If you don't watch 24, feel free to skip this entry...
After several looooooong months of waiting, the fourth season of 24 finally arrived last night! Hooray! A few things:
The Good-
1) I like the way it's come full circle. Jack is happy again (or at least somewhat content), just like he was when we first met him. He's once more a trusted employee. And he's in lurve/lust, albeit with the Boss' Married but Separated Daughter.
2) It doesn't take long before that all goes to hell.
3) Audrey Raines, the afore-mentioned boss' daughter, is pretty cool. She's a little skinny, but maybe that's just my fat ass' jealousy talking.
4) Erin Driscoll- or as Jim calls her, "Director Sunshine"- is a throwback to George Mason, but without the witty reparte. This, IMHO, is a good thing- we have Chloe for comic relief; it's nice that Director Sunshine is all business.
5) The writers are not pulling any punches with the terrorists du jour. In the past three seasons, they've really gone out of their way to make the baddies "non stereotypcial". In the first season, we had generic Eastern Europeans for whom it was personal. The second, we had both American militiamen and generic Middle Eastern terrorists, who were actually being used by our own government to bring down the president (insert rolling of the eyes here). And last season, we had Mexican drug lords and a disgruntled former British agent. But come on. The men who carried out the 9/11 plot were Muslim fundamentalists living in America, funded by Muslim fundamentalist terrorist organizations. Not to get off topic here, but by acknowledging that yes, there are some bad apples in a bunch, you're not saying that every person of a specific race or religion is rotten. Having said that, I think TPTB are doing a nice job so far of infusing these characters with humanity. I just hope that they don't go too far with it by attempting to justify terrorist actions because America is the real big bad (I'll go more into this later).
6) Kiefer Sutherland is so freaking hot.
7) Chloe, aka Potato Face (tm TWoP), is in fine form.
8) No more Kim! Yay!
The Bad (or at least Not So Good)-
1) Continuity Error Alert! After Heller was told to undress and we see him being forcibly removed from his jacket, the split screen shows him not only in said jacket, but also with the tie around his neck that he'd just thrown at his kidnapper. Oops.
2) The apple doesn't fall far from the tree- just like Kim's "talk" with Chase at the beginning of last season, Jack decides to tell Audrey how he feels at a rather inopportune moment.
3) I really miss Tony and Michelle. Yes, I know they're coming back later, but it cannot be soon enough, especially knowing that their return is going to be filled with mucho angst.
4) While I appreciate that the 24 hour real time format makes developing a relationship in front of us difficult, I miss the slow burn that the writers came up with for Tony and Michelle. It's hard to really care about Audrey and Jack's relationship because we didn't know Audrey before. I'm sure this will change over the course of the day, much like how we came to be moved by Terri and Jack.
5) Why would Behrooz' father force him to kill the girlfriend? Wouldn't that draw more attention to the family? I mean, people must know that Debbie was dating Behrooz and especially with the way things are now, wouldn't Debbie's family automatically assume that Behrooz had something to do with her disappearance? Isn't the first suspect almost always the boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse? Why didn't he tell Behrooz to simply get close to her again to sniff out what she may know and diffuse any concerns she may have? In this case, I think the writers went with a stereotype/cliche that doesn't serve the story or the character.
6) This thing with Heller being on "trial" reminds me of the Star Trek:TNG episode where Picard was on trial for the crimes of humanity. It's no coincidence that many of the creative powers behind 24 were once involved with TNG.
7) I don't love that right off the bat, Jack is forced into a race against the clock to save yet another kidnapped loved one.
8) Enough with the interrogations already. Yes, we know Jack is a baaaaad asssssss, but why does every season have to involve him delivering some sort of torture? And why was Erin Driscoll so shocked and offended at Jack's handling of the suspect? Wasn't she about to call in Johnson? I mean, we all know what Johnson does.
The Unknown-
I really, really, really hope that TPTB don't turn this "trial for war crimes" into an admistration-bashing tirade on the evils of America.
So there's my take. I can't believe that we get another two hours tonight- wheeee!!! Oh and have I mentioned that Kiefer Sutherland is so freaking hot????