24 part 3

Karen Hayes is notified by Hock of the Justice Department that the information has been brought up about her husband, Bill Buchanan, releasing Fayed from custody for lack of evidence two years ago allowing Fayed to killed 13,000 American.  She has been accused of covering this information up.  Someone has to be responsible so she has to decide whether she takes the blame and President’s administration suffer, or Buchanan takes the blame and has to step down as head of CTU in a crucial time. I thought it was interesting that she had to decide between her job and protecting her husband; she chose to fire Buchanan. Tom Lennox said, “That’s politics.” I thought politics was passing legislation, international relations, etc not deciding who takes the blame, “protecting” the administration, and firing a capable leader for releasing Fayed while innocent.

 

Before Buchanan is escorted out of CTU, he appoints Nadia as his successor. Why her? Within four hours, she goes from being falsely accused and interrogated of leaking information to terrorist because of Muslim descent to becoming head of CTU. Maybe Buchanan did it so he would not eventually get sued for discrimination by Nadia further destroying his image.

Cottage cheese-face Vice President Daniels’ down low relationship with his secretary and follow perjurer is revealed. You ever heard of the phrase, “A couple that prays together, stays together”? In their case: a couple that lies together, stay together. That had to worst kissing scene in television history. Before the kiss, he claimed that he can’t stop thinking about her… He needs to think about calling Proactive Solutions to treat his face disease or think about the incriminating tapes of perjury potentially being released by Lennox instead of getting some ass.  Although Lennox claimed he wouldn’t use the tapes against him, the fate of the VP becoming a jail bird remains in
Lennox’s hands.  If he does anything that Lennox doesn’t like, VP Daniels will have to find a mate in a cell block instead of in the White House personnel.

 

Morris has requested to be transferred from coms because he lost the war of words with his ex-boo, Chloe. Instead of being separated, they really just need to get-it-on one last time.  If Vice President Daniels can get frisky in the Oval Office, why can’t Morris release some sexual frustration in CTU? But anyway, I’m glad the bickering between the two has ended because it just drags episodes along when all I really want to see is Jack, despite cracked ribs and gunshot wounds, win 5 on 1 gun battles and fist fights.

24 part 2

Everyone on the show seems to be doing what’s best for the country.  Karen Hayes told Tom Lennox, “We both want what best for this country. We just don’t always agree on the means.” It’s a big problem because everyone has their own opinion of what’s best for America.  Anyone with an opposite opinion on what’s best is seen as incompetent and unpatriotic.  Some cabinet members want to aggressively retaliate without knowing if the attack on American is connected to another country in order to send a message that America won’t stand for terrorism. Other cabinet members want to take a passive action to see what country is responsible.

 

Vice President Daniels reminds me of President George W. Bush. Creating a legacy for his name takes precedence over protecting the country.  It seems like he’s looking for any reason to go to war.  When an insignificant amount of radioactive material spilled as the drone was landed in San Francisco, he viewed it as an attack on the country and ordered a nuclear attack. Jack responded, “What’s he trying to do? Start World War III?!”

 

When I first started watching 24 this season, I didn’t like the character Tom Lennox because he blackmailed Karen Hayes to resign. I also didn’t like that he briefly considered taking apart in the assassinated on President Palmer.  However, I’ve begin to notice that he will do anything to back his beliefs, protect his country, and safe his own ass.  Vice President Daniels forced Lennox to silence his statement that Assay is innocent and had nothing to do the attempted assassination of President Palmer to make his aggressive policy more acceptable to the public.

 

Lennox knew he had to protect himself from future corrupt tactics as the relationship between Daniels and he got worse. I was happy to see Lennox get even with Daniels by tapping in on him committing treason in a conference room causing him to surrender his attempt to steal Palmer’s presidency with the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution.  Vice President Daniels won several battles between them but ultimately lost the war.

 

Lennox also shows character by withholding the reason Daniels retreated when President Palmer and Sandra Hayes asked why Daniel has a sudden change of heart. Lennox didn’t hold anything against Daniels, and kept his word that he keep the treason incident on the down low if he surrendered.  It’s obvious that he cares more about protecting the country then screwing over challengers.

 

I was very confused when President Palmer decided to go ahead with the nuclear attack because he doesn’t want to seem weak. Karen Hayes and Sandra Palmer had the President taken out of the comma to stop Daniels’ nuclear attack. When Daniels’ challenged Palmer’s ability to run the nation, Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox sided with the President to stop the nuclear attack. It was reassuring to find out the President Palmer bluffed an attack to get withheld information from the ambassador.

 

On my previous blog, I mentioned how cliffhangers are used effective enough to keep new viewers tuning in week after week.  I recently noticed exceptions to this statement.  Characters from previous seasons, Former President Charles Logan and Audrey, have been reintroduced twice as cliffhangers at the end of episodes. It isn’t very effective for keeping new viewer interested because we have no idea who they are and their importance.

24

Although it’s believed that it is difficult for new viewers to understand and enjoy a long lasting serial, I became hooked as I started watching the 4^th episode of this new season of 24 on Fox.  I started watching 24 when Jack Bauer was forced to kill Curtis to protect Assad.  Although I had no idea how vital Curtis’ role was in the past seasons, it became clear when Jack became very emotional and temporary quit the mission.  Even though the first 50 minutes of that episode were somewhat slow in action, the last ten minutes kept me as a viewer for at least another week to see what would happen.  This shows that the producers of 24 use cliffhangers effectively before commercial breaks and before the end of shows, allowing the fill-in dialogue to be a non-factor in the rate of returning viewers.  Some of the best ends of show cliff hangers are: the bomb exploding in Valencia; Jack suffocating Graem with a plastic bag; Graem turning of his father; Phillip killing Graem and blaming it on CTU; the attempted assassination of President Palmer; President Logan dies; and Vice President Daniel orders a nuclear missile launch for retaliation.

Some features of serial narratives are obvious in 24.  It has multiple plots in each episode. In the 7 PM to 8 PM episode, Fayed and Gredenko were in the desert launching a drone, CTU searches the drone on satellite, Jack finds out about Audrey’s death, Nadia is suspected of leaking information, and Morris is suspected of drinking again.  Also, characters are left out of some episodes. For example, Phillip Bauer hasn’t been seen or mentioned since he left the phone for Jack to call Logan several episodes ago.  Lastly, some stories are used to kill time.  The story about Morris being a former alcoholic and finds an urge to drinks after he was forced to detonate a bomb annoys me.  Fifteen minutes was wasted that episode as he entered the liquor store to buy Tylenol for pain and can’t help but to buy whiskey as well. He chugged the alcohol and spited in out dramatically.  CTU staff has been referencing his breath every since to waste even more time.

            The writers of 24 effectively and repeatedly use back stories to bridge the gap between the knowledge of new viewers and important information from previous episodes.  When the former President Logan from a previous season appears in the middle on this season, information about his corrupt actions and involvement with the assassination of President David Palmer is gradually given to the audience. When the audience’s memory is fully refreshed of the Logan’s character, the back story still continues in case there are some even newer viewers.  In addition, Jack’s imprisonment in China is mentioned on nearly every episode.  On the other hand, some back stories are only mentioned briefly because it can be implied by the character’s actions.  For example, I always thought Morris and Chloe had some kind of “down low” relationship going on because they look at each other the way politicians looks at young interns.  Also, they were always sent to check on each other when the other was slacking.  Their relationship became clear to me in the 12^th episode when the script finally reveals that they were once married.

            The members of CTU are intelligent and professional and must work fast but efficiently.  They are constantly put in high-pressure situations that require the best performance possible at the time.  They are constantly checking on each other for mistakes because every job is important.  When bad personal information comes up that may negatively affect a member’s performance, there is usually dialogue discussing if that person can handle the news.  For example, Chloe was told that Morris’ brother was seriously wounded in the bombing in Valencia. They were worried that he wouldn’t be able to do his job if he knew about his brother so they considered withholding the information.  CTU members also help each other so their job can be done efficiently.  Because of Nadia’s Muslim faith, she has been required to password every time she accesses a new page on the computer.  Milo is outraged because it is discrimination, and it makes her tasks three times longer. Milo secretly lets Nadia use his log-in information to allow her to work faster.