"24:" Random, Meandering Thoughts (The TV Zone)

All over, the seventh day from hell, and much to explore but no time to, so let's go to the bullets:

* Overall, inconclusive. This finale, more than any I can recall, built a bridge to the eighth day, in New York. Jack lives, of course, Mr. Big - AKA Wilson - may or may not. Tony definitely lives. Expect to see them all next season - Tony particularly, as an embittered, incarcerated, 20-day-old-stubbled crank in some jail cell, still spouting emotives about"MY SON MY SON" and establishing ties with the New Evil Baddie to wreak havoc on our fair city and revenge on our head-butting hero.

* Mister Big - AKA Wilson. So he's the master evil genius - the guy who piloted every nasty rotten duplicitous ignominious obstreperous act of infamy up to and including the offing of President Palmer? He looks like the guy who did my taxes and maybe your's too - as menacing as an accountant, as scary as an insurance adjuster. This is the problem with "24" - it kills off all the plausible bad guys and we're left, in the end, with an implausible one.

* Is Renee on the moral equivalency scale alongside Tony? I mean, if she kills Mr. Big, then wouldn't that be one conclusion - albeit an erroneous one given the fact that Tony did after all kill a few hundred, including Mr. Big's squeeze (and his), while Renee's body count, though considerable, is comprised of mostly bad guys? "24" likes to explore the various dimensions of its various action heroes, and how - on one extreme - they become Tony's and - on the other, lonely broken-down head-butters without life or love. Renee's on the fast-track to that extreme, with Larry's body now barely cold, though one suspects she and Jack will discover interpersonal salvation, if ya know what I mean, on day 8.

* Finally, Olivia, and the story that was much ado about nothing. I thought the Olivia-kills-Hodges storyline one of the weakest threads of the entire season and indeed, its silly resolution very nearly ruined the last hour (for me.) The whole premise wasn't only bogus but so was the set-up; there was dad, sitting in his chair the day after suffering a gunshot wound in the chest, looking as though the worst thing he was suffering from was a hang-nail, telling mom to destroy the tape! And there was mom, predictably upholding the Constitution - as though buried within it is some special codicil reading, "thou shalt not destroy the tape that implicates ye daughter in the assassination of a mass murderer." There was absolutely no emotional pay-off here because - well - Jonas did kill a few hundred on day 7, and so what if he joins them? It was all terribly silly, and absolutely drained the last hour of dramatic momentum. We needed to know about Mr. Big, and his motives, and...

* Oh yes, finally Jack. My last question/observation - Why couldn't all this business about stem cells have been resolved four hours ago? Yes, of course Jack told Kim to get lost, but - really - why? Why not just say, "OK, let's talk about this in a little more detail when the mayhem has ended..."

You're right. Always little to be gained from seeking pure logic in "24."

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"24:" Random, Meandering Thoughts

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