Wednesday Random Thoughts
No random thoughts today becasue I'm off doing my paper route. But we do have the "24" guy to break down Monday's show and it's an excellent recap. Don't forget we have trivia tonight at Game On and Bubble Hockey on Thursday at the Sports Depot. I'm recruiting hard for both events especially bubble hockey.
First of all, that was probably one of the worst episodes of "24" in recent memory. When I see the " Graphic Violence, Viewer Discretion Advised" disclaimer before the start, it's usually a good sign there will be a sizable body count and at least one cringe inducing interrogation scene . Last night we were bitterly disappointed. What were they thinking about? They reel in millions of new fans with the season premiere, there is a huge buzz about the show, people who didn't watch the first four episode are told by friends what they are missing and tune in expecting greatness, but instead are forced to watch what was basically a prime time soap opera. The only action in the first 50 minutes was my wife wrestling away the fork I wanted to stick in my eye during the Celine/Jack reunion scene. The whole episode was probably the second most disappointing entertainment experience of my life, trailing only slightly behind my 2002 flight to Maui where I endured the emasculating experience of being forced to watch " Beaches" &" Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" back to back. ( When I got off the plane I quickly walked to the airport bar, downed several shots of tequila, scratched myself, then hit on the waitress just to be sure I hadn't been adversely affected)
If there was a silver lining last night, it was Chole once again proving you can be stunningly beautiful and a great actress. She was tremendous, starting with the look of confusion on her face when Edgar waddled by and spat " not now " when she tried to stop him on his way to tell Buchanan the news about the nerve gas being "mil-spec" and she gave that puzzled look and said," since when do you say not now?" ( Btw, I like when someone uses lingo like "mil- spec" only to have whomever they use it on explain the word immediately after. Edgar: "The nerve gas must be mil-spec". Curtis:" Yes, the gas is definitely made to military specifications". Thanks for the translation Curtis). She also killed Stewey telling him" I just did " when he said " no one talks to me like that ". Classic stuff. Someday, when I write my book about her, I'm going to call it "Tea with Chloe: Deep Secrets and Unfairly Harsh Sayings".
On the other side of the spectrum was the wasted 20 minutes we had to watch Celine. I have to admit that it was funny when Rudy asked her to interview Diane regarding Jack, and when asked why she should be the one to do it, he basically said " because you were both f**ing him", and she was like "um, uh, okay". The actual interrogation was also humorous, with Celine asking personal questions about their relationship. Diane, having none of that, pretty much said "Jack told me he was tired of your skinny a**s anyway, and that he wanted a real woman he could grab hold of ". Celine gave her the " b*tch, oh no you didn't " look and I'm pretty sure they were a moment away from giving us a "Beth & Montana" moment till Jack showed up in the window. How great would it be at the end of the day for the two of them to be in a "Beach Brawl" to see who gets Jack and who has twenty minutes to leave CTU? ( If you have no idea what that meant, don't worry, it just means you are probably over the age of 25 and watch alot less television then the person writing this)
As far as the actual terrorist story-line, not much happened last night. The bad guys drove the nerve gas out in a UPS looking truck. Not too suspicious. ( What can brown do for you? Transport nerve gas apparently.) Funny stuff when Curtis rode only about 100 feet on the side of the car to get to the hanger they had exited from. When they break down the door and discover the empty canister holder, Curtis squints at it for a moment, recalling past seasons of nuclear material and viruses, before deciding to send the terrified looking guy next to him down to check it out. Curtis then wanders around before discovering the most ridiculous fake looking rats I've ever seen. The gopher in "Caddyshack" looked more authentic. I was half expecting Carl Spackler to wander by and ask Curtis if he wanted to do a few cannonballs.
The last 5 minutes were somewhat re-deeming, with Jack being able to save himself by using the old " blank computer monitor as mirror" trick for, by my count, the eleventh time in the past 5 years. If screen savers existed in "24 Land" Jack probably would have been killed several times over by now. Until that scene I was wishing I could trade places with Tony and sleep through the whole episode. ( Btw, solid acting job by Tony. Is he getting paid for this?)