Author: King Tom

Jack Bauer Vs. The Olympics

Usually, I’m not concerned about the other shows on TV at the same time as 24.  However, right now, it’s up against the Winter Olympics, and when there’s an event like snowboard racing, biathalon or curling, I’m torn between Jack Bauer and the games. Fortunately, tonight scheduled against Jack was the most useless of the competitions, figure skating, so my choice was easy.

I have a feeling though, that the producers of 24 thought more people would be into watching the Olympics, so they had Jack Bauer try his hand (or legs, as it were) at an Olympic mainstay, the paralell bars:

For some reason, I don’t think he got high scores from the Russian judges.

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What Kate Does is Annoy and Bore Me

I’ve been blogging about Lost since Season Two, and I’ve waited for five long seasons to use that as a title.

It’s fitting though, that here in Lost’s last season, in what’s hopefully the very last Kate-centric episode, that I would be frustrated with an episode centering around my least favorite Island castaway.  Kate seemingly has nothing to do with the larger Island mythology.  I can see no discernible reason why two otherwise likable characters would dispel all rational behavior in favor of acting like a bunch of idiots while fawning over her.  And most importantly, she’s not that interesting.

So in the third episode of Lost’s final season, we wasted an episode on Kate.  But we did get one big question answered:

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Accidental Stabbing Can’t Stop Jack Bauer

Pop quiz.  The TV show known as 24 got it’s name because:

(a) There are 24 episodes in each season, mimicking the whole idea of 24 hours in a day, ergo each season takes place over the span of one day.

(b) It’s the number of times Jack Bauer gets stabbed, shot or otherwise maimed each season.

(c) The last 24 minutes of each episode are the only ones worth watching.

If you answered (c), you were right!  You win a year’s supply of turtle wax and one free tax preparation session from Jack Bauer, CPA.

This is how Jack Bauer, CPA does business.

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Jack Bauer As Hans Gruber

If you’re a fan of 24 and you’re anything like me, you tune into the show for one reason: to see Jack Bauer lay the smack down.

We don’t watch for the political or international intrigue (although, in the last few seasons, that’s stretching).

We don’t watch for the latest updates on the messed up lives of CTU employees.

And we don’t watch because Jack Bauer’s behind the steering wheel of a Ford Focus for episodes at a time.

It’s getting to the point where Jack Bauer is like Poochie. And I’d just like to say to the producers of 24 (to paraphrase Homer Simpson):

One, [Jack Bauer] needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine. Two, whenever [Jack]’s not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking “Where’s [Jack]”?

Because I know with one exception this season, whenever he’s not on screen, I’m asking my TV “Where’s Jack?”

The one exception has been the work the last few weeks of Agent Renee.  She’s like Jack at his season-three era darkest, but even her storyline is taking up too much time.

Poochie, er…Jack’s best scene this episode was his short stint as German arms dealer Hans Gruber (at least that’s what I thought the name was).  Jack proved to be fluent in German, and had some great exchanges with the Russian guy’s flunky.  My favorite exchange was this one:

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Smoke Monsters, Whispers, Science Stations and All The Rest

As a Lost fan, the past eight months since The Incident aired have gone very slowly.

I had a plan I started last summer to take a look at some of the mysteries of the show that I wanted to see answered.  Because of timing issues, I was never able to go into as much depth with I Want Some Freakin’ Answers as I had planned.  Sure, I wrote about a handful of questions, but there are a lot more.  And with the final season of the Kingdom’s favorite show starting up next Tuesday, there’s not really enough time to explore all of them thoroughly.  So I’m just going to go through the rest of my list, along with some comments:

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The Villain for 24 Day Eight: Papa

In past seasons of 24, Jack Bauer has faced a variety of foes, from the presumed dead Victor Drazen and the seemingly hapless but diabolical President Charles Logan to Jonas Hodges, who dared challenge the U.S. President via video conference call.

This season, though, the man who’s shaping up to be Jack’s nemesis is someone who doesn’t quite inspire as much fear as the man who was RoboCop.  Our villain is a businessman with, presumably a scary-sounding Russian name, but a man who is best known as Papa.

It's Papa!

Yes, Papa.  Sounds especially menacing if you imagine someone saying it in a baby’s voice.  This is the bad guy (so far) for 24 Day Eight.

I gotta tell you, I’m not that scared.

I think a more compelling bad guy would be Poppie from Seinfeld.

We’ve all seen how he can terrorize New York:

But enough about how this season could be better…

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Coco Gets the Last Laugh

Like a lot of people, I watched the final episode of Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show Friday night.  And like Tom Hanks said, in this house, Conan will always be the host of the Tonight Show.  I thought (for the circumstances), it was a great way to go out.

Too bad NBC is giving up the future for the past, because ratings wise, Conan’s last show pulled off something pretty incredible.  According to the New York Times:

In preliminary national late-night ratings, Mr. O’Brien scored a booming 7 household rating…

More impressive was the number for 18-to-49-year-old viewers — the gold standard for NBC because advertisers seek to reach that audience. There, in overnight numbers from the country’s 25 largest cities, Mr. O’Brien hit an extraordinary rating, a 4.8.

Not only would that be by far the biggest rating in that age group for any kind of show at any time Friday night…, it is also a better number than almost every prime-time show that has appeared on NBC this television season.

I hope that feels good, NBC.  But seeing as how Conan urged us all to give up cynicism and focus on the positives, I hope going out on a high note like this lets Conan keep his momentum and he stays himself for wherever his next show may be.

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See You In September, Conan

So the Late Night TV madness is nearly over.  Conan O’Brien has signed a deal to leave NBC and has two episodes of the Tonight Show left.

Conan lets the beard grow during the writers' strike.

I can imagine the last few weeks haven’t been good for Conan, but as a viewer, he’s done of his most entertaining and funniest material since taking over the Tonight Show.

During the ’07-’08 writers’ strike, Conan was very funny, as he could do pretty much whatever he wanted.  It’s a similar situation now–he’s not being restrained by the whims of focus groups, and has gone back to doing some of the little things that he cut out of his act since moving to 11:30, like the String Dance and allowing Andy to sit on the couch.  They may be little things, but it felt like he stopped doing them to make the network happy.  Well, now, he’s being himself.  I hope he takes this approach wherever he ends up on September 1 (and I hope he takes Andy, Max and everyone else with him).

Meanwhile, with the exception of three shows, I refuse to watch anything on NBC, which is a big step for me, as they were my first employer back when I wanted to work in television.  But with their jettisoning of Conan to move the talentless Jay Leno back to 11:30, they’ve lost my support.

Actually, with Lost ending and a baby on the way, I’m going to have to re-evaluate how much television I watch anyway.  Good thing I have a lot of quality shows like Sledge Hammer!, the Greatest American Hero and Seinfeld on Lost.

And in September, I’ll be sure to DVR Conan.  Wherever he ends up.

 

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