24
Fox
Tuesday, 9 p.m / 8 p.m. CST
Fox's "24" is an action-espionage drama that unfolds in real time — meaning that the hour it takes you to watch it corresponds to an hour in the lives of the characters. Correspondingly, Flak will be providing a
written-in-real- time-alongside-the- show review of "24" each week for the
duration of the series or until the gimmick of the review becomes tiresome.
Episode 22: 9 p.m. – 10 p.m.
A number of readers called me on saying that Alexis Drazen — the one who was making nookie with one of Palmer's aides — was dead, when in fact, he was not. The set-up was this: Victor Drazen — the suspected-to-be-dead Serbian terrorist — was about to kill Jack when Jack said that his son Alexis was still alive, the thought process being that they'd spare Jack's life to trade for Alexis'.
I remembered Alexis as being dead not because he got a pretty fatal-looking stab wound to the gut, but because the storyline has treated him as if he was dead. By which I mean: Jack's crew set up the Alexis sting in an attempt to find out what the conspirators' next step was. For Alexis to have survived the stabbing in order to divulge the next step would have been narratively OK; instead, Jack and the gang found Alexis's PDA (right?), and used that to advance their investigation — the "out" of that scenario was the PDA, not Alexis, and so from a story sense, Alexis was as good as dead. (Since then, nothing has happened with him aside from George failing to interrogate him — in other words, he's had no relevance to the story.)
They're playing up the David/Patty backrub in the recap; ominous.
So I thought Alexis was dead because there was no narrative reason for him not to be dead … until now. Instead, he's just been in stasis, waiting for this plot development to surface; good thrillers are more thickly layered than that. That's something that "24" has been good at: keeping all its balls in the air, keeping everyone busy all the time. Dropping a character like that for however many weeks is bad form. And, as I said last time, it would be much more interesting from a plot standpoint for Alexis to be dead, and for Jack to plumb some dark depth of his soul to lie to a father about his child being alive in order to keep his own family alive.
This is not a very good speech David is giving; I remember when the screenwriters cut away from David's big revelatory speech a few hours ago. Interesting that the writers don't act as if monologues are their strength; most writers relish those moments. But this is interesting, having Sherry tell Patty to keep David company, or whatever, when they're together out of town without Sherry. A prelude to adultery? Is Sherry trying to tempt David with Patty? That's awfully forward-thinking of her, assuming that's the end she wants. And, of course, they're cutting from that dialogue to David speechifying about "doing the right thing." So this temptation is clearly the endgame of this subplot.
The term "endgame" popped up because an "X-Files" ad just came across the TV. Interesting to think that there are only three hours left of both shows. I have an "X-Files" rant brewing, but I think I'll save it for a non-"24" piece.
OK, Dennis Hopper's accent is really bugging me.
This Division-hanging-Jack-out-to-dry subplot is pretty interesting — in part because the government is letting him dangle to cover up its bad move in faking Victor's death, and in part because it looks like it might become a bonding experience for Nina and Teri. That would be an interesting collusion of story elements — the wife and ex-mistress working together as equals.
"I don't believe this," Nina says of Kim being re-kidnapped, finally catching up with her viewing audience, who's been not believing it for, what, six weeks now? Here's a quote from "24" co-producer Robert Cochran, from Entertainment Weekly: "Serialization is the hallmark of the show, but I recognize there are a lot of considerations … . You can't have the daughter run away and be kidnapped every day. We have to come up with ways of doing a family story without it getting so ridiculous that it seems silly."
He's talking about the potential for a second season of "24" with the same characters, but he's inadvertantly incriminating himself and the way they've let the story get away from them.
This phone conversation between David and George is surprisingly good — David trying to get George to break protocol and rescue Jack on the promise that David, when elected, will promote him past "five years of middle management."
That was another great example of the show's spring-loaded action-packedness — Jack accosting Drazen's friend's daughter and holding her hostage. Wham, just like that: all over in less than a second. For Victor to end it by killing the daughter … appropriately slimy.
"The swap will take place 30 minutes from now," Andre says at 8:29 p.m. The writers' willingness to always indulge that particular upshot of real time is constantly rewarding.
A good David/Sherry spat, but the transparency and easy coincidence of the forthcoming Patty thing is too much. In fact, wow, he's really fanning the flames. "Why don't you meet me upstairs in five minutes?" (Again with the real time.) This is either going to be very interesting, or very not.
And, hey, what a great Jack/Kim reunion. He gets punched out, she gets potato-sacked away by some thugs.
Ooh, the Coen Brothers' Gap commercial, with Dennis Hopper and Christina Ricci playing chess. Nice and classy, although doesn't Christina Ricci look scary, like the Ethopian children from the Sally Struthers ads? (At least the Coens light her more glamorously than the flat, graceless cinematography of the scene from "Ally McBreal" I saw last night.) But it's interesting to see the same gray-moustached and -goateed Hopper as in "24" show up in the Gap commercial — Hopper hasn't had a lot of film roles recently, making this a "new" look for him, and it's weird to see it cross over into an airy, sweet Gap commercial not three minutes after Victor murdered an old friend and his daughter.
Now, see, it would be interesting if the extent of David's transgression would be to positively acknowledge Patty's flirting, as he just did. That's significant enough to matter while still allowing him to stay in character — he's bending. As before, with the agreement to conceal what he knew about the doctor's murder, it sullies him (because he's always about "doing the right thing"), but only insofar as everybody can be tempted. It's both humanizing and potentially dramatic … and it's also a hard knife's edge to maintain. Let's see what they do with this.
It's also dramatically useful to leave Jack handcuffed to an oil derrick with a cell phone is his pocket. What's going to happen? Clever set-ups like that are inherently interesting.
Ah, Sherry's manipulating Patty into trying to make David stray. Knowing Sherry, it's certainly not a bid to derail David's bid for the Presidency outright, so it must be what Sherry's going to use to blackmail David into assuring her position at his right hand. People have been saying Sherry's going to die, and I haven't seen how/why, but this level of manipulation definitely sets her up for a bad end. Maybe David realizes that Sherry is manipuatling Patty? That would be something, and then David's setting himself to be tempted would really pay off. In fact, there's my prediction.
A good scene there with George — who's basically followed the Skinner character arc from "X-Files" — bartering for Jack and Kim. It occupies a nice middle ground of compromise — grandstanding gets you nowhere.
That was great — Jack being freed by the sniper shooting apart his handcuffs. An inspired, just-over-the-top element.
I'll give the "24" maestros this: They've now got more than enough propulsion to carry them through their last two hours; they're clearly at a rolling boil. A solid ending might even excuse Kim's re-kidnapping.
No, probably not.
— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)
