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January 25, 2005
Brief thoughts on 24 +
Remember all those reports about how everyone working on movies with Angelina Jolie was transfixed by her and melted at her every glance? I wonder if that's what it's like on the set of 24 with Dragon Lady of Persia. She is awesome. [And man, she has some glorious hair. -Amy] The scene in which she learns of the plot to kill her son is the best thing I've seen on TV in a long time.*
As a whole, the ep is probably the best one since Season 1. There were some parts I disliked -- the re-introduction of the EXTREMELY tired and stupid "mole" plotline, the related parallels between This Year's Black Guy/Aisha Tyler and President Palmer/his wife -- and there were typically stupid small moments, like the EMT telling Jack his girlfriend was "dehydrated," even though it had only been about 4 hours since she was abducted. BUT the rescue strike in the beginning was the best gunfight on tv since the Jessica Lynch movie, and of course Dragon Lady was terrific.
Stylistic theory about this season of 24: it's a video game. The action scenes are more video-game like than any show/movie I've ever seen, including the ones based on actual video games. The camera movements and the character behaviors -- e.g., shooting a bad guy, then taking his bigger, better gun -- are all reminiscent of recently popular games. The strike at the beginning of the ep was like a flashback to my long hours of SOCOM II: Navy Seals, complete with "bang and clear" and a helicopter assist.
24 is still an immensely frustrating and at times laughably bad and even offensive show, but most weeks, it's fun to watch, especially if you fast-forward through all the parts where people are talking.
*Along with the episode of Desperate Housewives where Felicity Huffman has her meltdown. -ADM
There were so many wonderful moments in last night's episode, but my very favorite one is this: the moment in households across America when viewers cheered as Behrooz, an Arabic terrorist teenager, kills a guy by bashing him in the back of the head with a shovel over and over again. It was a scene of savage violence committed by a young kid, but I think everyone who saw it loved Behrooz at that moment. Very few shows could get away with something like that, but then again, 24 is all about showing the torture and destruction that you assume they wouldn't dare show on TV.
A few other great moments: Patchouli Pissant boy getting strapped into the torture helmet again, as directed by his Secretary of Defense father. And a throwaway scene in which we momentarily see Kiefer breaking a guy's neck with his bare hands while breaking into the warehouse. This guy kills people like the Gilmore Girls drink coffee. -Amy
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Comments
It was a good episode.
I still love the way geography works on 24.
I can drive across LA in two minutes...you can fly cross country in 2 hours. How an I not live in that world?!?
Posted by: Michael at January 26, 2005 11:29 AM
Here here on the Dragon Lady, and a the rockingest '24' episode this season. Highly enjoyable. (As for the dehydration, though, could that be chalked up to the "gas" inhalation?) Also, from personal Socom II experience/obsession, I've found that all action sequences are more enjoyable because I can name all the guns that are used in the scene. That game is highly corruptive.
Posted by: Kluv at January 25, 2005 5:11 PM