Uploaded from Jack Bauer's PDA: 24 and More!

On last night's episode of TWENTY-BY-GOD-FOUR:



- Okay, when I talked about last week's episode of 24, I tried to express my excitement that, after a season that had mostly been merely solid, finally, we got an episode that we could truly get behind and that elicited those old feelings of awesomeness that one typically associates with the Jack Bauer power hour. Well, hot damn, it turns out that last week's fairly kickass episode was really only the warmup to this week's barn-burner. I mean, wow, what an hour of television - I don't think there was a weak scene in the bunch. This one just completely fired on all cylinders - and it had a couple of positively kickass reveals. For one thing, a few old friends made long-awaited returns. Chloe's husband Morris returned for a brief cameo, which was pretty cool - hopefully Morris will have a larger role later in the season? But the second big return was just pure awesome on a stick ... The President asks Bill Buchanan if he knows of anyone trustworthy enough to pick up the Prez's estranged daughter and escort her back to the Whitehouse after her father is shot and in critical condition. At this point, you couldn't help but speculate as to who Bill's pick would be, but the result was such that any longtime 24 fan had to smile and cheer. For last night saw the return of one of the great heroes of the 24 pantheon ... AARON PIERCE, Agent of Gravitas!!! Oh hells yeah, Agent Pierce returned and with that business has officially picked up in the 24-verse. Meanwhile, we got some gripping scenes with Jack and Agent Walker, some longtime-in-coming classic Chloe moments / speeches, the build-up to what should be a kickass showdown with Dobaku, and hey, even Dobaku's special lady friend and her overprotective sister weren't bad at all, thanks to some excellent acting from both parties. The bottom line is this: as good as last week's episode was, this was really the first episode of 24 in a long time that made me want to stand up, cheer, and call up a couple of friends. This one was upload-to-PDA-worthy, baby.



My Grade: A





FOX SUNDAY NIGHT REVIEWS:



- Wow, THE SIMPSONS is now in HD and has never looked better. That said, Sunday's ep was not exactly a classic, with a fairly "meh" story in which Homer sees a would-be reality where he had been elected high school class president rather than a popular rival. A few funny jokes made this one worth watching, but nothing really stood out as original or particularly hilarious.



My Grade: B-



- KING OF THE HILL finally aired the episode I've been waiting for all season, in which Hank and co. travel to a Propane Convention, where Hank is tasked with introducing Buck Strickland at an awards ceremony in which Buck will be honored with a coveted induction in the Propane Hall of Flame. This was a classic KOTH ep through and through - I've always loved the odd dynamic between Hank and Buck, and whenever Hank gets serious about propane, it always cracks me up. We even got to see Hank wasted and acting crazy - a rare comedic treat. Great stuff.



My Grade: A-



- I thought that FAMILY GUY had one of its "sketchiest" episodes yet this weekend ... What I mean is - the ep really had almost no plot development and was basically a flimsy storyline wrapped around a series of lengthy and completely random gags. I thought the Christian Bale thign was decent but nowhere near as funny as it could have been. I did crack up at Stewie's Brian Adams music video though ... but still, with so little substance in the episode it was hard to care that much about most of the jokes. Episodes like this one make you wonder why Seth McFarlane and co even bother trying to construct traditional A and B plots - if you're going to just wrap them up in 5 seconds during the closing credits, what's the point?



My Grade: C+




- Alright, lots more on the way very soon!