It's Bauer time

What a lot of attention the last two blogs have received. Apparently a debate about Christianity isn’t interesting enough for some people. The hit counter has gone up quite a bit, which hopefully indicates people have read the discussion, but no-ones been moved to comment or add their own thoughts. Hopefully that will change in the next few days.

Meanwhile, it’s definitely time for something more light-hearted. I feel the blogs over the past few days have been extremely informative, but more serious and thought-provoking and some light-hearted stuff is now required!

You may have noticed on the right-hand side of this blog, links to the TV show, 24. There’s a simple reason for this, it is by far the best programme on TV at present. Next week sees the start of season 6 in the US, and due to the beauty of torrents, it can downloaded here and watched straight after airing in the US. The antics of Jack Bauer, superbly played by Kiefer Sutherland, are gripping, exciting but most of all, extremely entertaining.

In anticipation of the new season, I wanted to talk about 24. However writers more talented than me including Stephen King have been doing the same thing. So instead, I’d like to do something a bit different. Another blogger is currently doing a Best of 24, and without wishing to steal his thunder, I thought I’d do something similar. Today I’m going to discuss my top 5 ‘absurd moments’ on 24 – situations which have defied all reasonable logic and expectations but still remained gripping and exciting. Tomorrow will be about the top 5 ‘Jack Bauer moments,’ looking at classic scenes that only Jack could do. Hopefully those of you who are 24 fans will contribute their own suggestions for their favourite absurd moments…

Absurd moment no. 5 – Taking on military commandos in a gun store (season 4)
Having unsuccessfully prevented the detonation of an EMP bomb (?), Jack finds himself literally in the dark as all electrical equipment has been shutdown, and about to be taken out by a group of commandos. Conveniently he comes across a fully equipped gun store run by two Arab brothers. At the time, 24 was coming in for some heavy criticism for its portrayal of muslims, almost every baddie seemed to be a Arab and this was a weak attempt to redress the balance.

After insisting that the brothers leave, they instead chose to stay and help Jack take on the commandos. Unsurprisingly Jack prevails, but surprisingly the Arab brothers survive as well. Usually Jack’s success comes at a cost of someone else’s life and this time it wasn’t the Arabs, but the husband of his current girlfriend – Bollywood or what?

Jack often finds himself in situations when he is seemingly overwhelmed. But so far, each time he comes through. What a legend! A similar event happened at the beginning of season 4 which saw the return of Tony Almeida. Jack found himself surrounded and out of bullets. Having called “the only man I can trust” only 7 minutes previously, it was quite fortuitous that he should show up at the correct location, take down the henchmen and save Jack. But who cares, it was the return of Tony, a great moment for 24 fans.

Absurd moment no. 4 – The ever so elusive tape (season 5)
The plot of season 5 was about the President being the big baddie. All attempts to take him down rested on the tape recorded by the First Lady’s aide earlier that morning. The tape recorded a conversation between the President and an ex-CTU agent, discussing the killing of former President David Palmer.

The aide then somehow managed to get the tape locked in a security box in a bank in Los Angeles, whilst no-one was looking, even though she was seen to be at the First Lady’s side all day. Having managed to get hold of the tape, Jack then gets captured and re-captured and the tape ends up on a plane on its way to Mexico.

Jack then manages to get on the plane, and in true ‘show & tell’ style, manages to make the plane twist and turn in mid-air – any terrorists watching should take note. Eventually having managed to get the tape back, he then returns to CTU. Instead of insisting that a copy of the tape be made, he hands it over to Chloe for analysis, only for someone to come and delete the recording with a handy laser gadget. All that effort gone to waste.

Absurd moment no. 3 – Nina Myers is the mole (season 1)
At the end of season one, the big twist is the revelation that Nina Myers is the mole at CTU, an apparent masterstroke. Throughout the day she had been supplying information to the Drazens and helped Victor Drazen escape from a high security prison. She had also assisted in the assassination attempt on Senator Palmer, all while working in the confines of a government office, CTU.

However, with further scrutiny, it didn’t actually make sense. If she was the mole, why was she helping Jack and his family escape the clutches of the Drazens’ evil henchmen? Why did she inform Teri, Jack’s wife when she had been inadvertently captured and why did she assist in the capture of Victor’s son when he was attempting to kill the Senator? For entertainment and shock-value it was TV gold, but a bit nonsensical.

The writers attempted something similar in season 5, when the big twist was that the big baddie was the President. Played expertly by Gregory Itzin, he had helped kill a former President (who had previously helped him avert nuclear disaster in season 4) and allowed the Russians to get hold of nerve gas. Where the logic fell down was the fact that earlier he had asked Jack to help him find the Russians and stop the spread of nerve gas. Surely he knew what Jack was capable of and inevitably it was Jack who instigated his downfall by the end of the day.

Absurd moment no. 2 – Sentox nerve gas released in CTU (season 5)
This was a tough call, but eventually I settled for the nerve gas scenario as absurd moment no. 2. CTU had been infiltrated and sentox nerve gas was released throughout the air vents of the building. The main characters manage to stay alive in 3 rooms which are sealed from the outside and the nerve gas can’t get in. Poor Edgar doesn't make it time and is killed.

Time is now limited as the rooms will soon run out of oxygen. Jack devises a plan to go underneath the building into a storage room where the gas can’t enter. Then he’ll hold his breath, walk to a nearby computer, thus breaking the seal of the storage room, and attempt to turn on the air conditioning to expel the gas from the building.

Unfortunately it’s the wrong computer, so Jack returns to the storage room. Now, ignoring the fact that apparently the nerve gas can’t effect the eyes or the nose, Jack manages to get back to the unsealed storage room whilst holding his breath, then Chloe manages to expel the gas from the room and a neat graphic appears on the screen telling her when the room is clear allowing Jack to breath again, how this is possible is unexplained.

Then to add to the absurdity, the computer which can turn on the a/c is located near another agent’s location, played by Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) and unfortunately (or rather conveniently) he will need to turn on the a/c and sacrifice himself because the room he’s in cannot be re-sealed once the gas enters. Therefore, a tiny irrelevant storage room can be re-sealed, but not any other room. It all makes for great drama and a sense of poetic justice (as it was his fault in the first place) but logic goes out the window.

Absurd moment no. 1 – Jack has a heart attack and still saves the day (season 2)
For me, the most absurd moment on 24 was during season 2. Jack has been captured and is being tortured for information. The baddies get a bit carried away and accidentally cause Jack to have a heart attack and he requires CPR to be revived. Being a doctor and having seen people being revived by CPR after a heart attack, it’s impossible to explain what happens next.

Somehow, whilst they give him a moment to recover, Jack gets hold of a lethal injection and injects one of the bad guys and manages to escape. With 12hrs or so remaining of the day, and with terrorists to foil, Jack carries on with his heroic activities as if nothing had ever happened. It’s impossible to for anyone to recover that instantly, let alone be running around and firing guns within hours. Following a heart attack, patients need long rehab and are often limited in their activities for life. Being a doctor means I’m biased, but for me this was easily the most absurd moment on 24.

Absurd though all these scenarios are, they haven’t diluted the enjoyment of 24. To truly enjoy it, logic has to go out of the window. It remains the best show on television and I can’t wait till season 6 starts next week. In true TV style, tune in tomorrow for the top 5 Jack Bauer moments.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?