06.30 30 Rock
07.00 Rules Of Engagement
07.30 24
08.30 24
10.30 24
30 Rock. Season 3, Episode 17. "Cutbacks" Liz has to make budget cuts, Jack is firing people and Tracy & Jenna think Kenneth is a mass murderer.
The genius of 30 Rock is not only making comedy from the recession, a financial crisis we are all dealing with in the real world, but in pairing that with a storyline that is surreal and cartoonish. Quite an accomplishment.
Rules Of Engagement. Season 3, Episode 12. "House Money" Jeff has some extra cash, so he and Audrey decide to blow it all. But they miscalculate...
Wonderful.
I think I love this show because most of the a-stories are about a married couple who spend a lot of time together and enjoy each other's company. Early seasons generated too many plots by making Jeff dumb and obnoxious, but the third season has ceased that habit, made Audrey central to most of the stories (including this one) and simply left the couple to do their thing.
The conflict in this episode is especially clever. Drama and Comedy both need conflict of some sort to drive the engine of the story. Here the conflict mostly comes from each characters own in-build expectations and goals.
The whole episode is Jeff and Audrey out together for a meal. Nothing still happens, but there are many supremely funny moments and it's just a blast from start to finish.
And I know I'm going to get that every week. A really cool married couple who like one another and do lots of stuff together. I think I just like tuning in to see that.
24. Season 7, Episode 22. "5AM - 6AM" Jibraan is forced onto the subway with the ticking bomb under a nearby seat, Chloe and Janice bicker (while saving the day), Jack runs Tony off the road and hits him in the face. A lot. Agent Aaron Piece makes a phone call to someone we like very much, and Kim Bauer meets two very nice people at the airport.
Another superb episode.
1. Jibraan's final episode is packed full of tension. So far he's been a victim/hostage but with this episode he gets a chance to step up and be a hero. And herein lies the genius of 24. Jack is too far away to help. So he gets on Jibraan's earpiece and tells him what to do. We like Jibraan. A lot. Traditionally, the innocent people in 24 don't do very well. They have a 50/50 chance of survival. So, while we know that Jibraan will almost certainly save the day, we have no way of knowing whether he will live or die in the act. Great stuff.
2. Olivia's storyline gets better and better. Despite all that she has done, we kinda like the girl. Now she is in way over her head and things are getting worse. Part of the reason I like her, I think, is the fact that Aaron Pierce likes her and the two of them have fantastic chemistry. He's the most decent person they have ever had on the show (except, maybe, for David Palmer) and he's really fond on the conniving little bitch. So, we reason, she can't be all bad. Having said that, I cheered when Aaron picked up the phone and called a character I honestly thought was gone from the show for good. I really thought that that character was screwed and out of the show. It seems not... Yay!
3. The biggest surprise for me (apart from the above-mentioned phone call) was the abundance of wonderful, funny scenes between Chloe and Janice. And, thanks to Chloe being in the picture, I honestly find myself liking Janice for the first time this season. It's a pairing that shouldn't work, since Janice is nothing more than Chloe-lite but - for some reason that only the gods of truly good writing and great cast chemistry understand - the two of them light up the screen when the bicker and squabble. Chloe had some of her best-ever lines in this episode and Mary Lynn Rajskub is awesome.
4. Kim is in danger again! I can't believe they are going down this route. But, having said that, I have to admit that... it works. The dilemma it creates for Jack is one they have used on the show many times before, but... it works. Bottom line: they shocked me with this twist and I cannot wait to see what happens next.
24. Season 7, Episode 23. "6AM-7AM" Jack breaks Tony out of FBI custody, there's a shoot-out at the airport, Olivia detains Ethan with a view towards getting her hands on - and destroying - the memory chip with her incriminating conversation.
On all fronts this was a superb episode of 24.
1. Kim Bauer turns action heroine and goes after the man who might be able to lead her to her kidnapped father. It's a great plotline and it's strange/wonderful to find myself so aggressively rooting for Kim Bauer of all people. Maybe all memories of the cougar incident are gone forever. Aside from Kim Bauer going all Jack Bauer on us (yay!) there's a lot of other cool stuff going on at the airport. The shoot-out at the airport was frantic and exciting and an example of typical 24. The stunt with the car looked great, filmed - as it was - with Kim in the foreground. Then the battle for the laptop, as both Kim and the bad guy caught fire, put a perfect cap on a perfect sequence.
2. Over at the White House we got to see some great scenes with Aaron and Ethan, as they plotted the take down of this season's other bad guy/gal: Olivia. Sprague Grayden's performance wad different in this episode: there's no trace of niceness in Olivia this time. Perhaps it's to make us dislike her a bit more so we'll enjoy her upcoming fall from grace (if that is what, in fact, happens). Or maybe it's just the character resolving herself to her course of action. She sent the funds in this episode, so I presume she's knuckling down and preparing to defend her position.
3. Tony and Jack's storyline, finds Jack a prisoner and Tony asking the woman in his life to let him get close to the Major Bad Guy of the season. Why? I hope they are doing this to provide Tony with some sort of redemption in the final episode. I hope we will see Tony in a different light after another hour of the show. I hope it has something do with getting vengeance for the murder of Michelle. And I hope it will allow me to keep liking The Tony That Was when the story is over. Jack makes a spectacular escape in the final minutes of the episode. An escape I didn't expect. Despite the fact that Jack is always escaping from situations exactly like this one. It totally caught me off guard.
So: the season finale is upon us! Jack's free and pissed off, Tony's a bad guy but he clearly has a an agenda, and Ethan finally knows that Olivia is bad. What can he do about it?
24. Season 7, Episode 24. "7AM - 8AM" Tony captures Jack and straps a bomb to him, explaining his end game. The President has to choose between her family and her job. Agent Walker steps over the line...
Magnificent.
The best season-ender, to the best season of the best television show ever made.
1. The Tony story arc comes to a satisfying conclusion. In fact, this is scene-for-scene how I wanted it to end. Tony did what he did because of his love for Michelle. Her death sent him over the edge, and - after that - he was willing to do anything to get to the ones responsible. It's a wonderful story and more than redeems him to my satisfaction. The writers are remarkable for being able to pull that off. Tony has killed innocents. He killed Larry (and we liked Larry) and they managed to put it all in perspective. Even better, they left him alive. That's ballsy. They set it up so it looked as if Jack would go for the killshot. And he didn't (need to) take it. Great writing. Satisfying storytelling.
2. The structure of the episode speaks of the confidence of the writers/producers. The big action stuff happens at the start of the episode and it out of the way by the mid-point. The second half of the episode is all about up-close drama and quiet personal scenes. The most dramatic moment of the whole episode (the turning of a head) happened with no dialogue anywhere near it. Again, this speaks volumes of the confidence of a writer who knows they have a great story and knows that they know how to tell it.
3. The performances were amazing. Cherry Jones and Colm Feore did their finest work this season in this episode. The portrait of a family being torn apart was heart-breaking to watch. This is story material that 24 rarely touches upon, but when they go here they know how to tell the story. And with people like Jones and Feore to bring the story to life we are in safe hands. After weak/mean Presidents and silly/boring Presidents, the show has delivered onto us again a President with Integrity that we can love and admire. It's like have David Palmer back. The show has come full circle.
4. With Jack, Tony and Agent Walker you get three sides of the same coin. Tony is the extreme: The good guy who has narrowed his vision so much that he loses sight of the collateral damage he inflicts. Jack is in the middle: The hero who is willing to do unspeakable things to get the right thing done, but who never loses sight of the cost of his actions. Walker is the other extreme: The innocent who stays inside the rules and doesn't understand the costs of going beyond them. With these three characters the show set up an interesting dynamic and made a powerful point. This season could be described as the story/journey of any of these three characters. The fact that the gave the final moment of the episode/season to Agent Walker speaks volumes about the story and it's subtext.
5. For the second episode in a row, the show showed us that pairing Chloe with Janice is a stroke of genius. Chloe has always been awesome, but Janise only really became awesome in these final two episodes. When she was paired with Chloe. Which is ironic, of course, because she's basically a clone of Chloe: The Walker/Janice dynamic is the same as the Jack/Chloe dynamic. Yet, for reasons that I would never have predicted, putting both of them side by side makes them both sparkle. Having the season end with Chloe doing her best to give Janice a compliment, and watching Janice light up when she received the compliment, was the perfect end to their partnership. For this season. Hopefully, the producers know that they are on to a good thing here and will keep this duo in action, together. Many action shows in the past have made us through scene of pathetic comic relief watching bland supporting characters. Here, on 24, you have a wonderful creation - Chloe - played by a wonderful actress - Mary Lynn Rajskub - who can be funny, heroic, sweet, clever, hot and human. In the midst of all the craziness, she can be human and real. Her presence can counterpoint anything else happening onscreen and - most important - the audience loves her. Passionately. We deeply care about her and want her to be happy, okay, acknowledged by Jack and loved by her husband. This season was possibly her best. Hopefully, she's in every episode next year. With Janice not far behind.
6. For the second episode in a row... Kim Bauer was cool. I really liked her in the final minutes of the episode, as she showed herself to be Jack Bauer's daughter and went in - all guns blazing - to get what she wants.
7. The power of this finale was not diminished at all by the fact that many elements of it were easy to predict. I hoped that Tony would be revealed to be working on an agenda to avenge his dead wife. I could only see two possible endings to the Olivia storyline and, when they went the route of exposing her, I could predict how the President would behave. We always knew that Kim would save Jack at the end of the season. We knew it, but it was still satisfying to see it happen. In this way, the show as not 'predictable' in a bad way. Rather, it fulfilled on the promise of all these storylines. In spades.
8. Not since the heyday of Wiseguy has a television series so excited and inspired me. Wiseguy pioneered a new type of storytelling, and now - twenty years later - 24 is doing the same thing. Even the subject matter is sometimes similar. Jack's speech here on the laws and the lawmakers reminded me of Vinnie's pontifications during the Washington D.C./Japanese Yen storyarc on Wiseguy. Both shows are action fare, with depth and scope far beyond everything else on TV.
I love 24 with a passion. I don't think I have ever been more proud to say that than I am tonight.
Highlight? 24 (magnificent)
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Wed, May 20, 09 - 30 Rock, Rules Of Engagement, 24
