Buckeye Road

Six Hours In

24 gets its own post because, yeah, this shit is that good.

I doubted they could actually pull it off, but it looks like we are solidly on track for another full season of hugely satisfying serial melodrama.

So many sweet lines -- of course, "This is a coup d'etat" and "I will simply disappear again" -- but the favorite is when the dastardly presidential advisor/terrorist enabler/First Lady drugger Walt Cummings went down, hard, and Jack held a knife to his face to get the 411 on where the terrorists took the vials of nerve gas:

First I'll cut out your right eye, then your left, followed by your tongue.

Now, of course, I don't support torture (unlike certain members of the Bush administration), but 24 always manages to present those ticking-bomb situations -- and, of course, Jack is always right about whatever he does.

But it was so thrilling to see Walt go down -- and to see the look on Logan's face when he realized, shock of shocks, that Walt lied to him about what time the boat was leaving.

This is one of the great things about the show, because I can't help reading Logan as a stand-in for President Bush, as obsessed with his legacy as he is completely unconcerned with the trivial details of things like how to stop terrorists. "Just get this off my desk" is practically his catchphrase. Meanwhile, if you check the message boards on the 24 show site, there are those who'd say that he is nothing like President Bush and more of a weak-kneed Kerry type.

I still say that President Palmer was clearly a Republican (however socially moderate and fiscally conservative, unlike today's GOP), so that makes Keeler (who belonged to the opposing party) and his running mate, Logan, Democrats. At least in my calculus.

Now I'm waiting to see what Jean Smart's First Lady has cooked up next week. And we need to get Tony back into it. He only had a few lines in the first episode, while Michelle was still alive.

As for the rest: now that Audrey (Kim Raver) knows Jack loves her, does that mean she's going to have to die? (And will Crumbs please get cancelled soon so Bill Devane can return as her dad, the totally Rumsfeldian secretary of defense?) And how refreshing and surprising is Sean Astin's turn as the awkwardly formal Loganite sent to oversee CTU, the pitch-perfectly named Lynn McGill?

And who is going to be behind the bed in the penthouse in next week's episode?

posted by BT @ 1:35 AM