) - check out Suture if you haven't already. It's an early 90s arty film-noir mistaken-identity thing by the guys that made The Deep End, & DH is pretty good (& HOTT) in it.

I mean, why? What was the point?

Alex in Montreal totally totally OTM about President Slimer and the moral vacuum. I've come around to like it this way, though. Rather than having the alternate-universe President who makes all the opposite decisions that the current bonehead in power would (cf. the entirety of Season 2) (cf. the West Wing), they're dealing with the same thing we're dealing with, a prez who sets his jaw with appropriate grimness but doesn't appear to actually have a handle on anything, or even particularly care.

One of the fascinating things for me about this show is what a vulnerable country they make the US: 24's America has, yes, had a nuclear reactor melt down as a result of terrorism, a hotel full of people killed by terrorists, an actual nuclear weapon detonated, as well as any number of neighborhood-clearing hard and soft perimeters and evacuations and F-15s called in etc, but also appears to have dozens and dozens of terrorist cells operating at any given time, which CTU tracks to some degree but basically has no proper info on. They're so casual about it! "See if he has any connection to any other cells operating around Los Angeles." WHAT??

On a slightly related tip, it was funny to see Racist Jack at the end of that last episode. Woops. (Of course any terrorist worth his salt ought to have a solitaire screensaver available at the touch of a key. "Play the four of diamonds. I want to see that game work, buddy. PLAY IT. PLAY IT NOW!!")

I am loving this series. bitTorrent is my new friend.

I'm actually warming up to Curtis (the neck snap has always been my favourite kill method on any show, see Angel/Buffy). Heck, I was getting used to Driscoll as CTU director.

I really want to see Edgar withhold any sympathy and go all "what goes around comes around, bitch" when he learns that her daughter is dead.

Tony's gut: real or not? Only his stylist knows for sure.

okay and based on that little bit of dialogue between the Mummy and his Lexus minion, I'm thinking one of my theories might have merit.

oh and also, a friend of mine was recently interviewed for a job on "24". They hinted at an all-but-official green light for season 5.

-- TOMBOT (hallmar...) (webmail), March 8th, 2005. (link)

[....]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

wtf does the robotic penis have to do with bread, someone might've asked, before I did.

-- Allyzay Dallas Multi-Pass (allyza...) (webmail), March 8th, 2005. (link)

I've guessed what the terrorist's main aim is going to be. It was obvious when the guy said 'Air Force base'.

But Arrested Development was one of the best ever last night.

"Why?"

"He killed my wife and tied me to the bottom of a fishing boat"

"Well he's the best we've got, so try and get along"

me: "EEP"

I reckon from the end of that episodes I was probably right, right?

The only sucky thing was that you knew Jack wouldn't be killed, much in the same way that you know he's a hostage but he'll find some way to escape, or CTU will catch up with him, or whatever.

Why do I get the weird feeling that William Devane will be made President by the end of the season?

next week looks ridiculous. why does marwan want baruz?

BTW it's easy to explain why Marwan doesn't put a bullet in the gun: you expect him to hand a loaded gun to someone he thinks is setting him up?? That Dina didn't twig to this, or make dave's point about the uselessness of a dead hostage to Marwan or, I don't know, at least test whether the gun was loaded by shooting Jack in the leg first - which would have exposed Marwan's ruse - well, all of this goes to show that the sciptwriters REALLY needed her out of the picture for some reason right now, or needed to get her to change her role.. because let's face it, having Dina as a mole working next to Marwan but against him, slipping out every now and again to ring Jack up on his mobile, would have been FANTASTIC.

I'm starting to think Dina's death is all an ELABORATE RUSE!! partly because it helps me think Dina is alive, which I desperately want, but also because of all the foreshadowing dropped in the pre-op conference: "she's a master of deception, she'll be able to pull this off" "let's just hope she doesn't deceive US" - then the flashes of the gun barrel after she fails Marwan's test, but her body conveniently out of sight? hhhmmMMM!

God the scene where she leaves her unbelievable drip of a son behind, in the CTU holding chamber, was just heartbreaking, and almost overwhelming. The way she kept rubbing his hands, rubbing his face. The look she gave him as she walked away!

1) the subtle but unmistakable growth of Edgar's stubble (most other male characters deal w/this possible continuity nightmare by having a) permanent five o'clock shadow (cf Almeida) b) a beard (cf Mason) c) naturally blond hair that doesn't really show up (cf Jack) d) two X chromosomes or e) give every impression of having no naturally-occurring body hair (cf Curtis))

2) the fact that Tony and Michelle's lines are obviously just divided up from Driscoll's old lines, except with extra meaningful lingering at the end

3) CHLOE!!! (er, did she go to the tanning booth after getting fired??) the look on her face, her reaction when Michelle called her back into work was such a brilliant portrayal of all the confused emotions - anger at being yanked around, pleasure at being valued - most likely because she wasn't TRYIN for those emotions but just generally tryina "get respect" or something, focusing on the action, good girl!!!

Things i'm not likin so much:

1) what teeny said about all the women being either evil or idiotic; this doesn't hold for CTU payroll though; the women there are bad-ass and often funny

2) the depressingly similar point that (with the very very big exception of Dina) every Arab character is incredibly DRIPPY, either they're bumbling villains or they're cardboard patriots.. do the scriptwriters imagine that humor and personality are distinctly un-Arab qualities? this is racism in action, ppl

3) what is the fucking point of audrey raines

I like how the exchange--the focus of this entire episode, really--was merely to distract CTU from the next bit of business, which will be oh-so-sweet if they go all the way with it.

The characters this season have been smarter than in seasons past, with a nice lack of bureaucratic tomfoolery. At least until Zombie Ryan Chappelle shows up to question Michelle about Sarah Gavin's firing.

Serves him right for keeping the red CD-R on top of the blue CD-R and the purple CD-R all that time. I thought he'd get the mixed up, or drop them all, or something, and have to slap his head and go 'Uh, OH NO!".

I like the way how that Division sends that Buchanan guy into CTU especially to deal with this lame Behrooz/Bauer swop, but do they bother when someone tries to kidnap the Secretary of Defense, then blow up 103 nuclear power stations? "Nah, we'll stay at our office, thanks."

And how where they expecting to trace the terrorists in their van back to Marwan when they've closed off every road in a two mile radius, shot the rooftop assassin guy and started chasing them in a CTU van?

And Reiko Aylesworth's plastic surgery is fucking terrible. She's definitely had some work done. Maybe that's why they got in Alberta Watson for the first part of the season, to let Michelle's horrible botox-y face lift settle offscreen.

All Tony seems to do now is exposition. Chloe gets the same, but with added sarcasm.

Oh and HAHA EVERYONE'S A TORTURER NOW. Except maybe Michelle, although she did shoot that poor tourist in the back last season for no good reason other than teaching everybody a lesson. I would be saddened to learn that Reiko Aylesworth has had surgery on her face, it's such a nice one. I see a difference too, but I'm not sure it's surgery. She doesn't do that head-tilt thing any more! Remember how she used to crane her whole head over at like a 45-degree angle for no good reason? It used to drive me wild. She doesn't do that any more. She's gotten more severe and more professional. :(

It's really interesting what they're doing with Edgar. He was the hero who a) stopped the meltdown b) exposed Maryann Taylor c) backed up Chloe when she was helping Jack. Now he's a bumbling fool! I love it. I really hope the next episode ends like I hope it will.

The closer the shows gets towards it, though, the less likely I think it is that they will actually carry it out...

Anyone think that Anderson attacking Air Force One is a little bit predictable? I'm thinking it would be more interesting if it was a suicide mission - ie he either crashes his plane into 1) air force one 2) the white house 3) ctu

If he did crash into/demolish CTU, it would give the show a good reason to relocate to somewhere else next season...

obv

Yeah, I expected the mechanic supervisor to say, "....aaaand, who the hell are you?"

How is it that they can "send" live satellite feeds from a computer to a Palm, but the LAPD hourlies are on a CD-R ?

Hit http://www.playstationstudios.com/24 with username 'preview' and the password 'C3%qt24'

It's set between the end of season two and the beginning of season three. We're going to find out what happened to Naked Mandy, Alexander Trepkos, Max and Palmer's hand.

this is by far the best season of this show.

whatever happened to william devane's son?

arthe secret override code was kind of farfetched.

He's busy being Ryan's delinquent brother on The O.C. In terms of more recent missing sons, where's Behrooz? Not that it matters, I guess, now that the President's blowed up and all.

I like how all the new CTU characters have been weeded out and replaced with the old Season 3 folk (except for Edgar, but he's delightful). Although I wonder if any of them are going to get a Day 5 after the incredible cock-up they just made.

I'm now resigned to the fact that I no longer care about swerves and plotlines and that I tune in every week just to see Jack Bauer kill people. Lots of people.

Also mimimal 'oh Chloe/Edgar you're so zany' and 'oh when will Tony/Michelle/Buchanan or Jack/Audrey/Paul get back together etc' moments.

I don't get it.

I predict Bayrooz turns out to be Habib's right-hand man.

(Note: I didn't watch any of the preview commercials which seems to give away the entire next episode)

I might be in the minority, but I really enjoyed this episode. Nothing like bureaucratic tension to mix things up!

Somebody shoot me please...

And Bayrooooz, what of Bheyruhz?

At first last season I thought Keeler was meant to represent Bush, but it's obvious that it's Logan who's based on real life.

Also, I like Buchanan! He's like an incredibly decisive, rule-bending version of Ryan Chappelle.

I've grown to like Buchanan over the past couple hours.

Why are non-Bauer/Curtis field agents so useless? Has any of these escorts ever get out of there alive? It's like a dead giveaway when they're like "hey, go to location X. Newstead and Johnson will accompany you".

Given how much the show's been emphasizing a right wing ideology, I thought Logan's being coded as not-conservative, ie an indecisive pushover leftist.

I was wondering about the Secretary of Defense, too. What happened to him? Maybe he's asleep. You'd think his brand of cocky get-to-itness would come in handy with this waffly flip-flopper.

The series made it very easy to sympthize with him on this one because we (although NOT Jack, nor anyone else at CTU) have heard Marwan tell his associate to kill the very man Jack and Curtis and Michelle want to torture - because he "knows too much." Given CTU's dismal track record over the past 20 hours about who really ought to be tortured (one of their own analysts; the Secretary of Defense's son; both in "crucial" situations, both of which turned out to be barking up the wrong tree) I'm kind of amazed how behind Jack you are here.

Oh one other thing, you know how pissed off Jack is about Logan's removing him from the field op, in a fit of pique (extremely temporarily, as it turns out)? "He screwed this whole thing up! Marwan's getting away because of him!" Jack splutters. I'd like someone to show me how anything would have been different had Logan not given his order. Everything would have turned out exactly the same. Yes, Marwan's goon notices "a police car" but nothing really happens until Marwan sees the reflection off Jack's RC camera in the ventilation shaft. That's not Logan's fault. When Marwan et al dash through the tunnels, how come CTU hasn't already got schematics of the escape routes available? That's not Logan's fault. When Marwan blows rubble behind him, cutting off pursuit, that's not Logan's fault either. I think Jack has a little trouble taking responsibility sometimes.

I forgot the big diff btw Jack's hunch about this random friend-of-a-friend of Marwan's with zero criminal record and all the other hunches that have turned out wrong - Jack's hunches are always right. Duh.

Absolutely not. If he was a real person, I would not be behind him at all. Even watching the show, I am 'behind him' only in the sense that I enjoy watching him in action and perhaps even enjoy the conflicted feelings that his actions evoke in me (if that's the right word). HOWEVER (and again if this was actually real), I'm also glad that it's Jack making those decisions and not me, and I realize that makes me an awful person.

It's something that was hinted at in the first episode of last season, with that Kate Warner phone call; Jack puts his job and his amorality ahead of any real human relationships. I don't think we're supposed to view this as right or wrong, but instead watch him go about his business and say, "This is entertaining to watch, but that is one fucked-up guy!"

The lesson of Season 3 (or Season 2, I can't remember) was whe Palmer finally got restored to the Presidency and made the pointed anti-Bush speech to his cabinet that intelligence MUST be reliable before action is taken.

I kept expecting a similar resolution this season, with someone saying: "you must follow the law even in exceptional circumstances." It seems like the whole theme to the season.

That said, everything about this week's show was on top form. It'll be one of the episodes that gets put forward for the Emmys for sure. And Kiefer's little isolated 'what the fuck have I done?' face interupted by a Kim Raver slapping breakdown was ace too.

http://img134.echo.cx/img134/4277/uhoh2cz.jpg

http://img134.echo.cx/img134/4145/uhoh26ls.jpg

http://img134.echo.cx/img134/6889/uhoh34cb.jpg

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Paul Raines has to be the most shit-upon character in '24' since Janet York.

FWIW i prefer the "which way will it go" variety of cliffhanger to the "reveal twist" style

when Tony and Michelle are in the office and Tony sees Audrey and asks, "What is she still doing here?" and Michelle says something about her trying to keep working to forget all the bad shit that's gone down.

For some reason my alarms are going off over Mrs. Raines.

So is Berhooz dead? Gotta know for my 24 death pool.

Your Audrey suspicion is interesting, but what would her motive be? Her kidnapping didn't really seem like a set-up.

Finally a cool bureaucrat in CTU! I hope he comes back next season.

I imagine the Audrey reveal would be something like this:

CHLOE: Jack it's probably nothing but Audrey was roommates with Marie Warner in college.

05:59:57
05:59:58
05:59:59
06:00:00

Mason >>> Chapelle > Buchanan

also iknewit iknewit secdef's son is coming back!

Why isn't anybody talking about how everyone calls Palmer "Mr. President"???? Even the credits say "President David Palmer"!! Um, he's not the President! He's an able commander called in to take control of a volatile situation that he has the experience for -- that doesn't make him "President"! They're going to get so used to saying it that one of them is going to slip and refer to him as the President to a member of the press, or to the Chinese.. and that wouldn't be good. Wouldn't it be more INTERESTING to at least play up that tension, maybe have Jack acidentally say "Mr. President" and then correct himself.. anyhow.

Palmer is more "Sherry"-like than ever before.

It would not surprised me AT ALL to find out that either Audrey, or Paul, or both of them, was a mole, thus getting Jack off the hook for his decision this week. Because rule #1 of 24 is: Jack is always right. (The Chinese guy coughing up Marwan's location already kind of justified it, though.)

I also have no doubt that the next episode will be some not-very-subtle-at-all propaganda for a missile-defense shield, unless the confetti hypothesis proves correct.

Excellent melodrama btw Tony and Michelle, and she ALMOST did the tilted-head thing again!

crazy yanks

i hope the audrey mole theories are wrong - they're too obv like nina from series 1

i too want to know about refs to secdef's son! where?

I'm wondering what they will do, as I don't think they can pull off another US terrorism threat/nuclear war type plot again. This season seems to have pulled out all of the stops for that idea.

Mandy is still darn sexy....

Haven't seen this one tonight yet. I hope one of these BT sites works.

I will be disappointed but not surprised if all of the totally illegal over-the-top torture goes completely unpunished.

"Millions of people will die." It's justification for anything, it's like a bizarre inversion of the "Prime Directive" in Star Trek but with no discussion. In Star Trek I seem to recall the directive causing much soul-searching. None of that for Jack. Or Michelle. Or Tony, now that he's learned his lesson. Or even David "we've got to get our hands dirty" "Sherry Slight Return" Palmer.

I forgot about that thing about ex-Prez's getting called "President" in perpetuity, if people so choose. It's a bit Popish isn't it.

Also, Mia Kirshner was naked again.

Maybe by Series 5 they'll have put a guard on CTU's back door, which might help to stop traitors running away, or at least make them form an orderly queue.

The very back door at which Jack (the bastard) prevented Ryan Chappelle from having a last cigarette, mind you - although Chappelle was indeed thinking of running away, albeit non-traitorously.

I don't mind the Tony hostage situation, but they really shouldn't telegraph things that obviously. The Marwan escape was pretty obvious too (Rule #2: when nameless CTU agents are escorting or responding to a call, they will fail and get killed...easily).

I like how Speaker Don Asheton's reaction to Logan siding with him. Kinda like how an eight-year-old boy would if his parents tell him he's right.

Plus, we were clearly robbed some cool shots of a missile flying through the skies and stuff.

I'm guessing next week that Michelle will get offed instead of Tony. (Therefore there's a new reason for someone to be mad at Jack. People always have to be mad at Jack.)

YAY! kill them all.

this was a total "set-up" ep for the final 2 hr excruciating finale that did (as chuck sez) ignore the whole "bloody hell, a nucular fcking missile heading somewhere kablooey madness" thing.

rule #3, couple finally declare intentions of getting together = 1 of them is SO for it.

The thing that bugged me about that episode was Richard Heller's interogation. Like all they kept asking him was 'YOU CALLED MARWAN LAST WEEK: WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?', without even narrowing it down to what day it was, like he only makes one phone call a week. And couldn't anyone at CTU have even considered that it wasn't him who made the call? And couldn't they have got a recording of it from the cell phone company? And how did Chloe find the right cab company, let alone at the right driver in five minutes at 4:30AM?

And, what with their whole 'oh, we're trying to appeal to a right-wing audience now' thing, the closeted-son-fucks-a-man-and-jeopardises-all-of-America thing was just plain disturbing.

And they've had Marwan in custody for a whole hour, yet they've only had Jack ask him about two questions before deciding to bring Richard Heller in. Yeah, Marwan's supposed to be a 'lost cause' but considering every other suspect during this whole season has talked after Jack breaking their little fingers or sticking diodes to their nipples, you'd think they'd try a little bit more.

Michelle's little heading-holding look of despair right at the end made that episode. She hasn't done shit all season but that three-second shot was as near-as-perfect a moment as you're going to get.

And I had no idea that Mandy would turn up again. That was good, she's still completely drop-dead evil. Fuck knows how she's supposed to walk Tony through yet another one of those completely-useless-in-every-episode CTU perimeters. I swear, if CTU has to set up a perimeter AGAIN just once more in the finale, I'm not going to watch a single episode of season five. They must have set up at least a dozen perimeters in the last 22 hours and not one of them has worked. Fuck, they even did that trick twice in this week's episode.

Seasons five and - they've confirmed this - six will just be more of the same, except more bland. More breaking of the 'real time' rule. More giantic plot holes. More rehashing of storylines and characters from past seasons, except in a slightly different order. More lame dialogue. More huge unit-shifting DVDs.

which reminded me of a previous episode where it was like "DUNH DUNTA DUNNNNNN" the network is possibly compromised and chloe's like "no, don't worry, our network is SELF-DEFENDING" - a term literally straight from their promotional literature - cut to shot of computer screen with Cisco netw3rk s0phtware. no doubt many of the haX0r here would simply have snickered, had one of their co-workers pulled such a line on them.

i have such a blind spot for plots, i think somehow related to my gullibility, that i get particularly pleased when i make predictions like:

"Who wants to bet that the SecDef's son does something supa-crazy to aid the terrorists as a result of his prolonged exposure to the CTU Rave Helmet?

-- Tracer Hand, February 15th, 2005."

There's a beautiful, almost imperceptible snicker by Jack when Audrey says to SecDefSonBro "there's a MAN here who TORTURES people, i've seen him do it! So you gotta tell us everything, for your own sake!" and Jack's look says: you don't know the half of it, lady.

Tony has been phoning it in for so long I've forgotten his real name again. Something.. Bernard? Still he's the only obvious tab for CTU agent most likely to get tied up by a super-hott terrorist babe with only the finale left to go.

I was SOO ready for Audrey to be all like "and no cameras for my five minutes with my brother" and then proceed to slip young duder a gun and both of them come out shooting.

Anyway - cracking!

Finally the COMEUPPANCE moment is coming into view, wherein CTU feels the pain that its "break the rules" attitude towards torture will inflict if anybody has license to use it - like the Chinese

Fantastic as well that the lead they're chasing, the ONE tree that Jack is barking up ("have faith!" - Palmer), etc just becomes a smoking dead end

Aaaaghh no! Tony and Michelle, spare me!! If there's another 38 minutes of this..

Also, intercepting a nuclear missile at the last minute and it doesn't even go kaBLAM = dud.

And I'm surprised how bored I got by Tony Almeida.

Edgar and Chloe were magnificent, though, probably the best supporting characters the show's ever had.

one thing:

BEHROOZ, WHERE DID YOU VANISH TO? Curtis seemed to forget his "promise" to him pretty quickly.

(i can never find this thread ever...so i'm typing this so i can find it easily in the search...ignore it)

they should bring her back!

I liked this season a lot, on the whole; it was the best since the first one, certainly. The second half of it seems very very removed from the first half; I guess this is usually how it goes.

Phoebe Gloeckner describes recent research for an upcoming project in an update to her website: "November 2003: Phoebe spent two weeks in Mexico researching a story for a big book that will benefit Amnesty International. Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco is also involved and traveled to Russia to research his story. The professionals at AdBusters Magazine are designing the book, which is the brainchild of activist Mia Kirshner

Grr, still 4 months until the 4 hour season 5 premiere.

Generally, the tone went a bit too fascist for my liking, too.

but isnt that like saying there was too much drinking in the last season of deadwood? (i agree about the torturing, that was way over the top, but i ll take half a dozen torture scenes over kim bauer in puma peril any day)

o god the torture plots were ridiculous weren't they?

And why are you limeys coming onto this thread for?

Also the Tony/Michelle romance was shit x 1000, and the ludicrous convolution of storylines to get all the old characters that weren't Kim/dead back in again was laughable.

I read a while back on imdb.com about a new character of Ryan Chapelle Jr in season 5, but that seems to have been one of their "jokes". Though in 24-land, anything is possible.

http://www.24la.net/videos/teaser1season5.wmv

It almost looks like it might be good.

I liked how Jack's TOYOTA completely outperformed the bad guy's BMW.

I predict that this will be the dumbest season of '24' yet. Not quite as low as 'JAG', but at least it'll be fun.

(although Season 4, the weakest season yet, was the season that made me a fan)

This is going to be great.

"Both terrorist and CTU agents operate as examples of what the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls homo sacer..." (etc.)

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=24160

Personally I find this a bit disappointing - I was hoping it would be about Jack escaping from the Chinese as a bit of a change of tack, instead it seems that it will be terror threat in LA, business as usual, ho-hum. I'm sure I will lap it up regardless.