From USA Today: ‘24′ hours later, it’s time for Audrey

From the article: “After thwarting plans for detonating suitcase nukes in Monday’s episode, 24’s action hero was hit with a staggering good news/bad news scenario: His true love, Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), is not dead, as he had been told, but is being held by his Chinese nemeses.”

I dunno…it’s clear they had to change directions, since this year has been little more than a pale rehash of other season’s perils (the 25th Amendment again…please…), but I’m not happy with the quick way the main plotline was handled, nor the convenient telephone call that launches us into a completely different direction.

Indeed, I know the writers on this show pride themselves with not knowing what’s going to happen from one episode to another (this has to be the first time outside of Congress I’ve seen people think it’s a good thing to be intentionally ignorant), but it’s long-past time they actually plotted an entire season in advance instead of flailing around like some fish on a pier - this nonsense (and the moronic box they painted themselves into at the end of last season) is exactly why this season has been the weakest of all…and it isn’t just me who thinks so, it’s everyone I’ve talked to, everyone I’ve read, everyone I’ve heard. While I’m sure you could say this about every serialized drama (Prison Break, anyone?), it’s particularly annoying on 24, since we’ve gotten into the habit of paying attention to the first six and last six episodes of every season, and completely ignoring the middle 12, which we know have nothing to do with the “real” plotline. (Hey, when’s the last time you wondered if Morris took a drink? Anyone remember that Chloe is even working at CTU?)

I’m also distressed at the writers completely ignoring the clock. During season 1, the clock was quite literally a co-star…other than the “cheats” required to handle the top-of-the-hour timeshifts (two minutes of “Previously on 24,” three minutes at the end for commercials, etc.) the clock actually ran in real-time - heck, even the mid-commercial cutouts reminded us where the characters were at that moment. Now, they’ve thrown all that out the window along with any solid plotting; Presidents make love in under three seconds, Jack is healed from years of torture in ten minutes, interrogations take seemingly hours of screen time until inconvenient, then it’s under five minutes to have CTU set up a complex sting operation…well, you get the idea. I don’t mind suspending disbelief, but if your “gag” is the real-time clock, then damnitall, use it as a plot device instead of ignoring it for convenience. I’m not talking cheating about driving across LA, I’m talking about doing the impossible in no time at all. C’mon, people, your viewers aren’t idiots, and it’s high time you stopped treating us as such. Drop the vanity of thinking you can get ourself out of any corner you paint yourself into…you can’t, and you’ve proved it beyond all doubt this season (after working darned hard at proving it season last).

Buck up, kids, or you’ll lose us all. You’re a whole lot closer at losing me than I ever thought possible after the first hour of season 1, when I realized at 1:00 AM that I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Lately, by the end of the episode, I’m just yawning.

Quick funny story, though…last night, Katie got up for a drink in the middle of the show. She came into the room for a quick night-night kiss just as Jack was shot and lying in the middle of the street. I said to my wife, “Gee, I’m not used to seeing Jack lose.” As my beautiful little girl left the room, she softly muttered, in her little-girl voice, “Yeah, unless you’re playing him,” a clear reference to my skills playing 24: The Game on the PlayStation2 (which, come to think of it, has a better thought-out plotline than the last two television seasons). When did she turn into a sardonic little mini-me?