Amy's Robot

24 gets marginally watchable

This has been the worst, most flagrantly implausible season of 24 yet. Where to begin? Kiefer docilely going along with terrible plans designed by inept leaders, that moronic storyline from last week about the nerve gas in the mall, surprisingly unfocused Chechen terrorists who abandon their missions after months of planning, and decide that killing Americans is close enough to killing Russians. Plus flagrant rip-offs from earlier seasons, like the 15 year-old sex slave grabbing Kiefer's gun and shooting her abuser last week, just like the aide stabbing her lying Serbian lover with the letter opener in season 1. "But we needed him alive! He was the only link to the nerve gas/Dennis Hopper!" Snore.

This week's episode introduced a few techniques that at least make for better television, even if we have seen some of them before. Namely, Kiefer Going Renegade: the only time anything exciting happens on this show anymore is when Kiefer knocks out his boss, colleague, or girlfriend for their own good (and for the good of the country) and takes control of an impossible situation.

Which this week led to a great helicopter shoot-out scene in one of the thousands of giant abandoned warehouses that seem to be all over LA, ending with one in a long line of shady government figures bleeding from the mouth and dying in Kiefer's arms. "My pocket," he said with his dying breath as Kiefer tenderly clutched his face, directing him to a memory card with DoD files on it, and maybe a Tootsie Roll.

Also following standard 24 season structure, the main terrorist got killed by the emergent real main terrorist, who this season looks like it's going to be Julian Sands. He plays bloody-minded assassin Vladimir Bierko who will stop at nothing to kill the Russian president, so I guess he's supposed to be Chechan, even though he's blonde and British and is played by Julian Sands. Note that Sands also appeared briefly on The L Word, playing an old professor of original 24 ultra-vixen Mia Kirshner.

I wonder what other stars from The L Word could also be put to good use on 24? Maybe they can get Pam Grier to play Kim Bauer's manager at her crappy post-CTU job at CompUSA.

categories: TV
posted by amy at 10:03 AM | #