24: Jack's back! is way scarred...

Some *SPOILERy* recap and smartass comments follow...

Watched the 24 premiere tonight, back to back to back to back, with Jill and Glen. A fun start on the whole. I think I let my guard down more than usual tonight. The show really jerked me around nicely on a few plot lines. Man, when I saw suburban dad getting sent to his doom, delivering the component, I thought damn, that's harsh. No way they're letting him walk out unless they use him to deliver the nuke, too. Then, when he gets there and Fayed thinks he might be valuable later (?), I figured that he was being set up for something Heroic, y'know? Throwing himself on a grenade, or taking a bullet for Jack, or dying in a struggle with nukular scientist guy, or swallowing a suitcase nuke...

*sigh*

But, no. He just gets to scream at ground zero.

I'm not a super fan of the show, not on top of everything that happened on each day. Can someone tell me how many nukes have gone off in past seasons? I caught part of a season where Kim was being deceived into staying in a bomb shelter bunker by some younger brother of Matt Dillon or Peter Berg? Wasn't there a mushroom cloud off in the distance somewhere in that season? And then there was at least one reactor meltdown, right? The one that claimed Edgar's mom? Man. Homeland Security/CTU of the near future has not got a great track record, eh?

I know, I know. It's all about the terrorism we DON'T see...

Kind of disappointing that the role of the Chinese is already (apparently) over. I was looking forward to most of a season of serious shenanigans with the East. Of course, we don't know yet what Principal Wood gave to them for Bauer's release. I'm sure that'll come back around hour 16 or so.

The President's sister was getting annoying, and the military's treatment of her IAA chief aggravating, but finally tying her story to her boss inadvertently making friends with some actual terrorists while being detained saved that plot thread for me. I was thinking she'd be an important voice to have throughout this season, for balance against the usual 24 MO of torture the hell out of everyone you meet, just to be safe, y'know? But maybe she won't have as much influence as that. Or she'll end up going out and down in some terrible situation where she stands up for her principles.

It did start out like Jack might be that "remember civil liberties?" voice himself. But those idiots had to go and detonate a nuke. Now I imagine Jack's gonna be pushing eyeballs and noses into brains all frickin day without blinking.

Hell, he frickin SHOT the unkillable agent Curtis! That's right, unkillable. I so don't want him to be dead. I mean, that was Jack Bauer holding the gun! How can he NOT know how to disable the guy without killing him, right? And besides, 24-typically, two hours don't go by without Curtis getting shot at least once, but still walking away, right? I mean, he's made to take bullets!

Of course, if anyone *could* kill him, it would have to be Jack Bauer...

And, what with not taking any bullets for so long, I suppose the next one Curtis absorbed would HAVE to be a serious one.

Fatal? Dammit. I don't want to believe it.

Ha! Awesome fun escape from Fayed scene! Rips off the monitor sleeve to get the flatline and stooge just walks right into death by hicky.

Glen: When does Jack eat?

Me: When he bites people!

I think the women got extra makeup for the early hours, so that it can fade in the later hours. I don't remember noticing that in previous episodes, but maybe it's cuz Chloe's two-years-later makeover sort of brought it to the fore, y'know?

There was quite a lot of Brokeback action in the first four hours, no? These man-on-man discussions that are shot in just such a way, with such dialogue, with such looks...? I mean, even with the mealy mouth suburban neighbor and Kumar? Offering Ahmed his good luck collar...? Oops, pendant, yeah, pendant.

Man, that American flag drape in the house for rent was just... just... TV-awesome, y'know? Jack and Assad have a discussion about how far they're willing to go and for what and Assad and his traitorous stooge are in front of that flag.

Great seeing DEEP SPACE 9's Bashir/Siddig in this grittier role. He was great in SYRIANA.

Pilfered muscle shirt and jeans in that rental. Jack's in pretty good shape for two years of torture, no? Is he still running around w someone else's cell phone? What happens when that guy has it shut off?

HA! When suburban mom calls 911 to report the Kumar hostage situation, we were totally joking about, "Please hold for the President." Or, "Stay on the line for Jack Bauer." And after a commercial break, that's exactly what they did for her! Glen of course wanted to try calling 911 right then and see if we could get Jack on the phone.

Don't know what to make of advisor Tom just yet. Maybe just a jerk, and not necessarily connected to any organized baddies. I wonder if that zit on his cheek will be there all day...?

Is President Palmer single? First bachelor President?

Enough already, eh?

Keep on keepin on~