All television writers should be forced to watch the entire run of Babylon 5, to see what a television show can be when its creator knows the story from beginning to end before the first frame is shot. B5 was a five-season televised novel that remained coherent and self-consistent despite switching broadcast networks (twice, if memory serves) and surviving the uncertainty over whether its final season would even air. Team 24 should aspire to doing the same thing for their one-season tales.
Despite all of the visual flash and loud noises, what we're looking for on 24 is a good story (as opposed to the marketers, who are looking for something to keep people watching between the commercials), and a good story starts with good writing. It's very difficult for good acting and explosions to cover for weak words, and I think that's the point Jeff and I have been trying to make all along without saying so. Or saying so in many different ways.
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The Mummwan escapes again, and we're supposed to be surprised? Hasn't it already been established that when two nameless CTYoopers do anything without one of the major good-guy stars within five feet of them that they're going to die? As soon as that yet another Dead Meat Team started escorting the Mummwan across the pavement, it was obviously only a matter of seconds before they shuffled off the mortal coil.
Commercial. When we come back--two minutes later--the Mummwan and his henchmen have gotten to the highway, changed vehicles, slipped through yet another of CTU's patented sieve perimeters, and disappeared into the night. Aside from the manipulation of time that once again jarringly pulls us out of the story, how can we be expected to take Jack seriously when he says of Mandy, "She couldn't have gotten past the perimeter teams."? What evidence does Jack have of this?! The baddies have been slipping through perimeters all day long! Hannibal with his army of elephants could slip through a CTU perimeter. If this is America's elite antiterrorism force, we're in a lot of trouble.
Oh, Mandy
Well you came with your glove and a handshake
But Palmer survived it, oh, Mandy
It's fun to see Mandy back in action, though it's amazing how well connected she is, with everyone from the Drazens to the Mummwan.
So what lesson are we to learn from the SecDef Jr. incident that led to Mandy, "Kids, if it's a choice between revealing to your dad that you're gay and a nuclear detonation, start singing those show tunes."? Still, it was really nice to see that for once the show didn't resort to torture to drag some information out of someone (see Mr. Ackerman's article for confirmation of what I've been saying all along about the reliability of information gleaned through torture), and I think there was some good, tense interaction between the three Hellers.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
whew
2 - mike hollihan
Wow, indeed. Pretty exhaustive.
I can forgive 24 a lot of sins because it's just a television thriller. Even the elastic treatment of time this season. But the rocket launch last week gets me. I'm a model rocketeer and there's no damn way that missile, launched at that angle, has been in the air for an hour! Just ain't gonna happen.
3 - Paul Foth
Mike, thanks for your comment. Jeff and I were astronomy grad students at the University of Iowa. George Hospadarsky, mentioned in a previous review, was another of our ilk, and once in a while all the rocketeers in the physics building would gather at the farm where he grew up and spend the afternoon launching rockets. We definitely feel your pain when it comes to the show's launching of the nuke.
I think part of the reason we shred the show so much is that we don't want it to be "just" a thriller. We want it to be edge-of-the-seat, white-knuckle fun, yes, of course, but we don't want it to be so sloppy, either. A thriller should have thrills IN ADDITION TO the necessities of responsible storytelling, not INSTEAD OF them.
4 - mike hollihan
Exactly right, Paul. It's already a great show, but with just a bit more, extra, effort it could be one for the ages. Remember, the speed of light isn't just a good idea, it's the law! ;-)
5 - Jeff
And in Hilbert space, no one can hear you scream...
6 - Karen
I missed an episode. Does anyone know where I might buy an episode or see it?
Day4 4 to 5 AM
7 - Aaman
This is episode 23 torrent.
Here is the 24th episode torrent
This is the entire Season 4 (8 GB) torrent
All in hd
usual disclaimers apply.
8 - HW Saxton
In the seventh paragraph the reviewer
mentions a missile that was fired from
somewhere in the "mountains of Iowa".
I'm just wondering where the "mountains"
of Iowa are. Ive never even seen a hill
there that was more than maybe a couple
hundred feet tall and that's on a very
gradual grade. Hmmmm.......
9 - Jeff
Yeah, my mocking tone kinda gets lost when merely reading this! This goes back to the 12 AM - 1 AM episode, where Mike blamed the loss of contact with the warhead transport team on the mountainous terrain in Iowa. This silly comment (as anyone who has been to Iowa knows) was a howler, and I used it ever since.
10 - HW Saxton
I figured it was sarcasm but just wanted
to clarify. I'm familiar with the Iowa
landscape,having crisscrossed the state
on I-80 too many times. A hill would be
nice distraction amidst all the corn,soy
bean fields and stench of cattle & pigs.