The following was typed about half an hour ago on the day I finished watching 24 day 1
So, yeah. I’m back in the land of the living. Hugs to everyone I’ve been neglecting.
My not very good excuse for holding on to my 24 virginity all this time.
I feel I ought to offer some justification for this shocking omission. So why the hell didn’t I watch? Hmm, long story. I watched Lost Boys when I was 10 years old, Young Guns a year later and Flatliners and Young Guns II a couple of years after that. My sex chromosomes must not have kicked in by then, because I utterly failed to melt into a puddle of fangirl on the floor. Yes, I was a late bloomer. But I still thought Kiefer was the height of cool. Then I hit my teens, and anything that had been cool in my tweens was out. Then my early twenties, and I just wanted to forget the whole past. Plus, I have this thing about ageing. I can’t deal with the idea. I’m eighteen years older than I was when I watched Kiefer ride off on a motorbike looking fantastically cool, and wished I was a teenage vampire. He’s eighteen years older too. I didn’t want to deal with that.
But then I saw Phone Booth, and thankfully my sex chromosomes were in working order by then and his voice melted me into the puddle of fangirl I should have been a long time ago. That voice is like liquid velvet that’s been dragged through a hedge backwards. It does things to me that no man should be able to do to women with just his voice. But that does mean the sexiness can be shared across the world without the poor bloke getting worn out or catching anything nasty. I shall not complain. Just hope nobody else has a voice like that and ever tries to blackmail me over the phone. If it was actually him I wouldn’t care.
The voice is fine, but I was still a little scared that he’d look old and I’d have memories of being ten and just how much has happened since then. But then I read an interview with him in the Radio Times, and he doesn’t look old at all on the picture. I held out bravely, I stuck to my principles. I’d said I wasn’t going to watch the damn series. I held out bravely. For about ten minutes. Then I ordered the DVD. Hence my absence from the entire world for as much of the last three and a half days as was possible whilst still holding down a job.
My incoherent thoughts right now
I don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said already far better, and I’m bound to look stupid next to at least half the people who said it. It was pretty difficult not to be spoiled for this series. Those fucking big advertisements for series 5 everywhere, coupled with my tendency to read the RT (which had a summary of 24 so far in the same issue as the interview I’ve shared below), pretty much ruled out any chance I had of not having a clue how the first series ended. Once I had a free afternoon to watch several episodes consecutively, I stopped being irritated that I was guessing plot twists too easily. The part of my brain that figures this stuff out got tired, or was beaten into submission by the part that was screaming at it to STFU and watch the pretty. So I just sat back and stopped thinking so hard about anything besides enjoying. And even if it wasn’t good enough to compensate for how damn annoying I found some of the characters, I could just listen to that voice forever. I want Jack answering my voicemail, but then I’d probably end up phoning myself, which would be incredibly stupid. I don’t know. Will I get bored of the formula? Am I bored of CSI yet? I think the answers to both are Hell and No. But I’m currently too broke to buy series two anyway. *cries*
The interview I blame all this on
What I’m Watching (a regular column in RT). Kiefer interviewed by Jenny Eden. Who managed to remain coherent enough to ask him questions. Maybe she has no trace of heterosexuality. But I admire her professionalism.
Generally, I’ll turn the TV on just as I’m getting into bed. I predominantly watch the news. I’m a huge fan of documentaries and all the channels we have now give a fantastic outlet for them. I used to watch them when I was a kid and then you would only get one a month. I’m most interested in contemporary history. In the background now I’ve got a documentary about al-Qaeda and what its political platform is, and what things it’s responsible for. But I’m really interested in anything about World War One or World War Two.
I don’t get a chance to watch many shows regularly, but my dad [Donald] is in a new political drama, Commander in Chief, so I watch that. I watch everything he does. He’s one of the most incredibly prolific actors of our time. He works from a very serious point of view as an actor. For me to watch him do that reminds me of what I should be doing.
He didn’t ask me about it before he did the pilot, but when it got picked up for a series, there was a phone call that made me laugh because he sounded kind of half scared and half shocked. He said: “I didn’t think it would get picked up.” He sounded exactly like I did when 24 was picked up. I said: “Trust me. They didn’t pick it up for any other reason than it works, and you’re going to have a good time with it.” But I didn’t tell him about the hard work or that he’d have no life for nine months of the year. [The latest news is that Commander in Chief is coming to the UK, and will be shown on ABC1 from April.]
In terms of popular TV, I like The West Wing, but I have a hard time watching it just once a week. I’ve been watching a lot of the old stuff. It’s beautifully written and really well made. I’m a huge ER fan. When it started, I was directing my first film on such a small budget and I’d watch ER and be amazed at what they could accomplish without a huge amount of money. I thought it looked as exciting as things I saw in a movie theatre. When I started my career, TV actors didn’t do films and movie actors didn’t do TV. But there was a huge shift. I hadn’t wanted to do TV before 24, but watching shows like The West Wing, ER, Sex and the City and The Sopranos got me interested in it.
Prison Break has been called the new 24. I saw the trailer for it at the ‘upfronts’, which is when the networks show the line-up for the new season. One of the producers also works on 24. At the time I said to him: “It’s going to be a monster story.” I love the premise. It’s a clever idea. Prison Break is very much its own show, but I could see in some areas how people are comparing it to 24. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch as much of it as I’d like, because of my work schedule, so I’ll buy the DVD and catch up. I have to do that a lot, because I can’t plan my lifestyle around a specific time to watch TV.
Hmm. He's sexy and has a brain. There must be something wrong with this guy. I don't know. Maybe his feet smell. Something.
AJ
My not very good excuse for holding on to my 24 virginity all this time.
I feel I ought to offer some justification for this shocking omission. So why the hell didn’t I watch? Hmm, long story. I watched Lost Boys when I was 10 years old, Young Guns a year later and Flatliners and Young Guns II a couple of years after that. My sex chromosomes must not have kicked in by then, because I utterly failed to melt into a puddle of fangirl on the floor. Yes, I was a late bloomer. But I still thought Kiefer was the height of cool. Then I hit my teens, and anything that had been cool in my tweens was out. Then my early twenties, and I just wanted to forget the whole past. Plus, I have this thing about ageing. I can’t deal with the idea. I’m eighteen years older than I was when I watched Kiefer ride off on a motorbike looking fantastically cool, and wished I was a teenage vampire. He’s eighteen years older too. I didn’t want to deal with that.
But then I saw Phone Booth, and thankfully my sex chromosomes were in working order by then and his voice melted me into the puddle of fangirl I should have been a long time ago. That voice is like liquid velvet that’s been dragged through a hedge backwards. It does things to me that no man should be able to do to women with just his voice. But that does mean the sexiness can be shared across the world without the poor bloke getting worn out or catching anything nasty. I shall not complain. Just hope nobody else has a voice like that and ever tries to blackmail me over the phone. If it was actually him I wouldn’t care.
The voice is fine, but I was still a little scared that he’d look old and I’d have memories of being ten and just how much has happened since then. But then I read an interview with him in the Radio Times, and he doesn’t look old at all on the picture. I held out bravely, I stuck to my principles. I’d said I wasn’t going to watch the damn series. I held out bravely. For about ten minutes. Then I ordered the DVD. Hence my absence from the entire world for as much of the last three and a half days as was possible whilst still holding down a job.
My incoherent thoughts right now
I don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said already far better, and I’m bound to look stupid next to at least half the people who said it. It was pretty difficult not to be spoiled for this series. Those fucking big advertisements for series 5 everywhere, coupled with my tendency to read the RT (which had a summary of 24 so far in the same issue as the interview I’ve shared below), pretty much ruled out any chance I had of not having a clue how the first series ended. Once I had a free afternoon to watch several episodes consecutively, I stopped being irritated that I was guessing plot twists too easily. The part of my brain that figures this stuff out got tired, or was beaten into submission by the part that was screaming at it to STFU and watch the pretty. So I just sat back and stopped thinking so hard about anything besides enjoying. And even if it wasn’t good enough to compensate for how damn annoying I found some of the characters, I could just listen to that voice forever. I want Jack answering my voicemail, but then I’d probably end up phoning myself, which would be incredibly stupid. I don’t know. Will I get bored of the formula? Am I bored of CSI yet? I think the answers to both are Hell and No. But I’m currently too broke to buy series two anyway. *cries*
The interview I blame all this on
What I’m Watching (a regular column in RT). Kiefer interviewed by Jenny Eden. Who managed to remain coherent enough to ask him questions. Maybe she has no trace of heterosexuality. But I admire her professionalism.
Generally, I’ll turn the TV on just as I’m getting into bed. I predominantly watch the news. I’m a huge fan of documentaries and all the channels we have now give a fantastic outlet for them. I used to watch them when I was a kid and then you would only get one a month. I’m most interested in contemporary history. In the background now I’ve got a documentary about al-Qaeda and what its political platform is, and what things it’s responsible for. But I’m really interested in anything about World War One or World War Two.
I don’t get a chance to watch many shows regularly, but my dad [Donald] is in a new political drama, Commander in Chief, so I watch that. I watch everything he does. He’s one of the most incredibly prolific actors of our time. He works from a very serious point of view as an actor. For me to watch him do that reminds me of what I should be doing.
He didn’t ask me about it before he did the pilot, but when it got picked up for a series, there was a phone call that made me laugh because he sounded kind of half scared and half shocked. He said: “I didn’t think it would get picked up.” He sounded exactly like I did when 24 was picked up. I said: “Trust me. They didn’t pick it up for any other reason than it works, and you’re going to have a good time with it.” But I didn’t tell him about the hard work or that he’d have no life for nine months of the year. [The latest news is that Commander in Chief is coming to the UK, and will be shown on ABC1 from April.]
In terms of popular TV, I like The West Wing, but I have a hard time watching it just once a week. I’ve been watching a lot of the old stuff. It’s beautifully written and really well made. I’m a huge ER fan. When it started, I was directing my first film on such a small budget and I’d watch ER and be amazed at what they could accomplish without a huge amount of money. I thought it looked as exciting as things I saw in a movie theatre. When I started my career, TV actors didn’t do films and movie actors didn’t do TV. But there was a huge shift. I hadn’t wanted to do TV before 24, but watching shows like The West Wing, ER, Sex and the City and The Sopranos got me interested in it.
Prison Break has been called the new 24. I saw the trailer for it at the ‘upfronts’, which is when the networks show the line-up for the new season. One of the producers also works on 24. At the time I said to him: “It’s going to be a monster story.” I love the premise. It’s a clever idea. Prison Break is very much its own show, but I could see in some areas how people are comparing it to 24. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch as much of it as I’d like, because of my work schedule, so I’ll buy the DVD and catch up. I have to do that a lot, because I can’t plan my lifestyle around a specific time to watch TV.
Hmm. He's sexy and has a brain. There must be something wrong with this guy. I don't know. Maybe his feet smell. Something.
AJ