TV - 24 Season 6

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Well, now I know that at least two of you (more than enough for me) are following the joys of this hit US show on Sky I thought it only prudent to get a thread going so we can discuss at our leisure!

BE AWARE - THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! (Don't worry, I won't ruin what I know cos I'm watching at US pace, I'll keep it to the UK episodes! lol)

So, eps 1-4? Thoughts?

I'll go first. Loved the set-up. It was great, albeit somewhat disorientating at first, to start mid-way thru a crisis for once and I think it was well handled in terms of keeping us up together with the plot without smacking us over the head with it.

Second, the political stuff really rocks this year - whilst Wayne isn't really that memorable a Pres at the moment, esp. compared to the outstanding Logan last year, and of course David - the White House is full of interesting characters - most notably Tom Lennox (Peter MacNicol) who I think so far has nabbed a lot of the best lines and for me is the most intriguing in a "you scheming sonofa..." kind of way.

I'm also loving Jack's state, esp. in the last 10 mins of 4, how killer was that?!? I was worried that after one episode his tricky mental torture would be forgotten and the writers would have him back kicking ass, biting out throats etc etc without a word said - but thus far they're keeping up his character really nicely. Oh, and it goes without saying that Kiefer is f'ing brilliant. BUT, that doesn't mean he isn't whupping ass as usual at the same time! Highlights so far:

- Vampire Jack!
- Kicking the bomber out the back of the train!
- Nicking that man's Jeep - "Don't get up!" Ha! Classic - I sure wouldn't!
- Getting to Assad before CTU, just in time for some Apache's to obliterate his house!

Loved Assad as a character as well, and what he had going on with Curtis - typical that just as Roger Cross gets some new dimensions to his character, Jack blows him away!

Walid's storyline is pretty interesting too, they're doing very well at presenting lots of sides to the whole terrorism argument in my opinion. Sandra is a bit annoying and should get off her high-horse but I can tolerate her for now though lol - a stray bullet might be nice however....

Good to see season one's Milo back at CTU (and Steve Merchant! Ha!) - and I love how EVERYONE he came in contact with in season one is now dead! He must be like WTF?!!? - Chappelle, Jamey, Nina, Tony, the list goes on.....

Not too sure on Chloe's boyfriend Morris, could be a pain in the ass but so far so good. (Very nice split screen though with him at Chloe at end of ep 1 before Jack escaped).

Kudos to Kal Penn too for not being lame lol - when his credentials include nothing but crap teen comedies you'd naturally be worried but he played his role quite nicely. His twist in the first hour was also in my opinion one of those great "should've seen it coming" twists too, cos man, I really should have! Lol - shame on me!

Fayed is suitably sinister as the terrorist ne'er do 'ell, and, bit of trivia, the actor playing him was originally in season 4 - remember those Arab gun-shop owners who helped Jack and Paul Raines? He was their father and was wounded in the back of the store - had a great scene with Kiefer that can be found on the deleted scenes of the DVD. Bet he's glad they deleted him though - cos I think this role's a lot more fun! Meant he got more screen time as well!

So, last but not least, A F'ING NUKE WENT OFF! AAAHHH! IT'S ONLY EP 4!

You see, Jack quits his job for 30 seconds and look what happens!

Another double-bill for you Sky - watchers this wkend! Eps 5 and 6 together - even the US didn't get that!

One little tease: a familiar face from season 5 returns, in a VERY shocking way........

Enjoy!

[Paul Dudbridge]

- Vampire Jack!
- Kicking the bomber out the back of the train!
- Nicking that man's Jeep - "Don't get up!" Ha! Classic - I sure wouldn't!
- Getting to Assad before CTU, just in time for some Apache's to obliterate his house!

Yeah man, all those things! "don't get up..." I loved the whole set up too of the car accident. Great thinking and great psychology too. You couldn't follow the guy without him knowing you're following him so....go the other way metephorically and offer to drive your suspect to where you both need to go!

"So, last but not least, A F'ING NUKE WENT OFF! AAAHHH! IT'S ONLY EP 4!

You see, Jack quits his job for 30 seconds and look what happens! "

Yeah, isn't everyone like...f**ked? The fallout will kill everyone including Jack and LA is pretty uninhabitable now for a long time too come... I'm waiting for the Costner and his donkey to go wandering past!

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Yeah, but...it was only a small nuke, in a suitcase....so, we're good!

Just don't go down to Valencia anytime soon! ;D

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EPS 5 & 6 Discussion! (Not until you've got the latest tape off of Will Paul!)

Panic on the streets of LA! Understandable lol, and in my opinion very well done - it was this sort of thing that was missing from season 4 - such as when the power plant in San Gabriel island melted down - all we got to represent the chaos and how bad it was was some news reports about dodgy traffic and Edgar's mum lol.

Between the people running through the streets and the downed chopper the reaction to this attack felt a lot more real, frightening and "in the moment." Embroiling Jack in it was a good move as again we felt part of it, rather than a comfortable observer checking it out on a news screen in CTU.

The opening of 5 with the news report, having said that, lol was very chilling indeed and the political writing continues on strong - in both episodes. The meeting with the joint chiefs had some great moments as one anxious general pushes for war (reminded me of scenes from The West Wing) and of course the two shining through above all else continues to be Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox whenever they lock horns. Tom is our token "love to hate" politico this year it seems. Hopefully as well, now Karen is gone - as bad as that was, it will give Wayne more of a chance to shine as President, as I don't think he too will be convinced by Tom's plans. He had his moments in 5 when confessing how scared he was before the speech and in the planning of said speech, but I still want to see him take some more decisive action to really define his character.

I did like how the shrink to split screen worked at the end with the audio of his speech over the top (even though in my opinion it wasn't that well delivered lol).

The Walid story in 5 was well-plotted and rather clever, and I thought it was a very interesting move by the writers to have this plot ultimately lead nowhere (of course, this is 24 so it could still develop), but for the moment it looks like that beating was for nothing. Sandra's gonna be p*ssed. Her constant moaning was a bit annoying in those eps and did feel a bit to me like filler stuff thrown in because Regina King was a regular and she had to have something to do over the two hours. I was very much with Samuels though, all the way lol.

The Nadia story dragged a bit - though it seems something might be developing with her and Milo and if past seasons are anything to go by, he's made a serious mistake by giving her his login - it's bound to get one of them into trouble....so we shall see where it goes..... What I did like about it was that it was a good way to show the negative sides of Tom's plans back in DC.

Now, back to the main point of these latest hours - the intro of the Bauer family!

Awesome in a word. So, the man behind the nefarious actions of S5, the aptly named "Bluetooth man" who we now know is Graem lol, is in fact Jack's brother! I love how that was slipped in halfway through an ep like it was nothing! Boy, Jack will be PISSED when he finds out what his bro's been up to. No wonder they never got along.

"You never could just walk into a room and get along, could you Jack?" Nope! Plastic bag over the head! Classic Bauer - only he could do that to his own brother. Another one of those great "should've seen it coming" twists when Graem suddenly turned in the closing act of ep 6 - snapping back to full on scary bluetooth season 5 mode lol. I did think he'd been a bit pathetic thus far and it was rather chilling when this happened.

So, now we have Jack and his father about to double-team his sorry ass and that can surely only be gold! ;D James Cromwell it goes without saying was great even with the little he's done so far so I can't wait to see where this goes (and I get to dload ep 7 from the US now so ha! No waiting a week for me!)

Finally, the wife thing and Jack's supposed history with her was an interesting angle so let's see where that takes us......

Honourable mentions:
- Again, Jack saving the chopper pilot!
- "I thought you were out?" "Not after this!" JACK'S BACK! ;D
- Had to laugh at this too from Chloe "I have a bad feeling about all this, did you hear Jack quit?" Hehe, I'd have many a bad feeling if Jack quit! Luckily, he's back in business to LA can rest easy.....until Fayed finds someone to reprogram the trigger that is.......

TICK BOOM, TICK BOOM, TICK BOOM.......

To be continued......