24 This Week: 4/10/06

Ooooh, it's getting good now! This was another typical filler/exposition episode, but I felt it was a superior one. This shows they can do those epiosodes in an intriguing way where, in the past, the episodes have been kind of boring if no one died we loved or there wasn't flamethrowers. Come on people! We know 24 is never boring! And what about that President Logan? Not since Edward Norton in "Primal Fear" have I been as impressed with a performance where a character acts one way and then turns a corner another way. Props to actor Gregory Itzin, you snowed me and are playing the duality to a "T." I'll say it: they played me, they played us. The creative team made Logan so utterly incompetent in the beginning of the season, there was no way he could be the bad guy, but now that we've turned that corner, they're showing a little of the bumbling facade to everyone else, but now letting us in on the true nature of the Prez. I'm still sort of calling bull--- on them making him the villain, but this week's episode did a lot to lead me on the path of believability. Now....

What have we learned this week:

--That CTU has finally gotten smart and gets sneaky....but it's actually Homeland Security AND they're getting sneaky about catching Jack. Finally someone gets that oh, he LOVES AUDREY. AUDREY WILL LEAD US TO JACK. So I see, it takes a new bunch of people not affiliated with being a clandestine anti-terrorist agency to act like spies. Go figure.
I do like, however, that Audrey gets sneaky on her own and puts the tracker on the truck. Nice touch.

--we've learned how to properly rob a bank. So all you kids out there a little strapped for cash, here's what you do: go on the web, find out the president of a really nice bank you like, follow him home, don't listen to that hogwash about he can't access the bank after hours, get him to let you in, and voila, you have access to mas moola! It's so easy! Dear God, I hope in reality it is not that easy and that the writers took a little artistic license there. But the first news report I hear from Podunk, Iowa, about Johnny trying a bank heist scheme he saw on "24," I'm saying I told you so.

--that Miles really is beginning to annoy the hell out of me and become my new most hated character on 24. These creative guys are good. They do the unimaginable and make Logan interesting and know they have to fill the Well of Incompetent Jerks with a new guy..."Hey, let's make Miles a jerk!" someone bellows at the writer's table. Brilliant. Now I want Chloe to take Miles out, ASAP.

-- Quote of the week #1: Aaron after the First Lady asks him if he's alright-- "I'm just a little battle worn, ma'am." And that look she gave him after he said that? Looks like she wants to tend to those wounds, soldier! But oh, didn't it make you squirm when she and the Prez were getting all hot and heavy!? I thought Aaron had her for sure, but now that Logan doesn't look like the dope she thought he was, the First Lady's got a jones for her man again. Power...chicks dig the power.

--that Jack doesn't go anywhere without that bag he's had since he returned to the "real" world. I mean, what is he, Felix the cat? Holy utility belt, Batman! He pulls out from his bag just the right thing to disrupt a magnetic alarm?! Come on! What the hell else is in that thing? Hell, why don't we just whip out the Tardis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS and let's just jump to the end of the season already if that's all it takes! Jack's The Man and all, but honestly....

--Quote of the week #2: you gotta have one from Chloe, the Originator of "24" quotes: As Miles confronts her coming out of the bathroom-- "If you want the details, I'll right you a report." Priceless. Gotta love that little spitfire.

--that the creative team also upholds another tradition in the annals of "24"--the You've Got To Be Kidding Me moment. Ah, let's take a trip down memory lane...Teri Bauer getting amnesia; the cougar chasing Kim through the hills of LA; take your pick of moments in Season 3: the whole prison escape thing, Chase having a daughter, Chase's hand being chopped off; and last year, Jack holding up a gas station to maintain a cover. Ladies and gentleman, I give you this season's You've Got To Be Kidding Me moment....when Evelyn falls and knocks herself unconscious. Grant you, they may pull a better YGTBKM (man, that's a long acronym) moment out of their butts before this season ends, but who among you didn't slap your head silly when the woman badly limps to her whimpering child in the bathroom, only to crack her head wide open on the hotel table? Exactly. The collective groan you heard across the 24 viewing nation was at that exact moment. Stupid. You could see it coming a mile away and it was just handled poorly, poorly, poorly. No offense to the actress playing Evelyn, but physical stunts--if that was even really her and not a stuntperson--is not your thang. Bad, just bad.

--and Quote #3, the piece de resistance: the bank prez held hostage weighs going outside and surrendering or hanging with Jack--"I'll take my chances with you." Normally a wise decision, my friend, but alas, you are what's known as a red shirt. You're not a major character that we care too much you have to live, nor will mourn greatly if you die, and you're near Jack Bauer. Your fate is inevitable. Rest well knowing you are helping Jack and Wayne to avenge President Palmer...who you'll be meeting soon...

I don't know about the rest of you, but didn't you think the music in this episode was stupid and distracting? It got all Mission Impossible, guitar twangy in this episode and it was cheesy as hell. I could see them maybe using it as a theme for Chloe when she was doing her thing, but it was all throughout the show and it didn't work for the kind of show "24" is. I get that kind of crap from Alias, I don't need it in Jack Bauer-land, too.

So now Audrey's daddy is getting in the mix! Aw shucks! And it looks like I'll get my wish after all: either way, Logan's going down with impeachment OR my other fantasy is that Aaron will take a 9mm to Logan gangsta style, and as the President is lying on the ground dying, Aaron lordes over him to say, "AND I'm takin' your woman!" That would be...genius :)