And so, as Jack Bauer ends his ordeal without any sleep, any trips to the bathroom, or any visible form of food other than sporadic liquid snacks sucked at the wheel of the latest stolen car (Sorry Sir, we have to take your vehicle), I wonder to myself…
What the heck am I going to do on Sunday nights, for the next six months?
Is 24 the only program currently on television, which is in any way worth coming home to watch, of an evening? And now it’s not on again, until Season 3, what’s the point of that glassy tube in the corner of the room? Perhaps I should replace it with a neverending loop of The Simpsons?
I won’t spoil 24’s ending, for those with wills of iron who’ve videoed the last episode, and who’re watching it later, except to say the script writers could’ve spent a little more time working on some of the slushier last-reel dialogue. However, except for this single forgivable rewriting lapse, I’ll be there for Season 3, propped up with a glass of Californian red, a cheese board, and a syringe full of adrenaline for heart-stopping emergencies.
OK, so it’s Federal US agents, paid for with coerced taxes, and the US government cabinet is populated with dimwits, fascists, and believers in Medicaid, but what a series! And what a body count! Is Kiefer Sutherland going to be the first James Bond born on the wrong side of the Atlantic? I don’t know, but whatever the weather, and if he can’t do a proper British accent, he’d certainly make a great Felix Leiter, or an excellent villain. (And with a Scottish surname, like Sutherland, surely he can cut the Connery-esque mustard?)
So, as I wander into the night, to prepare for another week teaching 26 people the joys of learning Perl (oh, those lucky people!), I also wonder how close to the knuckle the next series can go? It got really razor-blade sharp this time, with calls for leaders not to go to war against Middle East countries without really conclusive evidence (were you watching there, in Barbados, Mr ’45 minutes, Niger Yellowcake’ Blair?), but Season 2 is going to be a hard monkey to slap. However, I have faith.
Go, Kiefer baby, go!
Andy,
See http://www.fox.com/24/
When interviewed on BBC3 “Pure24” a few weeks ago, the actress who plays Lynne slipped out that future 24 series episodes would be based in London.
I also saw it in the London “Metro” paper that Series 4 (?!) would be in London.
Though how the actors would know what happens any further ahead than the current “hour” is another matter.
If it is true, I’d like to think that they would latch on to the transmission of “Spooks” in the US (renamed “MI5”) and pool actors and resources to make a broader-impact scenario to those of us who like watching such programmes.
I was well and truly hooked last year; this year it almost got me but then I had to go on the road for over 3 months and escaped the addiction.
I’ll have to buy a DVD set when it comes out in a couple years 😉
In the meantime, check out Tony Shaloub in Monk. Not suspense drama like 24, but quality light comedy mystery.
24’s audience in the US will be mostly watching football on Sunday nights in the fall. The ESPN announce team is pretty annoying, so some of them will watch with the TV sound off and the radio call of the game on. I imagine this may seem a very strange custom elsewhere.
Maybe British television can pick up “Keen Eddie,” a quirky and half-way intelligent cop show set in London (!) on the Fox Network (!) that only ran ten or so episodes here before yielding to reality shows.
Here in the States, Andy & Zathras, 24 has traditionally held down Tuesday nights (with repeats on FX at other times during the week). I wonder how it would do on Sunday nights here…
I don’t know if I could support even the great Kiefer S. as Bond, but I agree completely that he would be an entirely believable (and superior!) Felix Leiter, or villain, as Andy suggests.
In a very odd coincidence (or WAS it???), major story arcs of both Fox’s 24 and NBC’s The West Wing involved the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution (Presidential succession). The 25th Amendment has hardly ever been mentioned in the media since it was passed, and here American audiences got civics lessons centered around it on two separate networks, within weeks of each other, in the same viewing season. What’s up with that?
Incidentally, for you Brits, the 25th Amendment pretext used by 24’s writers was as clumsy and contrived as it gets; this was one of the least believable aspects of this season’s plot for me, as it seems to depend completely upon people’s ignorance of the constitution and US federal processes. On the other hand, I have no problem reminding myself that “this is only a fantasy,” the better to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Why? Because all the computer systems we see being used onscreen are Macs! Having worked at Apple for 10 years during the 80s and early 90s, I can attest firsthand to the near-universal lockout of Macs in federal service. At one point, they were in the process of being systematically excised from every department that had ever used Apple IIs or Macs. Even if if that erosion had been halted or reversed somewhat, lets put it this way: If 24 were reality TV, you might see a Mac for a brief flash every few episodes or so, and almost certainly in the hands of the antagonists, almost never used by “our side.” I just pretend that 24 is science fiction, taking place in a parallel universe where Microsoft is really micro-, and thus -soft.
James Merritt wrote:
I don’t know if I could support even the great Kiefer S. as Bond, but I agree completely that he would be an entirely believable (and superior!) Felix Leiter, or villain, as Andy suggests.
Unfortunately, they killed Leiter off in the forgettable Timothy Dalton era, in “Licence to Kill”.
Andy:
How about a channel devoted exclusively to game shows? Would that get you to watch more TV? 🙂
Am I alone in finding 24’s content risible, its headlong pace monotonous, and its subtext, exalting state power and arbitrary violence, repugnant?
Ted said, “Unfortunately, they killed Leiter off in the forgettable Timothy Dalton era, in ‘Licence to Kill’.”
That script wasn’t actually based on a Fleming story, was it? In my opinion, if it didn’t come out of Fleming, then there’s no need to consider it immutable canon. (And in the opinion of the producers, even Fleming’s material is neither sacred, nor necessary for the continuation of the series!) The producers could, for instance, commission a script that technically happens prior to the events in “Licence to Kill.” There are a lot of ways of getting around the death or crippling of a key character… After all, Jack Bauer has taken unbelievable abuse in the 48 hours of his life that we have seen so far, yet he keeps bouncing back, and we keep coming back to see it. Why not somenting similar for Felix Leiter?
What we need, perhaps, is a “buddy picture,” faithful to the characters that Fleming created, which fills in the details of the friendship between the two men, motivating 007’s later rogue operation on Leiter’s behalf in “License to Kill.”
Guy Herbert decries 24’s “subtext, exalting state power and arbitrary violence…”
Did you watch the full second season? I wouldn’t say that the subtext aggrandized state power. Indeed, there was scene after scene that depicted state power — especially on the American side — being abused or perverted, often in the most grisly and repellant ways. Even the “good guy” President stepped over the line (and came to regret it).
The undercurrent of this show seems not to be so much idolatry of the omnipotent state, or violence for violence’s sake, as a cynical declaration that the “men with the money,” who run things and get people like President Palmer elected, are above even the power of sovereign states to bring them to justice. Ultimately, it is up to individuals who won’t go along with the crowd, to uncover the truth and to accomplish what the impotent mechanisms of state justice cannot.
Does anyone else get this out of the series; or is it just me?
As I regard doing things like stopping people setting off nukes in cities as very much the legitimate role of the state, I have no problem with fiction showing the state… stopping people setting off nukes in cities.
It is all the other shit the state does I object to.
And then there is Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Jack’s daughter…
The solution to your 24 addiction.
Install either edonkey or Kazaa, then when the latest series starts in the US wait three maybe four hours and download the episode.
This solution was brought to you by one of the few intelligent Frenchmen left in the Fifth Peoples Republic.
The most preposterous plot development, though, was when the second in command, the improbably named Prescott, instituted a coup and ousted the top man from power.
That kind of thing couldn’t really happen, now could it?
Matt,
“edonkey or Kazaa”
Tell me more…
No; I didn’t watch the whole of the second series, or even the whole of the first. I saw only bits and pieces. On the whole sleeping seemed so much more worthwhile.
I do agree that there is a real role for the state in preventing explosions in cities. However I do hope that real intelligence is a bit more measured, controlled and… intelligent.
Guy, you’re taking 24 too seriously. It was only an interesting idea cooked up by a load of media executives to make money. The fact it is a bit warped in relation to the real world is just added entertainment. If one likes that sort of thing, of course.
Anyway, as all the fans know, Jack watches the red light on the camera and doesn’t eat or visit the bathroom until its gone off and someone else is on screen. He’s clever like that. And its cheaper as we don’t have to pay him to pee on screen.
I have watched bits from both series. Some were entertaining, some were a bit far fetched. But hey, it was fiction and it passed the time.
I must say I am happy that at least one of my fellow commentators feels it is a legitimate role for the state to stop people letting off nuclear bombs in cities. I mean if that wasn’t legitimate one would have to wonder what was. Still it is worth pointing it out as sometimes the obvious escapes one in the heat of the discussion. :0)
…and I agree with the comment about the intelligence services as portrayed. One does hope that in this, as other aspects, 24 is more fiction than fact. However, sometimes one is forced to wonder…
Oh, well, if you’re going to use eDonkey, don’t bother downloading any of the crap we’re making now. Download some of the really excellent crap we made a few years ago.
Like Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Ron writes:
I also saw it in the London “Metro” paper that Series 4 (?!) would be in London.
If they need any jobbing computer nerds to sit in the background, tapping away on Macintosh games programs, I’m available! 🙂
Ted Schuerzinger writes:
Unfortunately, they killed Leiter off in the forgettable Timothy Dalton era, in “Licence to Kill”.
I forgot this! 🙂
But, even in my shaky personal memory banks, Felix has changed colour, twice, put on, then lost, about forty pounds, changed hair colour and amount of hair, numerous times, and has had accents from all over the United States. I have no fear. They’ll be able to bring him back, after all, Mr Bond, you only live twice. Though I suppose Leiter played by Sutherland would be too good, and show Bond up a bit. But what a villain Kiefer would make, perhaps the head of the CIA going badly wrong, so he gets to play Leiter, who’s been promoted to the top, but still gets to play the baddie?
Though I suppose that breaks the rules, that all really good baddies should be British actors playing either corrupt Romans, or Nazi/Stasi Germans, or aristo Brits who’ve been secret communists for forty years.
How about a channel devoted exclusively to game shows? Would that get you to watch more TV? 🙂
No, just more Simpsons, old proper Star Trek re-runs, Dr Who, and Blake’s Seven. If you don’t know what Blake’s Seven is, don’t go there. A truly terrible British CHEAP copy of Star Trek. But all the more fun, for it.
Guy Herbert writes:
However I do hope that real intelligence is a bit more measured, controlled and… intelligent.
Isn’t there that famous oxymoron joke, about Military Intelligence? One precludes the other. I think things in this country really started going down-hill when George Smiley handedover his caretakership of MI6, back to that Whitehall flunkey, forgotten his name (played by Van Der Valk, in Smiley’s People). And please don’t tell me George Smiley wasn’t real. Obi Wan Kenobi was pure cover.
Right, six more Perl courses to load, then I can flop out back in the hotel, though I’ll try to get to Leicester Square tonight, to see Arnie, that man of the moment!
Ron@ron.com,
Try edonkey here.
Or Kazaa here.
I’ve never used Kazaa and edonkey isn’t up to it yet on Linux. Windows users at work swear by edonkey though.
Not that I condone copyright theft of course.
I’ve had no problems with eDonkey under Linux, Matt. I’d get the graphical front end, though.
JACK IS SAFE!
“Cells ‘reverse heart attack damage’ ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3136425.stm
Can I suggest that you turn your attention to CSI – currently showing on both Channel 5 Living during the week (if you have cable/sky) but particularly Living on Sunday nights – two episodes back to back from 9 pm.
I hadn’t really watched it much before this year, but lately I’ve really got into it, and it’s looking like my best bet until more 24/West Wing/Six Feet Under is available.