Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

David Lynch's unique style and direction make this movie enjoyable, though it's certainly a flawed one. People who haven't seen the show either won't understand at all what's going on or find what they do understand to be unsatisfying, and people who have seen the show will probably be disappointed by some of the things from the show's central appeal that are missing, and might find the material that is there a bit too well-worn to be really compelling. It was a project that was probably doomed to fail, though it was nice to visit the town that made the show such a joy one more time.

Fire Walk with Me is a prequel to the series that shows the initial investigation of Teresa Banks' murder and the events of the last few days of Laura Palmer's life, while also filling in a little bit about Agent Cooper's introduction to the case and what happened after the series finale. It begins with another pair of agents investigating Teresa's death, and after one disappears (the other is played by an enjoyably quirky Kiefer Sutherland), Cooper is put on the case. Before long though he hits a dead end, and the focus shifts to Laura's story, which takes up most of the movie. Here we see a whole lot more of the depravity and weird mumbo jumbo that made up the circumstances around her death, the former of which we mostly already knew about and the latter of which still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Laura does drugs, ignores her friends, prostitutes herself, and becomes increasingly erratic as she learns more about the strange man who's been tormenting her. Eventually things spiral out of control as we see what really happened the night before the series starts.

None of the details are too unexpected though, and at times Fire Walk with Me feels less like a movie filling in gaps and more like a mythology-heavy flashback episode that the show never ended up really needing. Lots of characters return, mostly played by the same actors, although too often little is done with them besides reminding the viewer of little things. Hey, remember how Laura did Meals on Wheels with the diner? Or how Bobby scored coke for her? Now you get to watch it. I don't object to seeing the world of Twin Peaks expanded, I just wish that the movie had more of a point to it. I also wish it was a bit closer to the tone of the show. Twin Peaks had adult themes but was acceptable enough for prime time television in the early 90s, while the movie really earns its R rating with swearing, violence, and nudity. This would be fine, but the dark aspects of the film end up taking over the whole story, and the other side of the series, the goofy, charming side, is pretty much entirely abandoned after a certain point.

So I think the film is worth watching if you really loved the show, and would like to see more about the key events that shaped it in the beginning. It's actually a reasonably effective horror movie, an element that the series touched on but never really embraced. It doesn't really go out of its way to terrify you, but there's lots of spooky and creepy imagery, especially revolving around all the mystical stuff, and the last act of the movie in particular is brutal and uncomfortable to watch. Lynch has a handle on film making even when the material isn't top notch, and in saying goodbye to the show he loved but didn't completely deliver on, he made a reasonably entertaining movie. I know a lot of people really hated it, but if you go in knowing the limitations and what you're in for, I think it's worth seeing.

Stand By Me

Stand By Me is another one of those movies I've seen chunks of but never sat down and watched until now. And it's good! Rob Reiner knew how to direct mature movies that would be interesting to people of many different ages. It takes place mostly at the end of the 50s, but it still has a timeless quality that should remind anyone of summer vacations spending time with friends, especially if they lived in a rural area. The main character is Gordie, played by Wil Wheaton as a kid a couple years before Star Trek: The Next Generation and Richard Dreyfuss as an adult and the narrator. After learning that his childhood friend was killed in a restaurant, he decides to write down the story of a watershed moment from his youth, where he and his buddies walked through miles and miles of countryside to find the body of a local boy who's been missing.

The other three friends are played by River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell, and while they tend to be more famous for why they don't have careers than the careers themselves, it's remarkable how they're all still recognizable names 24 years later. I don't think that usually happens with kid actors. The older teenager characters are occasionally recognizable too, with Kiefer Sutherland playing the biggest jerk in town and antagonist and John Cusack in flashbacks as Gordie's deceased older brother, and the only one in his family who seems to care about him. Everybody does a pretty good job, and it's noteworthy how the kids all manage to act like real twelve-year-olds without getting annoying.

So it's sort of like a small-scale road movie as they wander along train tracks, over bridges, and through forests looking for where one of them heard his older brother describe the body's location. Their relationships are as realistic as you'll see when it comes to adolescent American males, always poking fun at each other and sometimes getting violent, but obviously still affectionate and understanding. O'Connell doesn't really get an opportunity to be dramatic, but the other three all have moments of vulnerability that bring them closer together as they use the body as a goal to get through their troubles. The movie is often funny and touching when it wants to be, and while the story sort of sweeps some of the difficulties under the rug by the end, it's still a good story and a definite piece of Americana. Apparently the Stephen King story that this was based on was quite a bit harsher, but the movie didn't need to be to work.

24 - Season 8

Unfortunately, 24's 8th season couldn't reverse the trend of the last couple, bringing the series to a disappointing end. The plot was a string of nonsense and tricks the show has already played before, and when you've killed almost every interesting character and fail to create any new ones, you're flirting with disaster. Seriously, without Jack Bauer, this would have been a total train wreck. And with him, it's merely pretty bad.

I wonder for how long the writers knew this was the end of the show. If you guess that they knew before we did, then you might think that the last third of the season was actually going somewhere interesting, because it shows Jack spiraling out of control in a pit of despair and revenge, which could easily culminate with him and a dozen hours lying dead in a pool of blood. Go out with a bang, you know? But they chicken out, and it ends the same way every other season seemed to end. Nothing new to see, nothing they can't write themselves out of despite how crazy he seemed to go near the end there.

The show pretends to have balls but it really doesn't. They pull the same tricks repeatedly and expect us to still care and be surprised. Wait, you're saying that you picked a good guy out of a hat to secretly have been a mole the whole time? Hold on, the bad guys for the first 15 hours were actually being assisted by someone higher up, who doesn't want people to know about it? I mean... okay, spoilers but no one cares, Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica is a mole. A hardened double agent looking for a paycheck, doesn't care who gets hurt. So... why does she let herself get pushed around and intimidated by a small time crook ex-boyfriend for the first half of the season? Because the writers just make shit up and don't care if it makes no sense in retrospect.

I don't even care how everyone seems to be able to drive across a major city in the span of a commercial break. You have to make a couple concessions for the show's admittedly interesting real time conceit to work. But when you can pick apart pretty much everything that happens it gets sad. So, this sniper is supposed to kill Jack and his lady friend. Why does he wait until they're done having sex and Jack leaves the room to shoot at them? Sure makes the job a lot harder. Would have been a piece of cake when they were still in the bed. Bad move dude. Now Jack's going to torture you to death in a few hours. How did a car manage to get out of a parking garage with a bad guy in the trunk when both exits were being watched by armed agents? What, as soon as that car went off the roof you just cleared the perimeter? Seems like bad procedure.

And why is Russia so significant? The main plot in the season is about a peace treaty between a fictional Islamic country and the Western world, and for some reason, the Russians are absolutely essential to the process. Without them at the table, the deal won't work. Uh... what? Did the fall of the USSR not happen in this universe and no one told me? Russia's what, the fourth biggest power on the planet now? And they don't want this treaty anyway, for some reason never explained. They orchestrated the terror attacks to prevent it from happening, and the President finds out about this, and STILL WANTS TO GO THROUGH WITH THE TREATY AT ANY COST KNOWING THAT IT'S MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THE RUSSIANS ARE BEING BLACKMAILED INTO SIGNING. How in the hell will this accomplish anything? I... I just... it's sad. We deserve better than this. If they do end up making a movie, I might see it, but I sure won't pay money.

Characters of the Decade: Part 1

I already have lists for my favorite things of the decade in each category archived on the site, but I decided to do something a bit different for a feature. The most important thing to a good story is interesting characters, and sometimes they're better realized than usual. Characters are often what we remember most about something, and I thought I'd recognize that with a list of the best. These aren't exactly my favorites in each case - I tried to stick with ones that stick out in some really important way even if they didn't totally resonate with me. Any number of things could have gotten a character here; being a great villain, a powerhouse lead performance, launching someone's career, or just making something worth watching. I narrowed it down to 60, which was made easier by trying to limit myself to one character per work where possible. The list is a bit TV heavy since they have more time to develop a personality, and it leans towards white males more than I would have liked, but I still think it's a good list of people (and some robots) that were fascinating to watch. It's ordered chronologically by first appearance, with characters that originated before the decade began placed at the first point they became relevant again.

Eric Cartman
Trey Parker - South Park


"Nananananana! I made you eat your parents!"

The moment above will forever live in infamy, but it's just one of many great ones in the life of Cartman, the world's worst child. He's one of those rare characters that's a completely irredeemable asshole that you still love because his schemes and insults are just so entertaining and unforgettable. And he gets his comeuppance often enough that he's allowed to keep being such a bigoted little jerk.

Tony Soprano
James Gandolfini - The Sopranos


"Anybody else would've had their fuckin' intervention right through the back of their head."

The star of one of television's most important shows, Gandolfini is notable for standing out despite the amazingly strong and deep supporting cast around him. He's part imperfect family man, part ruthless mob boss, and part just another troubled guy who isn't totally sure of himself. One of the most evil men to ever be rooted for, and that's mostly because his insecurities are presented just as effectively as his strengths and ill deeds.

Bender
John DiMaggio - Futurama


"Goodbye losers, whom I've always hated!"

I could have easily put Fry or Professor Farnsworth here, but Bender is the character that defines the whole show. He's the robot who drinks because alcohol fuels his system and smokes because it makes him look cool. Once in a while he gets a bit too lowest-common-denominator, but his narcissism is inspiring and he's the robot friend we all wish we had.

Tyrion Lannister
A Song of Ice and Fire series


"Those are brave men. Let's go kill them."

It's almost insane how many characters George R. R. Martin has managed to develop into genuinely fascinating people, but if one sticks out it's the smallest of the bunch, the Lion of Lannister. The whole series thrives off making its central conflict more interesting by not allowing you to want any one side to totally win, and Tyrion was the first time we saw that. Watching the wheels turn in his head as he tries to do his best with the cards he's dealt is endlessly enjoyable, and hopefully Martin finishes up the fifth book first so we can see what he's up to.

Captain Hank Murphy
Harry Goz - Sealab 2021


"But the secret ingredient is love. Damn it."

Voice actor Harry Goz unfortunately passed away while Sealab was still airing, and while I was still able to enjoy it afterward, it was never quite the same, which speaks to how good he was. As the driving force behind most of the plots, his unique brand of insane leadership paved the way for many bizarre Adult Swim shows to come. Every character on the show had their time to shine, but none provided laughs more than Murphy.

Master Shake
Dana Snyder - Aqua Teen Hunger Force


"I mean, is he gonna be able to chase us? Cause if I woke up looking like that, I would just run towards the nearest living thing and kill it."

You know a character lives off the actor's performance when it's as hard as it was to find a good quote that stands without context even though he provides laughs constantly. Snyder is probably the best voice actor to work repeatedly with Adult Swim, and this is the role that gave him a chance to shine. There's just so much humor laced in every syllable that comes out of Shake's mouth, and even if that week's gimmick plot is lame it'll probably be worth watching just for his next zinger.

GIR
Rikki Simmons - Invader Zim


"It's me! I was the turkey all along!"

Possibly the only character that can get away with just saying random crap all day, thanks to Simmons' fine voice work and his unending supply of adorableness. GIR is one of those animated characters who's fun just to watch do anything, and he's at that right level of idiocy that you have to wonder if he's actually just messing with Zim and the audience some of the time.

Nate Fisher Jr.
Peter Krause - Six Feet Under


"Everything's bad for something."

Nate's as flawed a person as there will be on this list, and that's part of why he works. He's just a human being worried about his mortality and trying to figure out what he really wants to do with his life. His story is a tragic one, but watching it play out made for some of the decade's best personal drama. Plus, watching him yell at stupid people is funny.

Gareth Keenan
Mackenzie Crook - The Office (UK)


"I told him once that I don't like jelly. I don't trust the way it moves."

It's hard to pin down with is Gareth's most hilarious feature. I love his supposed hardened military background despite his ridiculous, gaunt physique. I love his very unfortunate combination of overconfidence and ineptitude with women. I love the overly serious way he deals with the politics of working at a small branch of a paper company. One of the few characters I prefer to the US version's equivalent, and that's despite that equivalent also being on this list.

Dr. Perry Cox
John C. McGinley - Scrubs


“Jordan…the boy already lip-syncs into your tampons, must we put a final nail in his tiny gay coffin?”

Despite this being the ninth year of Dr. Cox being on the air ranting and raving, I'm still not tired of it. McGinley never broke out beyond a few small film roles, but every week he's good for a few solid put downs and probably at least one epically vicious dissection of why whoever he's yelling at is a bad doctor. But there's enough variety, creativity, and humor there that you never feel he's being too mean. At his heart, he's a good doctor who's trying to make others around him better at their job, and that's why he gets away with it.

Jack Bauer
Kiefer Sutherland - 24


"I don't care how it's interpreted from the outside. I just gave you an order and I'd like you to follow it."

The only character I know of who deserves - nay, requires a website to keep track of all of his kills in the line of duty. However you feel about torture, it's hard to be upset with Jack for doing what he thinks he needs to do to save America because he puts up with so much crap and never asks for anything in return. Also, it's just a TV show. His actions definitely speak louder than his words, but he's had his share of resonant emotional moments too. He's why I keep coming back despite the series' declining quality.

Gandalf
Ian McKellen - The Lord of the Rings series


"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

Maybe the greatest action hero who's also an old man in film history. Gandalf was always the most interesting character in the books, and that held true in the movies as well. It's actually sort of two roles, as the wise and resourceful but fallible Gandalf the Grey at first and later as the powerful but justifiably aloof Gandalf the White. Kind and caring, but terrifying when he needs to be. He's basically what you wish your grandfather was like.

Continued tomorrow.

Call of Duty: World at War

It's interesting to play World at War right after Far Cry 2, because they represent very different approaches to the same basic idea. The latter is all about providing you with an environment in which any number of things can happen based on what you do inside it, while the former is a series of planned events hand crafted to give every player the same experience. This is Treyarch's third stab at the Call of Duty franchise, and if the first two are like this, then they've proven themselves very capable of aping what Infinity Ward does with slightly diminished results. You can see how they took a lot of cues from the fourth game in terms of creating a more cinematic and dramatic feel, treating it a bit more like being in an epic war movie than being in a war. This works fine with a fictional, modern storyline, but doing it with a real historical event in which millions of people died seems a bit crass.

There's nothing wrong with showing a more brutal side of the war, because it's not like the real thing was completely clean and gentlemanly. It's just the tone of it that seems off, like it's trying to make the player think it's way cool instead of seriously considering the dark truth of the period in history. In any case, the attitude of the game doesn't negatively affect the design, which is pretty solid until near the end. The two campaigns that interweave despite being at different points in time focus on an American in the Pacific and a Russian on the Eastern Front, and there are some interesting missions here and there, such as a mimic of the flashback sniper missions in the last game with the Russians and a pretty intense and desperate naval battle with the Americans. It sort of falls apart near the end though, as the developers failed to realize that it's entirely possible to have a huge and dramatic final battle without it being stupidly, unfairly difficult and seemingly not even well debugged. As with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl last year, a frustrating final act really soured my opinion on a game that for the first 80% of its existence I was enjoying quite a bit more. It's really not that hard to keep that ending bit balanced, but it keeps happening like this.

This game is really what told me I need to upgrade my machine, as even on quite low settings it often chugged in more open areas and for some reason ran way too fast indoors to compensate. That's partly shoddy programming, as other developers released games around the same time that my computer can handle fine, but it's really time I improved what I'm playing with. Still, the game was pretty nice looking despite the issues, although I can't say the same about the sound. The series is known for its quality sound design, but a lot of the guns and explosions sounded weak to me for some reason, and while some of the orchestral music was quite nice, the inclusion of crunching metal guitars really wasn't. I liked the voice acting though, as throughout the game I was being commanded by Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman, which automatically makes anything I'm told to do more awesome. The dramatic story moments didn't hit me nearly as hard as the last game's, but they were still pretty fun for the most part. There are some nice things to be found here, but in the end, World at War is a pretty flawed game.

24 - Season 7

After season six didn't so much dip its toe into the crazy pool as it did a cannonball off the high dive, day seven was thankfully more reigned in, although it still wasn't as good as the show was in its earlier years. When you have a show like this that feels the need to continually top itself in order to stay fresh, it can only last so long before it goes from genuinely thrilling to downright silly. It felt like they were keeping it pretty small at first which was nice, but it didn't take long to go a little insane and never got back to that slow burn feel that I was enjoying.

Really, things started with 24: Redemption, a movie that takes place in between this season and the last, and establishes things like the swearing of the new president (continuing in their tradition of shaking things up, it's a woman this time), Jon Voight as a shadowy political villain (and as it turns out only one of many), and Jack being forced to return to America to be tried. They've always filmed prequel thingies to prepare for new seasons, but this was the first time it was of any significance. Redemption was decent, with a couple pretty good action scenes, and I always like a good fascist African regime. Several bad guys are introduced here, and it wasn't a waste of a couple hours.

When the season really begins, Jack is quickly pulled out of his hearing with Senator Red Forman and brought to assist the FBI's cute redhead, Coach Ted Orion, and analysts Janeane Garofalo and Billy Walsh as they pursue an old ally of Jack's who, surprise, is not dead and now apparently evil. For a while I was genuinely entertained by their investigations, and even the first big twist was pretty entertaining as it got Jack back together with some old friends. Before long though, things spiral out of control as insidious villain after insidious villain steps out to take control of their stupid attacks on America as soon as the previous one gets taken down before they really develop. There's at least five of these guys, and there's no real sense of a good story arc as the same thing keeps having over and over again.

The only reason to watch the show anymore is to see Jack be a ridiculous killing machine, and even that is less that satisfying in the second half. The main political subplot is no good either, because family stuff just isn't interesting. There's also no tension to Jack's fate when you announce the show's renewal for an eighth year when the seventh isn't over yet. The ending is also the show's least resolved yet, because a couple big threads are left open with no chance at actually seeing the result thanks to the series' unique format. Ultimately I was disappointed again, but not enough to prevent me from watching it again next time. I am a silly person.

24 - Season 6

24's sixth and most recent season brings the same brand of entertainment, although there are some very noticeable chinks in the armor this time around. There are just some things characters do for the sake of drama that simply don't fit in a believable world, even one with someone as ridiculous as Jack Bauer running around. Semi-evil bureaucrats and politicians who mess things up for the reasonable people have always been a part of the show, but they're really getting over the top at this point. It's one thing when you kill an ex-President to cover up your conspiracy (although it's still horrifying), but killing the current President just to push through your racist anti-terror policy is insane. And the Vice-President, while played well by the always enjoyable Powers Boothe, is another nut, with his insistence on a nuclear retaliation with no real justification whatsoever other than adding conflict to the story. There is a newfound emphasis on romance subplots at CTU, which mostly come off more amateurish and high-school-level than they have before.

The people behind the scenes aren't the only ones to sigh about, as the people with guns make some strange choices as well. Jack has to turn against an ally, but the whole encounter seems contrived. A new arrival apparently has a shady past, but turns out to be a decent guy, and what actually happened is never even mentioned again, and with what happens it's unlikely he'll appear, so what the hell was the point of that angle in the first place? Why do the terrorists who infiltrate CTU kill the first person to identify themselves as Director, when they needed the real Director a few minutes later? And I'm sorry if it's a spoiler, but what the hell was Gredenko thinking? He had a signed immunity agreement, so why did he tell Fayed the truth, have him CUT HIS ARM OFF to disable the tracking device, and then betray him three minutes later anyway? Why did CTU give Fayed a gun with REAL BULLETS right after they tricked him using blanks? The show was still entertaining most of the way, but hopefully the change of scenery (Season 7 will be the first to mostly take place outside of LA) will do the writers some good. Too bad the strike delayed it by a year though.

24 - Season 5

Yay for the two hundredth post.

Season 5 embodies what 24 is as well as any other yet. Important characters start dropping like flies right from the outset, terrorists have captured special weapons to attack Los Angeles (again!), and some people in the government aren't as forthright as they should be. It starts with some missteps (again!) and just seems to be stretching itself out for the sake of its gimmick by the end (again!), but somewhere in the middle it hits that stride of highly entertaining action and political thrills.

There's not much new for me to say about 24. It's the same as it always was. Jack Bauer is a badass special agent who usually doesn't play by the rules. He tortures lots of people, and at some point, one is likely to be a supposed ally. He kills lots of bad guys, and at least a few per season are either too hilarious or too awesome to not rewind and watch again. By the end, the main bad guy, who has usually escaped four or five times by this point, is finally brought to justice, usually by Jack-related death. And something dramatic is likely to happen to him right before it ends. You either like the formula or you don't, and I happen to like it. There's always the chance it just gets too silly, and I've heard some bad things about the sixth season (although I like it so far), but what it is is a pretty enjoyable drama. What I like about it is how they have season-long story arcs (more rewarding than one-shot episodes) yet they're mostly self-contained (you can jump into the beginning of any season without problems, only missing why certain events with old characters are dramatic). It's a good time.

24 - Season 4

The fourth season of 24 represents a big shift, as some characters are gone and lots of new ones take their place. It's almost a reboot. That feeling doesn't last too long though, as a lot of the missing faces resurface and by the end of the arc, it's like nothing's changed. The return of old friends sort of coincides with what seems to be a trend in 24; seasons stumbling out of the gate but ending up being as enjoyable as always. The troubles begin on bad footing, as writers try to use computers as a plot point and fail once again to not sound like retards. One doomed character's line will forever live in infamy in my mind: "Looks like someone's trying to corrupt the internet." What? About the first third of the season is infested with stupid, nonsense computer stuff, and it's not until that whole topic is left behind that the story picks up.

And pick up it does, as Jack does some good old fashioned hunting and shooting and the political intrigue continues in Washington. They upped the stakes as far as death count and danger to the US goes, and it's getting to the point where I wonder how much bigger it can get. This season also featured Jack's highest kill total to date, and some of them are among the best in the series. He's really transformed from a protagonist of a good show to a folk hero among his fans. They also expanded his emotional side this time, as a pretty contrived but still interesting moral dilemma is foisted upon him and his government girlfriend. The show always ends up feeling stretched by the end, because the central gimmick doesn't allow it to last fewer or more than twenty four episodes. I thought they had a pretty good villain this time, but he just keeps escaping and it gets a little tiring. The actual resolution of his character and plot is actually a bit anticlimactic, but the way the season ends is intriguing enough to keep me ready to jump into the next one.

24 - Season 3

Jack Bauer's crazy life continues with yet another huge crisis in Los Angeles that will somehow be averted in exactly 24 hours. The stakes are higher than ever, as the entire country is in danger from a specially engineered virus that kills 90% of all exposed to it in less than a day. This season is a little trickier than the others, as all is not as it seems in the beginning, and it turns out the entire first half is a bit of a waste of time. There's a whole lot of trouble going on in Mexico, and some important stuff happens there, but the actual danger isn't coming from south of the border.

The third season is darker and more depressing than previous ones. Way more innocents meet an untimely end, and at times it can seem a bit cynical. They'll show images of people suffering, basically saying "Look at this, isn't this sad?" It does help raise the stakes though, as it has the best tension so far despite fewer shootouts in dark alleys. Near the end, a character gets captured and someone close to them is forced to act against their allies, and while that is playing out, I was on edge the entire time. Very few things have kept me worried for so long, so overall it was a very successful story despite continued permeation of people who just seem to ignore simple solutions to their problems.

Jack's having more problems, as he has to save America while dealing with heroin withdrawal after getting addicted to maintain his cover. He seems more human, while still being a very strong protagonist. Kim's back, but instead of being in peril the entire time, she's actually useful for helping the good eyes, and is only in peril a little while. The president we all know and love is having problems again, this time when he gets involved in a possible scandal that could cost him his reelection bid. I understand the desire to have more than one plot thread to keep it from getting too tedious, but it's honestly never as compelling as the simple counter-terrorism battle. Fortunately, it's satisfying in the end thanks to a character I'm pretty sick of finally getting what was coming. The fourth season is a bit of a reboot with a lot of different characters in the foreground, so the third was a nice wrap up of all the threads that were created over three years of good television.

24 - Season 2

The second season of 24 is definitely crazier than the first, with nuclear weapons, political backstabbing, and conspiracies. It's also more action packed, as Jack has to battle against more heavily armed thugs than he did previously. There are new characters and subplots that develop alongside the main story, some more interesting than others. Jack's daughter Kim is still around and getting into trouble, and while Elisha Cuthbert is still nice to look at, I was already bored of seeing her in distress all the time. How many psychopaths can you really bump into in one day? They definitely stretch reality to make the plot crazier. Unlikely terrorists and strict timetables (You have less than 12 hours after an attack to launch a surprise retaliation?) can come close to breaking the suspension of disbelief.

The show's still fun, though. It's not really supposed to be a realistic drama, so the more outlandish stuff is easier to digest. It's a twisty, exciting series, and I think they pull it off pretty well. I think the real-time gimmick which defines the show is still flawed in its implementation, but you learn to live with these things. All the actors, but returning, new, and the ones just with small parts do their roles well, and the production quality is good. Too many characters seem overly stupid in their actions, and it can seem artificial when they keep extending the resolution to stretch the story out for twenty four hours. It's still a good show though, and Jack is still one bad mother, even as he has to deal with so much crap in one day.

24 - Season 1

I watched the first couple episodes of 24 back when it premiered over five and a half years ago, but I didn't stay with it. It's not that I didn't like it, but it was on pretty late and I might not have been old enough to actually follow it properly. Anyway, I always kind of wanted to watch it as it went on, but I never attempted to catch up at all until I started recently. 24 is a very interesting and enjoyable show, although its premise is slightly flawed just by its nature.

I prefer shows with continuous plots over procedural dramas like ER or CSI. That kind of show, if a good one, is always an entertaining way to spend an hour, but there's not much to compel you to keep tuning in every week to see what happens next. I know those shows have a lot of character development and continuing storylines, I'm just more interested in something that's main goal is to tell a story. 24's interesting because it's kind of like a procedural with each idea stretched over a whole season instead of just an episode. One season of the show is a ridiculously crazy day in the life of Jack Bauer as he attempts to save America and be a good dad at the same time.

The whole 24 hour thing is definitely a cool idea but you see some problems arise when it's implemented. I'm not going to use that stupid joke about when Jack goes to the bathroom, since even if he was on camera the entire time, an "hour" episode is still only about 40 minutes of content minus the commercials. But you do see some weird things happen with time. For one, it's amazingly convenient how often the most dramatic or surprising things always seem to happen at the very end of each hour in the day. I understand it's a show and there have to be some stretches of the imagination, but the show seems to strive towards believability and you notice these things. Some things seem to happen much quicker than you'd imagine they would, such as getting from one place to another in the middle of the day in Los Angeles, while other things seem to take too long, especially around commercial breaks, and it appears that nothing has actually transpired in the missing time. Something to the show's credit is they manage to go through the whole time without any real stretches of inactivity.

The plot can be over-the-top at times. You definitely get the feeling that the writers probably had some idea what they wanted to do but were mostly making it up as they went. There are betrayals, kidnappings, deception, pregnancy, drug raids, vengeful allies, shock-induced amnesia, just an absurd amount of craziness for one day. Some people will often make unbelievably stupid moves without strong motivation and you get the idea it was just the only thing the writers could come up with to get out of a situation without getting stuck in a corner. Again, I get that it's supposed to be entertainment, it just might work better without the whole one day thing.

A couple things really annoyed me. Senator Palmer (played charismatically by the "You're in good hands with Allstate" guy) and his whole subplot with the family scandal is interesting, but his wife becomes more and more unlikable as the day goes on. She starts out as the supportive companion in public who's maybe too business-only in private, but as it all unfolds she goes off the deep end and does progressively more insane things to "protect" him before he finally snaps (in what's actually a pretty awesome scene). I can't even remember why she thought it was a good idea to bully his secretary into trying to sleep with him, and that wasn't the worst thing she did. Also, toward the end, there's one last twist that results in a betrayal and a death that both seemed completely unnecessary. The betrayal is only there because it's the least plausible one possible and they wanted to surprise you, and it just does not seem to fit with prior events and how much they helped Jack beforehand. The death defeats all of the extra work and complications that made most of the plot even possible, and it's very frustrating after all the time I spent hoping it resolved well. The betrayer better have a damn good explanation in the second season for their actions, and so far "I was doing my job" isn't cutting it. I don't know why I'm so carefully avoiding spoiling who did what, this happened five years ago and no one reads this blog.

I was disappointed with the conclusion of the story, but not with the resolution with the primary bad guys (Though it was weird to see Dennis Hopper in the role and his accent was terrible). Despite some plot difficulties it was a very fun show, and I'm definitely going to keep watching. According to Bauer Count, Jack kills three times as many people in the second season as he does in the first, so it already looks more entertaining.