24 1-2pm (spoilers)

24
Mondays 9pm ET/PT
Fox
Imagine Television
Real Time Productions
Twentieth Century Fox Television
Jan. 26 episode: 1-2pm

I'm still trying to keep all the characters straight. I just can't get over the serious breach of protocol of a Secret Service assignee having just one Secret Service agent. Agents always work at least in pairs, probably to prevent a situation just like this one, in which one agent decides to do the exact opposite of his mission. Agent Gedge is working for the Conspiracy and is to murder Henry Taylor, the First Man--the president's husband. The Conspiracy already succeeded in killing off Roger Taylor, the First Son, and Samantha Roth (played by the lovely Carly Pope, last seen in the WB's show Popular), Roger's girlfriend. Is that paralytic Gedge slipped Henry intended to cause permanent damage? Will he live to explain everything? What a gripping cliffhanger! I'm really excited.

The CIP module reminds me of that movie Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, 1992 - I knew it was long ago because River Phoenix was in it). The movie featured a guy who invented a universal decoder, and that's what the CIP module sounds like. It's already been used to cause a runway incursion and now, a midair collision of a very full flight and a private jet. Just for added effect, this was within clear view of the Oval Office. More wanton destruction of human life. I can certainly understand the president's reluctance to give into the terrorist Dubaku's demands. Would a president really knowingly take a cellphone call from a terrorist, even with the situation she was in? I didn't understand that; it seemed more like a tv effect. I mean, no one gets through to the president.

So Chloe O'Bryan, Bill Buchanan, Tony Almeida, and now Jack Bauer are running this rogue CTU operation with a laptop, a few cellphones and a GMC van? Oh come on! That makes almost no sense at all. Back in Los Angeles, CTU was a serious operation employing dozens of people. And now we're down to a pair of field agents and two behind the scenes? (Sadly, computer geek Edgar Stiles is dead. They need him.) I find that very hard to believe.

Dubaku planned on double-crossing Almeida! That's just not going to happen!

I did not see the trailer for next week; it does not follow the online presentation of the episode. I am sure it will be very exciting.

The presentation at fox.com is excellent. Some commercial breaks didn't even have the single commercial to which I've become accustomed while watching episodes online. The clock flashed on the screen and came right back.

24 8am-12n

24
Imagine Entertainment
Real Time Productions
20th Century Fox
Fox
Mondays 9pm ET/PT
Episodes 1-4: 8am-12n
Running time: approx 1:24

Carlos Bernard gained some weight.

A good friend of mine never doubted Carlos Bernard's loyalty to CTU because of his Cubs coffee mug. He turned out to be right this time, too, I think. He's Deep Cover? A film with Laurence Fishburne from the previous Bush Administration--around 1991 or so. We've seen this sort of thing before--I distinctly remember someone submitting to pretty serious torture in a previous 24 season to avoid giving up who he was working for. (Can't remember that part.)

Anyone else catch Popular alumna Carly Pope as deceased First Son's ex-girlfriend Samantha Roth? And Janeane Garofalo as an FBI agent--seriously?

I'm trying to figure out the connection between Roger Taylor's murder, his friend's murder, and the vast governmental conspiracy.

The runway incursion and near-crash of two aircraft reminds me of Die Hard II, in which terrorists guided a landing aircraft to a crash by giving inaccurate landing information. Also the clandestine meeting of First Husband Henry Taylor and Samantha at the Tidal Basin reminded me of the murder of the congressman by Jon Voight & Co. that started the surveillance classic Enemy of the State.

This was a gripping opening. I hope the next 20 hours play out just as well.