(11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: D
May I start out with a rant? Thanks.
Suicide has got to be among the lamest plot devices ever used -- only to be surpassed by amnesia and cross-dressing -- and it is the ultimate lazy man's way to wrap up loose ends and dispatch with annoying subplots. Only rarely in the 400 years or so since Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet" has suicide been used in an interesting or believable way (one exception might be "The Hours" because, you know, Virginia Woolf actually committed suicide in real life, not just to serve a writer's lame plot).
24 has certainly scraped the crud from the bottom of cliché barrel before (see Day 1 and Teri Bauer's bout of forgetfulness) but Julia's gunplay during this episode makes for the second suicide associated with President Palmer in less than 24 hours. Which just highlights how truly despicably stoo-pid the whole David Palmer plotline has been this season. At this point, even if some miraculous twist somehow makes this all relevant to the main action of the season, the various types of pseudo-drama involving the President will have been an achingly annoying distraction. Think of how many shots we could have had with Kim in her underwear instead of the pointless scenes with David and Wayne sort of arguing with each other and then making the wrong decision over and over again!
As I mentioned to J the other day, most movies and TV shows these days skimp on developing interesting good guys since over-the-top bad guys are so much easier to create. 24 has been a notable exception to this with not just one but two compelling good guys. Jack Bauer consistently exhibits a nuanced mix of good intentions and bad guy methods. And, in the first two seasons, Palmer showed remarkable integrity, spiced up with a sizable dose of political gamesmanship. But this year, he mostly paces around his office and makes his mean face a lot. Before the season started, the 24 producers said that Palmer would be "different" this year, presumably because of the effects of his chemical poisoning three years ago. Apparently, by "different" they meant "irrelevant."
But back to the suicide - or murder/suicide … or considering it was Sherry, the extermination/suicide - you'd think I'd be celebrating the removal of the most annoying character in the show. Well, already the chat boards are talking up the fact that Julia seemed to shoot Sherry in the stomach or midsection so maybe she's not dead. I had hoped this kind of misdirection would be the case when Nina was shot but, so far, characters shot this season have tended to get dead and stay there. Still, I don't think 24 is above trying to extend Sherry even further (does anyone actually enjoy watching her?). So it wouldn't surprise me if that conversation between Wayne and David shown in the coming attractions actually involves a decision about whether someone should pull the plug on Sherry while she's on life support. If this is true, it makes the whole suicide thing even more lame given that it didn't even wipe 24 clean of the scourge that is Sherry.
(In the episode description on the Fox website, it says, "Julia plugs two shots into Sherry and kills her" so I guess maybe I'm wrong here. Still, the website also identifies the guy who helps Wayne break into Sherry's house as "Rabens" at one point. Oops. Methinks they need better proofreaders. And maybe better writers, too: "plugs"? C'mon…)
OK, I just had to get that rant out of the way so I could go on and talk about the rest of the hour, which was a pretty mixed bag. The recap with the F-18s was cool, mostly because the missile attack on the helicopter was among the best moments of the season - a little bit of shock-and-awe on the domestic terrorism front. It seems it's always the bad guys who have the helicopters and the nifty gadgets; it's good to see just what kind of firepower the government has to bring to bear when necessary.
Go On to Page 2
Back to the Unofficial 24 Page
Go Back to Television
Go Back Home!