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 8: 7 a.m. – 8 a.m.

I was going to predict no shake-ups this episode — they've built enough of a head of steam that they need to just open up the valve and ride the jet — and yet, this is the episode where they're going to try to kill Palmer, which can't be as straightforward as it seems.

How can we tie the assassination attempt into the red herring theory I went on about last week? Is the faux photographer going to be the assassin and Jack the red herring? Or is Palmer himself the red herring? I was talking about how the writers used red herrings to fool us, the viewer, but I suspect there's going to be an analog in how the plot unfolds in the "real world."

It's good of them to start with this primary coverage set-up. The news coverage is the first thing that's really tied the story into the real world in all eight episodes. If this is the episode where the assassin story "breaks" and becomes public, it has the potential to be a dramatic shift in the nature of the story, a real schism from all the lurking and skulking.

It was important that we got the pay-off of the assassin actually using the ID card that motivated so much of the early action, and yet they really didn't milk much suspense from it. It's good and bad, I guess; it's cheating a little to wring out suspense at every possible turn, and an uncomplicated entry here does show the sophistication of the terrorists. And yet, well, there's nevertheless the expectation of something more.

I can't believe how well-bugged the CTU office is. Outrageous. Again, it's going to take mighty last-act machinations to make this plausible.

I'm not sure what to say about "That '80s Show." Maybe it's better to say nothing.

This post-reunion scene between Teri and Kimberly is good — it seems very natural, with a preternatural and very familial kind of assuredness.

Oh, this is good suspense: Nina being so sure she can trust Jamey … and Tony busting her on it! That was an exceptionally well-crafted scene. Although Nina's suggestion that they're using CTU's internal security seems bogus — do intelligence agencies really have their bathrooms under surveillance?

Um, as a bit of professional advice, it kind of busts on your credibility as a critic when you use exclamation points in your copy. At the same time, writing this like I am, it's hard to just pull back and put on all my professional airs. The downside is that my opinion of "24" as a piece is not necessarily being well communicated, but my evaluations of its various manipulations are more than clear. ("Oh, this is good suspense!")

Another good scene: Jack having to open a briefcase he hasn't opened before so security can inspect it. Ratchet, ratchet, ratchet.

Also, as a bit of practical advice, don't try to eat a chicken salad sandwich while reclining if you expect to have to use a laptop in a minute or so, because the mayonnaise gets everywhere.

Apparently you only have to make movies at the level of quality of The Replacements and Evolution to be promoted out of 7-Up pitchmanship. And while of course few would think twice if a white shill replaced a white shill, it's interesting that they replaced Orlando Jones with a black man being asked to perform in a similar style.

So here we go. The big set piece of the convention hall. I think things might be better served by me actually watching this closely, so I'm going to step away from the keyboard.

Well, except now we're out of the set piece. So how are Nina and Tony going to bust Jamey and not arouse suspicion? And why are they taking so long to warn Palmer — ah. Here we go. The real kick-off, the ticking clock: They're calling the Secret Service. This is the basic Hitchcockian set-up — we have the major action of someone (Jack/the photographer) trying to shoot Palmer, while meanwhile we have the Secret Service watching Jack very closely.

I love this Wendy's commercial — where they guy goes to the fast food counter to order chili and the server says, "Yeah! Great idea! Let's go to Wendy's!" Ah. Dave Thomas, R.I.P.

Uh, sorry to be so distracted by commercials this episode. But if we're being academic, the commericals are part of the text; it is the medium for which the show is designed, and it's chiseled into the viewer's experience. If you think about it, making an 44-minute show that's interrupted by 16 minutes of 30-second narratives is relinquishing a lot of control over your audience. And yet, is it necessarily any greater loss of control over audience attention than, say, showing a movie in a theater with a lot of ambient light, a picture that's not in focus and a seat at a perspective-bending angle to the screen? The communication model isn't closed until the user receives the message, and the transmission of the message is no small consideration — hence, commercials matter.

Maybe we should just say that's outside the scope of this piece.

So back to the set piece, and, actually, a great dual set-piece: Tony working his way through the CTU complex to get to the turncoat Jamey while evading the cameras, while at the same time Jamey is trying to contact Gaines (another example of a major action complicated by a minor one); and the Secret Service, with the Bauer threat acknowledged, trying to stop the assassination and protect Palmer — as well as Palmer wanting to dish on his son's misdeeds. Two concurrent storylines, with major and minor actions — as far as thriller narratives go, it's a classical structure.

Here's funny product placement: The Fox logo on Palmer's microphone being overlaid with the transparent Fox logo that's always superimposed in the lower right hand corner of the frame. There's a small, ironic level of being hoisted by your own petard here.

… Sorry, a little speechless from all that transpired. Notes: This has been their best, most spring-loaded plotting yet, and the way in which the assassination was foiled was commendably intricate, by which I'm referring to Tony and Nina using Jamey to save Teri and Kimberly's lives. And the so-tight-it's-near-to-bursting vertical cropping of Gaines' face as he pondered whether to kill the women was very, very fine split-screen.

So now things take a different turn. Palmer — who, from all accounts, was in fact going to be assassinated; that wasn't just a feint — is going to be under tighter security; Jack has been exposed, removing his power for sneakiness and subterfuge, meaning that Gaines can now really only use our beleaguered hero as a gunman. And this is clearly the limit of what Gaines had planned for, so we won't continue to twist under the intricate unfurling of a conspiracy. But that suggests that the writer/director/producers are moving into a fundamentally new direction — we'll see if they have it in them.

— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)