(5:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: D
Owwwch! I woke up this past Wednesday morning with my head throbbing and it wasn't because I was hung-over due to some pre-Thanksgiving partying. I mean, I was hung-over due to some pre-Thanksgiving partying but that's not what was making my head throb. My brain was rebelling as it tried to process the logical missteps in hour 5 of "24." I think there was some emotional whiplash mixed in as well, the result of being pulled violently between really liking some aspects of the episode and finding other parts pretty dreadful.
While I was watching, I must admit that it all flowed over me pretty easily. Whatever else it was, this was an hour that got us back to the hectic mix of explosions and gun play and intrigue that is key to the show's appeal. I was pulled along in the frantic pace and it wasn't until the pieces collided in my unconscious mind that things fell apart.
For instance: you have a prison full of presumably dangerous criminals, guys with little chance of ever taking a stroll out of sight of a watchtower again. But instead of taking advantage of general mayhem, high-powered weaponry and a bunch of valuable hostages to escape - or at least negotiate a conjugal visit or two - they decide instead to play Russian roulette. Heck, as long as they're wasting time, why not a game of canasta or crazy eights?
Having said that, there is something inescapably gripping about a game of Russian roulette. And while well used in the movies, for some reason serial suicide hasn't really found much of a place in prime time TV. Sure, I knew I was being manipulated but I was gritting my teeth just the same. And I think I actually gasped when the guard blew his brains out. You have Jack be all fatherly and encouraging and "come on, it'll be alright" and then BLAM, another casualty in Jack's wake. It was a perfect setup. And the look on Jack's face was priceless. I was imagining the look was Kiefer Sutherland thinking, "damn, what have these writers done to me now?"
Of course, I'm forgetting most of the first 20 minutes of the hour by skipping directly to the Russian roulette scene. But so apparently did the writers. They started out with President Palmer's debate and then didn't get back to it until almost the end. And what surprising developments arose at the debate? The bad Senator brings up Anne and she suddenly realizes the negative effect the perjury allegations might have. Yawn.
Even Palmer's response was pretty tepid. Why not some fire and brimstone? Why not have the President grab Keeler by the lapels and shout, "You bad-mouth my woman again and I'll bitch-slap your silly white ass back to Dubuque!" Or if not that extreme, at least something along the lines of "I had the majority of my own cabinet questioning my judgment a few years back, you twit, and I was right! You're just uptight because I'm getting my podium polished and obviously you aren't." Honestly, if they don't pep up this Palmer subplot soon, my Tivo is going to have a new fast forward setting programmed into it.
The other undernourished subplot concerns our boy with the bug, Kyle Singer. His trying to off himself was another gasp-worthy scene but I couldn't help but wonder how much more interesting it would have been if trashy-pretty Linda had hesitated just a minute before trying to save her dopey boyfriend. She was all set to run away from him last hour - why is she so committed to saving his soon-to-be-contagious butt now? And then, she has some adrenaline surge kick in so that she can pull pipes out of concrete? Hmmm… Was it out of shame that the writers didn't revisit this subplot again until the credits were nearly rolling? It would've been nice to know what these youngsters talked about after their big moment:
Kyle: "Thanks for saving my life."
Linda: "Hey, without you, I'm expendable to these guys."
Kyle: "You mean you didn't do it out of love?"
Linda: "Shut up or I'll kill you myself, Ebola boy."
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