Some real signs of script fatigue crept into tonight's episode of 24 (motto: "Our worst episodes are still the best thing on TV"). Specifically the show relied entirely on connections to other well known narratives. We enumerate:
- In a dreadfully obvious reference to an episode recounted in Henry Kissinger's memoirs, President Logan-Nixon knelt timidly and asked Mike Novik to play Kissinger's role as reluctant co-supplicant. This, by the way, tends to confirm our hypothesis that the show's producers induced actor Gregory Itzin to have his nose surgically altered to resemble Nixon's famous ski jump.
- In a dreadfully obvious but mildly twisted reference to the Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee became paranoid and power hungry from carrying the ring far too long and so was deposed as head of CTU.
One line of the show did provoke an outburst from SWNID. When the remark was made, "The treaty is supposed to make us safe from terrorists," we yelled, "The only treaty that makes you safe from terrorists is the Jack Bauer treaty." You'd think that the characters would know this by now.
So should we hope for better things to come (gentle readers should note that we are not complaining . . . yet) ? Perhaps. The previews of next week's double episode suggests lots of action (we did like the missile and the flamethrower this week) but also lots of reliance on the return of old characters like Tony/Lazarus and Kim/Resident-Blonde-Joke. We could do without the latter. Couldn't Jack find out that Kim is dead instead of Kim finding out that Jack is alive?
4 comments:
i noticed the logan/nixon novick/kissenger reference tonight, too. i didn't know whether to laugh or wince. so i did both.
lise and i were just talking sunday night about when tony was going to come back - you KNOW he's got to exact revenge for the loss of his wife!
and finally i'll say this: president logan is one of the few characters on TV that have ever just made me want to spit.
Spit indeed!! I just cringe every time he's on the screen. I guess that means he's an actor playing his part very well.
Also, I agree with SWNID re the return of Kim. She adds nothing to the show but distraction for Jack who is obviously the only reasonable person left - except maybe for the Secret Service guy (who's name eludes me at the moment) who rode with Mrs. "I should've been president and let my husband be the crazy spouse" Logan last night.
Finally, if Jack can come back from the dead, do you think there's any chance of a resurrection for President Palmer? I think he may be our only hope, unless maybe Jack runs for president.
Aaron Pierce.
do
I really sympathized with Bauer when he got locked in that room with nothing but a bomb to help him get out. I hate when that happens.
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