"It’s a rare condition, this day and age ..."

Okay, on to some lighter subjects (mostly) ...

First of all ...

24! 24! 24!

- Okay, I don't know if I was just in a weird mood last night or what, but somehow last night's 24 fell kind of flat for me, even though I know some others such as my brother really enjoyed it. I don't know though, I had pretty high expectations after last week's kickass final act, and I went in thinking that this week they'd continue the momentum, with Jack in full-on uber-badass-man-on-a-mission mode. However, what we got was, mostly, an hour of back and forth argument between Jack and CTU, with Jack's fate getting caught up on in the totally tired President vs. Vice President storyline. To me, this whole storyline is something of a mess. Just when Wayne Palmer was starting to be tolerable again, he's out of the picture. Just when VP Daniels' endless scheming had been foiled, thankfully, since he had gotten really tiresome, he's back in power again and immediately making decisions that contradict Palmer's wishes. Then, part of the problem is simply that Daniels is in many ways right in his decision-making. Placing nuclear secrets in the hands of a lone agent for the sake of his personal revenge mission is pretty absurd - we all know it. This is why tying Jack's mission to save Audrey into any larger storyline is just lame - this storyline would be much more interesting as lone-wolf Jack flying solo vs. his girlfriend's captors. Now instead of Jack vs. evil Chinese villains, it's Jack vs. ... the conservative VP's beuraucratic red tape of doom! Bo-riiiing.

In many ways, this episode brought to a head some of the problems with Jack's character this season. In hour one, he was supposedly a broken man, ready to die and betrayed by his country. Yet hours later, he was on the frontlines of CTU, reciting the party line and back to being Super Patriot, going so far as to shoot his friend Curtis in the name of national security, and torturing his own brother to the brink of death. But now, Jack is going to risk starting World War III to save Audrey? Remember, Jack once went toe to toe with Tony Almeda who had to subvert CTU's operations for the sake of saving his wife Michelle. Perhaps part of the problem is simply that the on-air chemistry between Jack and Audrey has never been that great, and her character never completely likable.

One of the best moments ever on 24 was, to me, when Tony, Michelle, and Chloe helped to fake Jack's death in the season 4 finale. That was something we rarely see on the show - people actually helping out Jack - and it's very refreshing as opposed to Jack constantly working against the system as we've seen in EVERY SINGLE SEASON to date at some point or other.

I don't know - I just thought that there were a number of potentially more exciting ways that Jack's latest mission could have been handled as opposed to just seeing him put through the red-tape wringer yet again.

One more point - this episode really shown a spotlight on how little of interest has happened to the supporting characters this season. Milo and Nadia are paper-thin non-characters. Chloe seems to have been relegated to the background, and after all this time her exact relationship with Morris is still unclear. Morris has potential to be a great character, and he had his one moment to shine, but since his time out in the field, he's really done nothing of note.

Overall, this was an entertaining episode with some fun moments (you had to appreciate the sheer over-the-top villainry of Powers Boothe calmly stuffing his letter of resignation back into his jacket pocket upon witnessing Palmer's collapse mid-speech), but it felt like a lot of maneuvering was done just so that next week can be Jack vs. America, Round 37!!!

My Grade: B

- I also caught FOX's new series, DRIVE, both during its Sunday premiere and its continuation on Monday. Overall, I found that I enjoyed many of the actors and the characters they played, but I just couldn't get fully invested in the series' totally out-there premise of a secret cross-country race that for some reason is run by a mysterious, all-powerful cabal. Something like this, in order to work, needs just the right amount of style and comic bookish craziness to work. Unfortunately, Drive mostly just came off like Lost-lite, with a number of characters with mysterious pasts that never really felt all that interesting. The standout is probably a woman who appears to be a naive suburban mom, complete with bulky SUV and wide-eyed innocent look - except that, actually, she's kinda crazy. Otherwise though, I cared about few of the characters, even though some were portrayed by very likable actors. Chief among them is Nathan Fillion in the lead, who immediately showed me why people are such big fans of his from shows like Firefly. The guy is a great actor, very charismatic, and is able to deliver pulpy lines with a healthy dose of gravitas. Unfortunately, his character on Drive is a total bore - typical "quiet suburban guy who is actually a former secret agent / assasin / badass" stock character.

What probably kills this show the most though is that, again, its mythology and premise is neither gleefully over the top or at all plausible. It's just kind of there - some X-Files meets Twisted Metal story that really can not and likely will not ever make any sense. And they do the typical "everyone is in on it" schtick, except there's no rhyme or reason to anything. At one point, schizo suburban mom is told to kill a competing racer as punishment for a last-place finish. Why, exactly? Later, on Monday's ep, Fillion is taken into custody and grilled about his past, only to find that it was all a Prisoner-esque mindgame by the race organization, to, what ... motivate him and have him rediscover his old-self? And that's in their interests because ...? Basically, it was a lot of fifth-grade esque writing all so the scene could end with a cool reveal of Fillion's new ride, presented like some shiny videogame power-up.

Look, I am a big fan of the "a bunch of weird characters all in search of the same thing / all trying to win a race" subgenre of the action movie / TV show, probably dating back to all the hours I wasted watching Wacky Races and Laugh O Lympics as a kid. And I am a huge X-files fan - I love conspiracy stuff and don't even mind when it pops up on shows like Prison Break where it doesn't necessarily fit. But this just seemed like a haphazard attempt at an action TV show that seemed to throw together a lot of "cool" characters, concepts (oooh, a conspiracy! everyone is in on it!), and cars into one mash-up of a TV show. It left me slightly intrigued about where it was all going, but not exactly captivated enough to find out. It's too bad so many cool actors are stuck in this not-as-cool-as-it-wants-to-be and too complicated for it's own good effort from FOX.

My Grade: C+

- Hey, wow! SNL on Saturday was one of the overall best episode I've seen in a long while. I recorded Saturday's ep (yes, I admit, largely because Avril was on), but was pleasantly surprised to find several funny sketches, including a new Digital Short that was flat-out hilarious. If you haven't seen it, look online, it's comedy gold.

- Also hilarious - my old pal Conan O' Brien's latest bit o' comedy gold - Studio 6A - a dead-on parody of Studio 60 that had me rolling from laughter. Man, workin' the 9 to 5 I rarely get to watch Conan anymore but thanks to YouTube I caught this little slice of brilliance. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMiGjSabTjI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdefamer%2Ecom%2Fhollywood%2Fstudio%2D60%2Fstudio%2D60%2Dparodies%2Doutliving%2Dtheir%2Dreal%2Blife%2Dill%2Bfated%2Dinspiration%2D253028%2Ephp

- I also watched the final two episodes of ANDY BARKER this week and really liked what I saw. The brilliance of these eps was made all the more tragic by the fact that this show was basically dead in the water from the beginning, and barring some miraculous comeback this is it for poor Andy. But please, check this out online or on iTunes -- good, good stuff. Quality comedy.






- Finally, I just want to quickly mention my Aunt Sarah, who passed away on Sunday morning in Connecticut. She was a sharp, witty woman who was a huge influence in my mother's life growing up and was a big presence in mine as well. She lived a long life and passed away at 90 years of age, and had been in poor health for several years. Still though, my family is very sad about her passing - even in declining health, Sarah was often the star of the show, turning out witticisms and nuggets of wisdom with a surprising sharpness. She was always opinionated and particular, but that was part of her charm. Most of all though, she loved her family and would always do anything to lend a hand, to remember a birthday or holiday, to express her confidence that my brother and I were headed for big things. She always took the utmost delight in treating us, whether it was taking us out to lunch, having us over to visit, or just sneaking us a piece of candy. Sarah Schwartz, the sister of my grandfather Jerry Wagner, was a wonderful aunt, and it's been very sad to think of her as being gone. But I am hopeful and happy that somewhere and somehow, she will take great delight in watching us all from afar.