Tuesday, April 19, 2005

24 - 4x18 "12:00 P.M.-1:00 A.M."

Take that, civil liberties!

Seriously, it was refreshing to see, explicitly, those bleeding heart liberals holding up the process of getting to the bottom of things. Especially when the given instance is so clearly defined in terms of right and wrong, guilt and innocence. Before, the show's ideology was a bit subtler, and I imagine that Dumbocrats didn't really mind so much -- it was just a television show, after all! Torture in the name of unyielding and involuntary patriotism, they might argue, was used merely to advance the plot and/or building suspense. But now the gloves are off (or almost -- we didn't actually witness any torture this episode -- dang!), and the show has blatantly announced where it stands now, foregrounding its politics in terms understandable by regular people who aren't, let's say, elitist Ivory Tower-types who may or may not be working on Masters theses on television. This sort of line-drawing will get those snobs up in such a fuss, I'm sure, that they won't be able to pay attention to the details of the show anymore. Their loss!

But! What was VP Nixon thinking when he at the last second decided to include Fat Walt in the CTU conference? It wasn't exactly in character for either Nixon or Fat Walt, neither of them having been terribly well-established yet. The answer: the writers needed someone to offer a dissenting opinion against Mike Novick who keep Nixon from being decisive and taking action. Baldly done, gents!

Still I have to admit how hardcore Jack was with his "I'm operating outside the bounds of authority to dispense justice, vigilante style!" There's an inner fascist in all us lefties!

Indie rating: Team Dresch - "Hate the Christian Right!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chloe last nite ... oh my god. That was the greatest thing I've seen on TV since the Pistons-Pacers brawl. Oh man. I still can't get over it.
--DM