Catching Up With 24

The past couple of weeks have seen our DVR getting fuller and fuller and fuller as the days go on. I think that this is, in large part, owing to the fact that Tim was in school and I was not. And, realistically, there's only so much of watching TV with someone who then wants to go on and watch something else afterward even though you can't because you have homework that one can take. Or it might have something to do with the fact that I really couldn't go up and down stairs very well for a while in there and our TV is in the basement.

Regardless of the reason, last night when we sat down to see what there was to see on the DVR, a scroll to the very end of the list presented us with 24. Now you may be thinking that this was not too bad. After all, it was Tuesday and 24 shows on Monday, so how much, really, could be sitting there waiting to be watched? Well, this particular 24 was from 3 weeks ago. That's right. Three. However, I think even die-hard 24 people will allow for this lapse in enthusiasm given the state of this season up to the episode 3 weeks ago. (I can't speak for the more recent ones, obviously, since we're behind. But Jen appears to think it's looking up, so that's a good thing and maybe sometime before the end of the century we'll be caught up enough to agree.)

Being a week or two behind is nothing new to us, so very often I'll go read other people's recaps to see what I'm missing. Plus it helps reduce the amount of time I spend with my head under a blanket because I just can't take the suspense and Tim doesn't let me fast forward to see the outcome and then rewind it to watch at normal speed now that I know how it'll turn out. This also reduces the amount of time Tim has to spend narrating to me what's going on (you know, cause my head's under the blanket) and/or recapping the parts that I miss. So all around, me reading spoilers is a good thing.

The sad thing is that three weeks ago I read the spoilers and when we sat down to watch the episode last night, I couldn't for the life of me think what people had said was going to happen. At the end of the episode I finally figured out why this was the case: nothing happened. (Mind you, there may be a few "spoilers" coming along now. For the episode that ran three weeks ago. Wherein nothing of interest happened. But don't say that I didn't mention that there might be spoilers.)

Jack spent the episode alternating between screaming and whining. Both are getting very annoying and I just want my old Jack back. You know, the Jack of seasons 1, 2, 4, and 5. This season's Jack is very much like the Season 3 Jack. Although the Season 3 Jack was considerably less annoying cause he was still kicking butt and taking names through the midst of his DTs. This season, Jack just wanders around moaning about his issues with daddy. Yeah, this isn't Hamlet or Star Wars. We don't care. Just go shoot someone.

Jack's sister-in-law, what's her name, is very annoying as well. I find myself wishing for Audrey to return to the show. And I loathe Audrey. But at least she's less annoying than what's her name. Morris is whining. Chloe has stopped being abrasive and quirky and is whining. Milo is whining. The other CTU chick is whining. Bill, thankfully, is not whining. He does, however, seem to be out of it and confused. The President is whining. The presidential advisors are whining. Jack's daddy is whining. And out there in the suburbs of LA, nuclear debris continues to fall. But at this point in the plot, that's really just kind of an afterthought. "Oh yeah, they detonated a nuke. Ah well, I have some whining I need to get back to."

I'm also just waiting for Zephram Cochrane to get drunk and boogie with the Vulcans. That would be more convincing than anything else he's doing. Cause seriously, if you've got Jack unarmed and on his knees and whining about how he let you down, just do us all a favor and pull the trigger.

However, things are looking up. I don't envision Logan doing a lot of whining (please, don't let me be wrong!) And though I imagine Jack will find some reason to scream and whine at their meeting, perhaps this'll be the turning point where the writers figured out that, oh yeah, this is supposed to be an action show, not reruns of Days of Our Lives.