COMMENTARY
Surprising twists on ‘24’ make it worth watching
I’ve overheard a few people declare that they became tired of all the craziness in the Fox thrill ride “24” last season and have stopped watching the series. They’re making a mistake.
Of course, this year’s horrific day in the life of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has had its usual share of preposterous moments and ridiculous twists that have led to as much laughter as tension. I mean can’t any president hire people he or she can trust won’t become involved in a conspiracy against the United States?
But if you can suspend disbelief, it’s been a helluva year with an underlying message that scarily embraces the Bush administration’s belief that torture can be necessary at times and only a political fool (a senator played by Kurtwood Smith of “Worst Week”) wouldn’t realize that.
I was a bit concerned that the series would have a midseason problem after this year’s lead terrorist, Dubaku (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), was captured. It looked as if President Taylor (Cherry Jones) was going to be able to easily proceed with her attempt to save people in a small African country from the evil Gen. Juma (Tony Todd), who is trying to overthrow his government and already committed genocide in a previous coup attempt.
But Monday’s two-hour episode was loaded with tense, suspenseful elements, thanks to the surprising arrival in the United States of Gen. Juma and his army of evildoers.
My one serious complaint about “24” is its previews of upcoming episodes reveal too much. They enabled viewers to know before Monday’s episodes that Gen. Juma was plotting an assault on the White House and was going to capture President Taylor.
Thankfully, we didn’t know beforehand that the bad guys were going to get into the White House by drilling holes underneath it after an underwater expedition that seemed to be something out of a James Bond movie.
It was pretty funny—and pretty exciting at the same time.
It was almost as entertaining as watching FBI agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) jump on a moving ship to see what was going on and having difficulty relaying what she had seen because her cell phone had become wet and inoperable.
It also was a welcome sight to see Jon Voight back as an arms dealer and all-around bad guy. We were beginning to wonder if he was going to resurface after appearing in the November prequel set in Africa.
Monday’s preposterously entertaining episodes ended with a tense scene that will test Jack’s resourcefulness— and a viewer’s ability to suspend disbelief. I mean surely he had a plan before allowing President Cherry to surrender to Gen. Juma. He wouldn’t be Jack if he didn’t have one. I can’t wait to find out what it is.
• I still don’t know if ABC or Channel 7 was the culprit in the technical problems that happened on Oscar night. But Channel 7 continues to have laughable technical problems. On Sunday, the 6:30 p. m. version of Eyewitness News opened by announcing it was “Eyewitness News at noon.”
The station also has one of the most interestingly worded promos. It states “more and more Western New Yorkers are watching Eyewitness News.” What does that mean? Usually, you back up statements with some sort of ratings. In the promo later, the station called itself “the hardest working team in local news.” With such a small staff compared with competitors, it better be hard-working.
• Good to see the staff of Time Warner Cable’s new 24-hour news channel includes so many people with local ties.
Bill McCarthy, a well-respected former news producer-executive at Channel 7 with more than 32 years in broadcast journalism, was named executive producer. He had been let go by Channel 7 in one of its rounds of cutbacks.
The four on-air personnel include an Amherst native, a Brockport native and a native of St. Catharines, Ont. The Amherst native, Katie Morse, arrives from Time Warner’s news channel in Syracuse and will anchor weekend mornings.
Jen Markham, a Brockport native who was a reporter for Time Warner’s news channel in Rochester, will anchor weeknights for the channel. Giselle Phelps, a native of St. Catharines who has worked at Time Warner’s news channel in Syracuse for more than 11 years and CTV in Toronto, will anchor weekend evenings.
Kassata Edwards, a native of New York City who has worked as a reporter and anchor in cities in California, Nevada, and Washington state, will anchor weekdays.
• The thought of watching the twohour opener of “Celebrity Apprentice” on Sunday ranked up there with the idea of watching the Oscar show over again. But I accidentally ran into the final 15 minutes when Donald Trump was deciding whether “to fire” Andrew Dice Clay, Dennis Rodman or Herschel Walker after they tried to defend themselves. I had two immediate thoughts. 1) Can’t he fire all three? 2) Why would anyone watch this show?
For the record, Clay was fired, apparently because he threatened to quit the show first.
• Local ratings for “American Idol” continue to decline. It remains a popular show here, but no longer appears invulnerable. Last Thursday’s results show won its time period with a 12.4 rating on WUTV, which is low by “Idol” standards. Wednesday’s twohour performance episode had a 14.9 rating and was second from 9 to 10 p. m. to “Criminal Minds” on Channel
4. Several CBS series, including “NCIS,” “The Mentalist,” “Criminal Minds” and “CSI” have had stronger ratings here recently that “Idol.”
Of course, many series—including “24,” “Lost” and “Heroes”—have suffered ratings declines. Some of it can be attributable to time shifting. More and more people watch shows in DVRs and Web sites now at their own convenience.
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