Amy's Robot

Two days into the season, 24 gets weird

Did anything that happened on last night's 2 episodes of 24 make sense? The show often dances dangerously on the gauzy boundary between plausability and total lunacy, but its fast pace usual allows viewers to just accept what they're given and move on. Last night we saw what might be the show's silliest use of technology yet: in-house video phones at CTU, which allow staff people to see the person they're talking to, like, on a screen! Even though the person they're talking to is sitting at a desk less than 20 feet away! Neat-o!

And even though Kiefer's plan to keep the evil terrorist he's chasing inside a gas station until the CTU satellite tracking system is ready to go--by staging an armed hold-up of the gas station--is ridiculous, it was so satisfying to watch him round up the customers and guy behind the counter, take all their wallets and cell phones, and get them all to docilely march back to the freezer and get inside, like he'd been robbing gas stations his whole life. Is there anything he can't do?

Well, he can't get through a road block of armed cops responding to the robbery call, but I'm confident he'll take them out next week.

One major disappointment from last night is the surfacing of this season's crappy family drama plotline. So Driscoll, the incompetent yet authoritarian head of CTU, has a schizophrenic daughter with abandonment issues and violent tendencies. Slightly more interesting than any of the plots involving President Palmer from previous seasons, but still an unwelcome development.

One more storyline was introduced last night that bears a strong resemblance to other years: a brand new manipulative ice queen who is also black. Here is a rundown of black women characters on 24: Lady MacPalmer, who blackmailed and lied and murdered her way around her (ex)husband's campaign and presidency, desperate for power. Then Milliken's trophy wife, Julia, who was complicit in killing her wealthy powerful husband, then lies to the police about it and ends up killing Lady MacPalmer as well as herself. OK, she's not quite as manipulative and snaky a character, because she totally bungles everything duplicitous that she tries to do, but still.

Now this season we've got Marianne, a black woman who weasels her way into consulting at CTU by telling lies about This Year's Black Guy (tx ADM), who she used to sleep with, to Driscoll, who is clearly the least effective manager on the planet. Yes, another lying manipulative power-hungry black woman! Not that 24's white women have been so stellar and righteous either, but still, it's getting a little questionable.

I would also like to congratulate Shohreh Aghdashloo, aka Dragon Lady of Persia (tm Rungu), for not only avoiding drinking any toxic tea as I warned in yesterday's post, but also for using toxic tea to poison the meddling infidel girlfriend! She's an even snakier villain that Mrs. Palmer, and also has absolutely magnificent hair.

categories: TV
posted by amy at 10:28 AM | #