24 9x04 - 2pm-3pm
Jack's got an embassy problem. He needs to liberate someone he knows is innocent and can provide information that proves Jack is correct. But he's up against some trigger-happy marines, and a President who denounced Jack as a cursed man the last time they talked.
Terror family contemplates killing one of its own who is having a moral quandary about what they need to do, then tortures another one to punish the one they actually want to fall into line. Bad guys are never just ideologically driven in 24, they're just plain evil. It's a ridiculous over-simplification which is quite likely unavoidable in this self-limiting 'real-time' format. That Terror Mum decides to take it out on her daughter, chiseling off her fingers to force her dithering husband to do their bidding, was a bit of a shock, but still just drives home the 'terrorists are simply evil' bit which is mildly offensive to the intellect, and misses out on some of the complexities of the 21st century. I still don't even know why they're doing all of this! That might have helped me get at what these people are about, and be more forgiving of their seemingly simplistic "bad guy" paradigm. I guess their motive is going to be some big reveal in a future episode, but... isn't this putting the cart before the horse? Like... what ever their motive is, making us wait to find out while these villain characters continue to do their villain things without knowing their villain context raises the stakes for it to not suck.
A few years ago when I had the epiphany that 24 is a live-action comic book, it all started to make sense. Visually, it often has multiple panels, multiple frames, like a comic. The central character is practically invincible, like in comics. The main character's female love interests have been killed off unceremoniously to advance the male lead's story, which often happens in comics. 24's supporting characters are usually rigidly archetypal, like in comics. People 'die', but if we don't see a body, they often come back -- a frequent staple of comics. There are often multiple story arcs going on at once -- some will be resolved in the span of an issue/episode, some need multiple issues/episodes, as in comics. And -- referring back to the terrorists -- the bad guys in comics are rarely that complex; sure, they may have an understandable beef, but when push comes to shove, their main character flaw is simply that they're evil. Is it wrong of me to want a TV drama to find a better tension than to just consign its antagonists to the 'simply evil' column?
I can't believe the marines & the president would be so eager to charge the room and kill Jack at the expense of three hostages -- especially when he has a history of being right about impending terrorist attacks that no one else believes is imminent! How many times has he been right about this? At least once per season. Sometimes multiple times a season. You'd think Heller of all people would know better. Then again, Jack did shoot two marines (in their body armor presumably, but still). He also lied about 'just grazing' those protesters he shot - he shot through straight through the legs! That's going to be a big recovery for them, you ass! But how many lives might be saved if blah blah blah, I know, that's the idea that has driven this show -- ends justifying means.
This episode was kind of by the numbers. Jack didn't get much further than before, except now some people are starting to believe him. The terrorists didn't get much further, except enforcing obedience from one of their own and still tinkering with their drone hack. Heller got through his crucial speech to Parliament that had been built up for two episodes before... but we barely saw any of it. I might not mind that more didn't happen if this were a normal 24 season except.... c'mon, we're 1/3 of the way through an abridged season! Maybe my expectations are too high, but I just expected more to happen given the 12 episode constraint.
Just re-reading this entry, you might think I hate 24. No, no. I just... I wish it could find a way to be better than itself. I'd hoped 4 years away would give the creators some perspective, but it feels like it's business as usual. Yet I also feel like there must be a big mid-season surprise in the offing, on the level of 'character returns after long absence.' I so, so want to be right about that.
One thing I'll try: not watching the clips for the next episode. I used to do that in seasons 4 and 5 and I kept finding myself disappointed episode after episode. For Seasons 7 and 8 I stopped looking at those clips and found myself enjoying the show more. There's something about the editors putting those together: they often seem to give away almost everything important about the next episode in the previews. They should learn from how Mad Men does it - you never really know what to expect from next time.