Jack Bauer Saves U S and A: 24, Prison Break, Scooter Libby, MORE

Alright, well, my relative lack of enthusiasm about 24 has been pretty visible the last few weeks, but last night I got back with Jack and I'm down with the real-time countdown. No, this wasn't an A-level episode, not quite yet, but it was a marked improvement over the last few weeks.

24 (TWENTY FOUR) 24!

This week's 24 was made by the presence of a character who up until now, honestly, I could have cared less about. But the great thing about 24 is that it's structure allows for certain background players to, on occasion, step into the limelight and steal the show. Tony Almeda, Michelle Dessler, Curtis Manning - all began as bit players and then slowly but surely became fan favorites.

Last night, Powers Booth as the Vice President stepped up and brought GRAVITAS back to 24. Okay, maybe I was just semi-delusional, realizing that this badass actor had voiced Gorilla Grodd on JLU, but Powers had some real power to his 24 performance last night, to the point where I wasn't sure if I liked or hated his character, but was sure that, in either case, he was pretty badass. After a run of fresh-faced Wayne Palmer as a mostly uninspiring Prez, it was nice to see a take-charge character who could stand toe to toe with such grizzled vets as Jack Bauer and Bill Buchanan.

Speaking of Buchanan though ... one of my biggest complaints about the show of late is that Buchanan is being made to look like a total loser. He apparently has no control over CTU or his agents. He runs an organization that is perpetually short-staffed, and totally reliant on the services of a guy (Jack) who is only working for them on an ad-hoc basis following his release from a Chines prison only hours earlier. The preview for next week seemed to be a step in the right direction with a new head of field ops for CTU ('bout time!), but still ... what 24 needs is to establish a better sense of the CTU hierarchy. It's absurd to think that the LA branch is constantly the nations' sole hope in combatting terrorism, and that Bill Buchanan basically reports to no one save the President, esp considering how spotty his record is.

My other big complain is how Jack has become such a robotic automaton killing machine. As an aside, I agree that the show has completely overused torture as a plot device of late. I think the idea that the torture shown on 24 could have a derogatory affect on our nation's military practices is pretty absurd - I mean let's face it, from a narrative standpoint, whenever someone is tortured on 24, it's usually practically a necessity. It's usually the ONE GUY who knows the location of a nuclear bomb set to go off in 15 minutes or something, and if Jack doesn't get its location from him, MILLIONS WILL DIE ... so yeah, in that case, who's going to object to a little tough love? Not I. But from a purely creative standpoint, it's just old hat by now to see Jack need to extract info from some poor sap by cutting off his fingers, giving him MORE CC'S of liquid pain, etc ... Creatively, the writers have to realize that putting Jack in a situation where he has to go medieval on a terrorist to extract some time-sensitive info has become a huge narrative crutch on the show. Cochran and Surnow should take a lesson from their own La Femme Nikita, where every time those two weird Euro-perv torture team people went to interrogate a hostage, well, you knew that business had just picked up.

But back to my original point, Jack has just become too robotic of late. In Season 1 he was a normal family man prone to dole out James Bond-like bouts of superhuman ass-whupping. Now, we get a Jack who finds out that his dad and brother were at the forefront of a conspiracy that resulted in the assassination of President Palmer ... and Jack doesn't even bother to ask for details? I couldn't believe that Jack was sitting in a limo with Logan and never once asked about the hows or whys of Logan's shady partnership with Jack's brother Graham. Like I said, I love anti-terrorist machine Jack Bauer as much as anyone, but would it kill the writers to have him show a bit of humanity, like, maybe stopping for a moment to flinch at the revelation that his dad and brother are EVIL?

Those complaints aside, this ep of 24 did a good job of steering things back on track, and setting up a great confrontation at the Russian consulate. The most interesting thread is that the VP is himself a right-winger interested in enforcing near martial law. Does this mean that Jack will now be given carte blanche to avert the terrorists by any means necessary? Hmm, it will def be interesting to see if the show follows up on the idea of Jack working with a very conservative Prez. This ep though did a great job of adding some intrigue to the whole conspiracy / Tom Lennox storyline, and Lennox turning the tables on the conpirators was a great twist. Similarly, this ep reminded me why President Logan was so great in the first place, huge improvement over last episode in terms of giving Logan some great dialogue and fun moments.

So yeah, 24 right now still has a few big-picture problems, some of which seem to be on track to be addressed soon (new field ops leader at CTU, Martha Logan and AARON F'N PIERCE return next week), and some of which seem to be expanding by the episode (is this show even in real time anymore? the VP said his plane was landing in a few hours ,then 5 minutes later he was on the ground!). But, in the short-term, we have some new characters stepping up, some old faves returning, and both lead storylines (Jack held captive, conspiracy in the White House) are reaching the boiling point of intensity. Problems and all, thank Jack for the greatness that is 24.

My Grade: B+

- Last night's PRISON BREAK ... okay, for a long time now I've defended this show against those who call it ridiculous by praising it's totally over-the-top, campy sensiblities as being more fun, crazy, and intensely absorbing than any other show out there. But this week, even I did a double take at the show's latest twisted revelation. Now, correct me if I misunderstood this, but did they actually imply that ... (SPOILERS) ...

... The President and her brother had an incestuous sexual relationship?!?!

... if I understood that little plot point correctly, then ... wow, okay, that is a BIT much, even for Prison Break. And this little revelation wasn't exactly revealed with any degree of subtlety or grace either. I don't know, just kind of lame. Meanwhile, I think fatigue with this show's neverending series of near-captures / near escapes is starting to sink in. Every con is alternatively a master escape artist or a complete moron. I don't know ... I mean T-Bag's storyline was pretty interesting and now he's on the run again? Fernando was seriously going to go after T-Bag's money when he had finally found happiness in Mexico?

Anyways, this ep had the usual awesomeness from William Fichtner, and there were some great scenes with Michael held captive by that one guy. Man, that guy (you know who I mean) is SO freaking evil. The way he constantly smiles every second makes you want to see him get punched out so badly. Great villain who you can't help but love to hate (but I don't know the character's name, just that he is really evil). Otherwise, some of the subplots this ep took a decided turn for the laaaaaaaaaame.

My Grade: B -

OTHER STUFF:

- Howsabout this whole Scooter Libby trial? Following its ins and outs is like trying to make our way through James Joyce's Ulysses, but man, if anything, this whole thing just seems to lend credence to the idea that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove went out of their way to pad the case for the War in Iraq, and that Libby is basically the fall guy who is going sown for their wrongdoings. This is one of those cases that may bever be fully demistified, but on the other hand it could unravel and really become a Watergate-like scandal in which people at the highest levels are implicated. It's funny - the whole thing is so complex that I don't think the average person realizes what this case means. It means that Cheney's right-hand man just got indicted for exposing an undercover CIA operative in an effort to falsely verify documents claiming that Iraq had WMD's. This debunks the Bush admin's case for war in Iraq. This implies that Cheney lied and made his case by compromising national security. This validates the idea that the war was started under false pretenses. Again I ask ... is it '08 yet? Seriously though, is it? No, seriously, I hope that this case does get unraveled and anyone who deserves to be is implicated and tried. As Fox Mulder said, "The Truth Is Out There."

- Borat is out on DVD today! I can't wait to see some of the extras, as some of S. Baron Cohen's best moments inevitably come in material left on the cutting room floor (see deleted scenes of Da Ali G Show for evidence of this). I've gotten so much traction out of my Ali G dvd's that Borat is pretty much a must-own for me.

- I'm kind of getting into Arcade Fire lately, and am looking forward to hearing more of their latest album. Anyon e with me on this?

- Man, the NBA is really becoming up for grabs. The West will be interesting with the Suns at full strength and the Spurs and Mavs still gunning, and with D Wade out for Miami, the East SEEMS to belong to Detroit, but it will be interesting to see if a team like Cleveland or Chicago steps up.

- Let us all bow our heads in mourning at the gross TRAGEDY that is the Pussycat Dolls reality show airing tonight in place of Veronica Mars. Ugh. Please for the sake of Western Civilization, do not watch that crap.

- No I have not watched last night's HEROES yet.

- Who's excited for WHEN THE WIND SHAKES THE BARLEY? Most epic movie ever? Bwahahaha....

- Alright that's all I've got for now. Nice! How much?