'24' - 5pm to 6pm (spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Okay, another week has come and gone, and another episode of 24 has slipped gently into that good night. Anyone got a comment?

There were more ridiculous plot twists in this episode. First, the agent who kept saying, “I’m just going to wing him for you guys!” then proceeded to violate direct orders from several superiors and shoot into a crowd at a running man. And of course, the guy has to fall against a glass railing, which of course was apparently designed to not take the weight of a man (blarg) and promptly shattered. This is HACK writing. They couldn’t come up with a better way to get rid of this guy? How about just having him reach quickly into his pocket and have the trigger-happy guy shoot him dead? Then find out that the guy was reaching for sunglasses or something. That would still be hokey, but a hell of a lot more believable than this lame scene. And what’s with this guy harassing Jack in the middle of an undercover operation, including making veiled threats to shoot him? And all he gets is a ‘cut it out!’ If this was a real organization, the guy would be up on review for a stunt like that. And so he wouldn’t do it.

Then there’s the Kim thing. Okay, so this drug dealer guy comes over to Rick’s place, and he wants to FORCE a stranger to stay and witness a drug deal? And discuss it in front of her? WTF? If I’m a drug dealer and I go to a guy’s house and some strange girl is there, I’d say “Get her out of here. Now.” That was very lame, but of course necessary for dramatic tension. Weak, weak writing. And Kim is still totally attracted to a scumbag who she now knows is not just a kidnapper but a drug dealer and general lowlife. She’s now officially an airhead, and earlier in the series she was smart and resourceful.

And I told you the head guy would refuse to tell Jack about his family. Bah. Another supposed professional carrying out vendettas and getting bugged about Tony’s affair with Nina. I have more and more respect for Tony with each episode. He’s a standup guy.

And I’m REALLY annoyed about this amnesia thing. But what really annoyed me today was that ‘somehow’ Terri knew that the hospital was dangerous, even though she can’t even remember who her husband is or what he does. Pretty fortuitous hole in her amnesia there, but necessary to move the plot in the direction they want to go. More sloppy writing.

The surprise for me tonight was that I realized that the whole Palmer frame-up issue with his son, wife, and the tape is the most interesting sub-plot right now. And it used to be the lamest part of the show. Either that’s indicative of improving quality in that thread, or the rest of the show has so thoroughly blown its credibility with me that there’s no dramatic tension left. At least the Palmer scenario so far has been pretty much logical, and the people involved do roughly what you’d expect them to do given the information they and we have.

And now Terri goes home, and the show ends with a gunman 20 feet away with a pistol ready to shoot her. He’s already killed a highly trained, alert CTU agent. How does she get out of this? It better be something plausible like another car pulling in right behind her with agents in it, but a little voice tells me that it’s going to be something lame. My money is on the doctor friend stepping in front of the bullet either intentionally or accidentally. Then Terri will run and we’ll have yet another chase with an unarmed woman against an armed, trained killer. And she’ll get away again.

All in all, a slight reversal from the spiral of suckitude that the last two episodes swirled down, but the show is still halfway over the shark tank.

2

I’ve been to the Water Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles and that place is usually not as crowded as it was depicted in the show.

It was nearly 6 pm and by that time, the place would have cleared out.

I never like seeing the Slacker Terrorists/Criminals. It seems like they were tossed in to appeal to the teenage demographic.

3

The thing about the Palmer subplot is that the insane amounts of stupidity happened before midnight, so we didn’t have to watch them, and now we’re only left with the repercussions and mild amounts of idiot actions. (Why would she destroy the tape? Someone as calculating as she is would have switched it, mailed the real tape somewhere and kept it as political capital as discussed 1 scene earlier. But, compared to CTU idiocy, that’s nothing.)
While with the rest of the plots, up until midnight (I’ll even say up until 10am) people were acting somewhat within reason and have only recently become incredibly stupid. The drug dealer wanting more witnesses to his deal (and telling them all the details so they’ll be even more knowledgable when talking to the cops later on) was this week’s highlight.

4

I wish I had taped last week’s show…I could have sworn Rick and Kim told the dark-haired girl (Melissa?) that Dan was dead, when they were all standing out on the porch right before Rick went to pay the cab driver. Kim wanted to go through Dan’s stuff, Dark-Hair girl protested and Rick said it didn’t matter because he was dead, right? Or I am imagining that?
Whatever. Yes, Dan’s brother the drug dealer WANTING Kim to stick around? No way. He’d want her gone.

And the loose-cannon agent harrassing Jack. That was so bad. So contrived. To shoot to the guy after a direct order not to. And of course the metal railing and what would have been tempered glass easily breaks, so you know Red Hat guy is dead.

And why did only ONE CTU guy go to the Bauer house. Wouldn’t two agents go? After the daughter and mom were kidnapped, woudn’t someone have been stationed there anyway?

And last week, Kim called Tony at CTU. I would think all calls into CTU would be traced or monitored. They should have been able to find out where she was calling from. They would have known who she called next from the pay phone records.
Or at the very least, they would have had the phone from the safe house, and should have checked the phone records…she called Rick several times.

And did no one find the burning wreckage of the car they were in? Maybe someone will find that and assume the women are dead?

5

Maybe I am missing something here, but…why didn’t Kim just call Jack on his cell phone?

6

Man, you guys are being rather tough on the show. I find the plot to be no more implausible or contrived than it was in the first place.

But, I do agree that the guy falling through the glass was lame, and the drug deal was really stupid, but hey, as anyone who watches cop shows can testify, criminals aren’t always the brightest bulbs. I didn’t find it implausible.

As far as the sniper CTU agent goes, we know that Jack has a lot of enemies from his previous assignment to root out corruption. That he was trigger happy, well, I don’t know, I didn’t find that implausbile either, but what do I know? I’m not a sniper, and I don’t know any. The thought that some “good guys” want to be heros isn’t earth shattering, IMO.

Some positives: we knew from the beginning (well, I did, anyway) that Palmer’s wife was a schemer. I am happy that he rooted her out. Hopefully that means I won’t have to listen to her pathetic banter anymore, but I ain’t holding my breath. I was also impressed with how quickly the “red hat” outed Jack. In my mind I said, “No way this goes down smooth.” Sure enough, it didn’t.

The amnesia remains cheesey, but again, what do I know about amnesia?

I am still enjoying the show very, very much.

7

Aaaarrrrghhh!!!

Here we have a railing on a pedestrian walkway, apparently composed of glass and steel.

Here we have a man who is shot, which is perfectly irrelevant, actually, and who stumbles into said railing.

What will happen? Surely such a railing would be sufficient to prevent a man falling to his death because he stumbled into it.

No? You mean the slightest nudge on this railing causes the entire thing to collapse, sending the wayward stroller plummeting to his doom?

Well, thank God that it was at least some lowlife criminal who exposed this terrible flaw in construction and not some poor mother of two who tripped on a crack in the sidewalk… for surely we can assume that there are plenty of cracks in that sidewalk, given the shoddy workmanship we are witness to.

With every passing second, this show just gets dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber…

err… Sorry bout that. But every dumb second counts.

8

Oh dear. I missed 24 last night! It was for a worthy cause . . . homecooked vegetarian mousaka.

But I didn’t even notice.

That’s not a good sign at all.

9

Teri is about to die. How could it be otherwise? Then we get Berserk Jack, and the loooove-triangle to boot.

I’m digging Xander Berkeley. He usually plays the ineffectual burnout, e.g. Candyman. Fun seeing him be the puppet master.

The lesson for Jack is never let anyone in the loop. He gets shanghaied every time he works on a team.

Sherri has to be in on the assassination plot. Mike made sense: use the tape as currency. Her destroying the tape means she expects David to get murdered.

10

Hey, let me just in and say something positive for a second. She <i>didn’t</i> destroy the tape, IMO. She just SAID she did. She’d say that to Palmer whether she did or not. But the tip-off was when she started to unravel the tape with her fingernail, then suddenly stopped and stared at the tape. Then they cut away to another scene. But of course she’d HAVE to say that she destroyed the tape, because if she just said, “I have it” or “I hid it”, then Palmer would force her to turn it over. She wanted to keep it as her own little private insurance policy against everyone.

11

But see, why the hell does she need insurance against her own people? Only reason I can see for her defying David is that she wants him dead.

She implored David to destroy the tape. He said no. First opportunity she had, she snagged the tape. She must have some sinister plan; she’s apparently working for the ‘most powerful men in the country.’

12

Oh my, another person who could have supplied information about the assassination plot is killed moments before being taken into custody. Yawn.

erislover, if we are being tough on the show, it’s because we loved it so much. It started out so well, with top-notch writing, and we now hold it to a higher standard. The current batch of episodes is, granted, no worse than many other dramatic shows around, but just not up to the quality of the first dozen or so shows.

Although I’m still enjoying it, as well…just not as much as I did before. But hopefully it will turn around. ::crossing fingers::

But I will say that, while the writing has suffered recently, the quality of acting and directing remains extremely high. I just wish the writers would give them something better to work with.

13

When this show first started, I was convinced either Kim or Teri was not going to make it to the end. Now that Teri is pregnant, I figured it would be poor stupid Kim who would be killed. But after seeing the previews for next week, I’m not so sure anymore. Maybe by midnight poor Jack will be a widower with no kids!

14

OK, I’m spitballlin’ here. Amnesia wears off at 6:00:05, Phil eats a lead salad, Teri gets inside the house. Then I shout at the TV: Worst. Assassin. Ever!

I don’t see Kim getting whacked. She survived the professionals already. No way she’s not gonna outsmart Frank the X dealer.

15

I forgot about the easily breaking glass. The next time I’m over at the Water Court I will be wary of tripping.

However, my coworker, who has as a serious thing for Sarah Clarke, will be disappointed to know that she was so close to where he works.

16

We’re all agreeing why there have been so many stupid things happen in the last few hours on the show: as soon as somebody does something smart, the tension is over.

Of course, the better solution is to have somebody do something seemingly smart and then have that topped by someone who is smarter.

That seemed to be the way the first few hours were heading. But I despair that we’ll ever see that again because of what they’ve done to Teri.

She drives down a side road to escape a pursuer. Then she parks the car and walks up to the main road… to do what? What conceivable use would that have been other than making her a target without means of escape if the killer came back. Why didn’t she just drive down the road, even to get to a house for safety?

Then we get the whole car parked on solid earth falling off the road, falling down an embankment, exploding, throwing a girl through an open window with the result that… she skins her knuckles and doesn’t have a bruise!

When next we see Teri she has amnesia and she doesn’t want a doctor to take her to a hospital. Why? For no reason whatsoever. Evidently even the writers have given up on lame excuses at this point and have resorted to pushing the plot around with their bare hands.

The senator’s aide flipping out because a man she already knows to be lying terrorist using her says that he loves her was another example of the kind of thing that makes people look down on soap operas.

I’ll stay through to the end because of the hours I’ve already put in and the fact that the underlying premise was enough of an interesting one so that interesting things could still happen. But this doesn’t bode well for there ever being another show like this. A single set of plotlines just doesn’t seem to offer enough variety to last 24 connected episodes without sinking to total contrivances to maintain the suspense. It’s a shame, really.

17

Sam, I’m with you 100%.

Also, the superfluous (usually african-american) CTU agents are starting to resemble the extra ensigns in Star Trek landing parties: “No one knows my name! I’m going to die!”

18

Most of the CTU agents suck! They don’t follow orders. They break the rules. They get killed by assassins left and right. The only thing Kim is doing right is staying away from them!

I am enjoying 24 on an entirely different level than when it started. I used to watch it because it was so good and now I can’t stop watching because it’s so bad.

19

What I’ve never understood about bad writing in movies and TV is, WHY is it so bad? These shows spend millions of dollars per episode, and they can’t come up with something better than AMNESIA? Or a glass railing that breaks when you lean against it?

Is there no one left in control anymore that is willing to say, “Stop! That’s LAME!”?

I don’t buy the argument that it’s just too difficult to write a quality episode every week, because it’s not as though they have to use the same writer every week. There are thousands of writers trying to break into Hollywood. Every show has more scripts thrown at it than it knows what to do with.

My guess is that it has to do with egos, and with a system that doesn’t allow anyone to keep their eye on quality. I’ve read a few disaster stories about how good movies have gone bad - how a movie with a great script from a great writer winds up shooting without any script at all, or with the actors themselves penning lines just before they say them. These things just careen out of control.

That must be what’s going on here. Somewhere along the way, someone must have made a bad decision that moved the plot off in a new direction, making all the prepared scripts or storyboards worthless. Now they’re frantically writing days or hours before they shoot. That’s the only way I can explain how a show with a collection of talent like this can succumb to so many bad ideas.

20

What I don’t understand is what was so great about the show previously. I honestly have found no change of pace or content. The airplane escape? Yeah, ok, that would happen. Great how she managed to get a bomb and a parachute on a plane but with no other help. Gaines’ ability to have a camera freaking everywhere in the world but on the two women he’s kidnapped as collateral? :rolleyes: I mean, we can play this game since episode one.

Frankly, I think Kim is too mature for her age, and has been the whole time. I think the whole relationship trouble was convenient in the first place, and so far as served, in no way, to advance the plot. It is simply a layer of pseudo-tension. And of course the fake dad terrorist guy could bring an unknown person into the camp, because the whole operation has been retarded from the start.

So where were all you critics then? I simply don’t get it. The show has been at the same level of implausibility (to me) since the beginning.