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24 Countdown - 7pm
Ok, I'll admit that my interest in this show had been waning of late. Perhaps I was suffering some kind of Jack Bauer style fatigue during the episodes immediately following his family's rescue from the Ira Gaines compound. I'd been drifting along waiting for the show to wind up in the way you want the day at work to end if you hadn't slept the previous night, but following this episode I'm glad to say my enthusiasm has been fully restored following a 'power-nap' of 'star-power'!
For a start, the underground prison Jack stumbles upon in the middle of nowhere is dead cool, as were the guards using stun-prods on him when he got too close. Even better than this was the appearance of Lou Diamond Phillips out of Wolf Lake as the chief warden. Subconsciously, you just knew that the show was gearing up again.
Lou and Kiefer in less fashionable days
So anyway, Jack's in this underground prison thing and, after some arguing with Lou Diamond, finds out that a new prisoner is being delivered in a few minutes. Jack again use his infallible psychic hunches and works out that the Drazens must be coming to bust him out.
Smug
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Senator Palmer continues to give dull speeches about his moral character to anyone who will listen. No wonder Sherry always looks pissed off.
Back at the prison, Jack scares the terrorists off by dressing up the janitor in riot gear and then argues with Lou Diamond some more to let him see the prisoner. Lou says no, so Jacks goes and looks anyway, breaking the law for about the 425th time in this series.
Kalamity Kim
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, the unlucky Kim falls arse over tit into trouble again and now finds herself in prison. I wouldn't want her picking my lottery numbers.
Still to come though, was the traditional hourly twist, and this time it wasn't obvious and did not disappoint. The prisoner's identity was revealed as none other than Victor Drazen (the main guy behind Jack's bad day)! He's alive, and he's played by Dennis Hopper! Wow!
Stupid things this episode: It went from late afternoon sun to pitch black in about 5 minutes. Probably due the difficulty of filming sunsets, but even so, pretty lazy.
Top 10 most useless characters in 24 so far:
(it would have been 24 but I can't think of that many and I'm sure you don't want to read that many)
1. Andre Drazen - Lasted about two hours then stabbed by a woman. Some terrorist he turned out to be.
2. Teddy Hanlin - The CTU sniper, comes in at 5pm, gives Jack a load of shit over the radio, then cocks up the mission by killing the suspect. Great job man.
3. Mandy - The plane exploding girl, where did she go?
4. Bridgit - The plane exploding sister, did the writers forget about this plotline completely?
5. Alberta Green - Comes in, gives Nina some crap about Jack, gone just as soon as she arrived.
6. Melanie - The drug deal girl. Imagine getting told off by a prissy princess like Kim. Honestly.
7. Dr. Ferragamo - Appears about midday, dead within the hour.
8. Jessie Hampton - Policewoman, appears at 03:30, has speaking role, dead within twenty minutes, a record?
9. Eli - The terrorist. Allows Teri and Kim to steal a gun and a phone, then dies. Possibly the least competent guard since the Kommandant in The Great Escape.
10. Milo - The computer guy. Did he go home? Did anyone at CTU notice?
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