Review: 24 710

710: '5pm - 6pm'

Wr: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Dr: Milan Cheylov

Synopsis: Dubaku's attempt to flee the country is cut short when his decision to take his girlfriend along proves to be his undoing, and leads to a breakthrough for Jack and Renee. The moles within the FBI are uncovered when Chloe's decryption skills are put to the test by Sean who attempts a last-ditch effort to save himself.

Review: Ask any self-respecting 24 fan and they'll tell you that the first compromise you have to make as a viewer of the show is to let all notions of believability fall by the wayside. While the production staff essentially made it difficult for themselves from the get go by making the bloody central concept that all the action occurs in real time, they quickly realised that some of life's more irritating roadblocks - traffic, distance, procrastination - would have to be circumnavigated if they were to successfully compose an entertaining show. So, instead of showing the 46 minutes it would actually take for a driver to get from A to B in rush hour traffic, they cut it all down to about 7 minutes tops and hope that you'll just accept the contrivance... and, let's face it, more often than not, we would rather do so than endure the mind-numbing boredom that would more closely reflect reality. So, on this theme, there's a moment in '5pm - 6pm' in which a police officer helicopters an important piece of information to FBI HQ in less than five minutes. Never mind the distance, would it even make it into the Director's hands in that short a timeframe? Surely it would go through a complicated screening process first? But then, we swallow the pill because it moves the plot forward, keeps the tension high and ensures our viewing experience is a riveting one. Problem is, there's a rather large number of these contrivances in this particular hour and it has a knock on effect on its quality.

Sticking with the policeman, really, would Jack hand this highly volatile, ultra-classified data stick to a member of Metro PD and trust it to get to the head of FBI DC where there's a bloody government conspiracy going on?! Okay, I buy that it perhaps doesn't infiltrate the local agencies but Bauer's placing a whole lot on chance to expect the guy not to be intercepted before he gets to Moss. Surely he'd trust no one other than himself in such a dangerous situation? And then there's the small matter of the data stick itself: sure, placing it inside yourself is a guaranteed way of keeping it safe but can anyone say 'been there, done that, bought the T-shirt'? Remember the Coral Snake dude in season 2? Same scenario. The moment loses any power it may have had because it is just so damn predictable. And how about the magical Epinephrine, the drug that wakes everyone and their uncle up from SERIOUS TRAUMA and conveniently allows us to acquire the information we need? I am willing to accept this, I suppose, but it just seems rather rushed: Dubaku's giving up his only leverage within seconds of coming back around! All it takes is for Bauer to threaten his family and whoop, dastardly plot over. Is this going to be Jack's answer to everything to this season? Get to the wife and kid: they'll solve it all for us! How about a terrorist who is willing to sacrifice his loved ones? Or one with no ties at all? Don't make it so damn easy!

There are problems elsewhere too. While the introduction of Erica into the inter-agency conspiracy is nicely handled as it is purely organic, worked into a natural conversation with Sean at the start of the episode that doesn't contain exchanges like "what do you want?" "Well, I'm part of this conspiracy Sean, I have been from the beginning, I helped you, I orchestrated everything, I demand to know what's going on!" but instead, throws you off a bit until you realise that, yes, the bitch's dirty too, its context is so utterly ludicrous that it loses some of its magic. These two have a conversation about their duplicitous, highly illegal activities AS THEY WALK FROM SEAN'S DESK TO A COMMUNAL REST AREA AND THEN BACK AGAIN! Oh come on! I suppose there's something to be said for 'hiding in plain sight' but this is just ridiculous. Anyone in the local area, not just immediate earshot, would be able to hear what they're saying... and what they're saying is thoroughly incriminating. You'd find somewhere to meet... go outside for a fag, find a broom closet, anything! It considerably weakens the scene, making it come across as poorly thought out and arguably a little rushed (a common theme of the hour, it seems). The remainder of the duo's plot is generally well executed, with a prominent sense of urgency and fear coming across at all points and a lovely moment of conniving backstabbing in which Sean brutally murders his lover (this is wonderfully shot), but the comedy lingers around in the background as first, there is the absurdity of the CREEPY, BLACKENED SERVER ROOM WITH NO SURVEILLANCE and then, after the systems are wiped and they lose all their data in a fantastically catastrophic moment, Chloe fixes it all within minutes! And worse, she actually says, "don't ask me how I did it"! Talk about your deux et machinas... she mumbles something incomprehensible about 'mirrors' and we're supposed to just accept that her innate genius has saved us all again. Um, no. Ms O'Brien has stopped being a character of her own and has turned into a plot device on legs: one that can be brought out of the woodwork whenever there's a messy technological problem to sort out and she'll do it in an instant. How about she doesn't fix things for once? How about they have to work against the odds to resolve a problem? It's just too damn convenient and, while I appreciate that the writers are keeping their feet firmly on the accelerator and trying to ensure that we are being fed plot, plot and more plot rather than unnecessary 'emotional' distractions (which I am very pleased with, by the way), there are better, less absurd ways of doing so than this.

'5pm - 6pm' is an interestingly structured episode in this regard. Coto and Braga's script essentially ties everything up by around 17:46; we have Dubaku in custody, Sean and Erica exposed, the President back in the White House and the list of people involved in the government conspiracy revealed to the good guys. Consequently, as a few self-reflective, emotive sequences play out, the viewer is encouraged to begin thinking about just where they're gonna go next. With fourteen hours left, there's no way on Earth that all we're going to see is Bauer preparing for his trial and the President crying over her sick husband. Something has to happen. And as the clock ticks ever closer to the closing minutes of the hour, we begin to expect that it'll be a sudden, shocking cliffhanger that changes everything around... and then, pleasingly, it's not. Our expectations are shattered. Jack sits on some steps and looks out over a beautiful sunset (at 5.56pm... as it is EVERY SEASON!! Why must the 'longest days of Jack Bauer's life' always occur in late Winter?!) and EVIL TONY comes and sits beside him, ready to tell him about an impending second attack, initiated by Tony Todd, sorry General Juma, himself. Well, that was nicely timed, wasn't it? While I accept that this turn in the narrative has to happen, and I'm fine with the nature of the impending trajectory (especially when it is tied back to the Senator who was grilling Jack in the opening episode... he's a fabulous actor, good to have him back), did it really have to occur just when everything else was resolved? Oh, we've got a clean slate so... Tony must show up and muddy it! That's not how life works guys and it's not something I'm willing to overlook when it can be so easily resolved in a believable manner. Have Tony turn up at the start of the hour instead. Have him complicate matters even further while the other action is still going on. It'd increase the tension manyfold. Sure, it wouldn't allow Jack to sit on some steps and contemplate life, love and the pursuit of ELTON JOHN'S OSCAR PARTIES, but do we even need this at this stage of the game? Is it not better left until the closing hours of the season? And just how did Tony know where Jack would be anyway, huh? Hmph.

You wouldn't know it from what you've just read but there's some excellent material in this episode and it's largely character based. Cherry Jones is top notch as the grief-stricken President again, Jeffrey Nordling plays Moss' anger and frustration to perfection and Kiefer Sutherland and Annie Wersching are given some beautiful material to work with in the Bauer/Walker dynamic. The scene in the hospital, in particular, is absolutely excellent: thankfully, Renee's emotional outburst is not merely followed by a moment in which the heroic, all-knowing man comforts her, but is supplemented with an additional beat that returns their relationship to a very cold place when she counters Jack's "you'll learn to live with it" with a very sharp "I don't want to live with it." Much more believable and far more emotionally complex and interesting. Plus, she gets to slap Bauer! Three times! And gets away with it! That's surely unprecedented. The first twelve minutes of the episode are superbly executed too, with the direction, cinematography and music coming together to create an intensely dramatic chase sequence and aftermath. It's all in the little touches here, like Jack screaming "get back in the car!" to the civilians dying for a peek at the action. Brilliant stuff. If only the remainder of the episode could be of this high degree of quality and not fraught with illogical plot decisions and lazy, unbelievable writing. Sometimes I do feel like I'm nitpicking too much, that I should swallow more than I am willing to, and then I remind myself that 24 can be superb and bereft of major plot holes when it sets its mind to it. So why can't it do it more often? This is still a strong piece of television by any standards... it's just not as strong as it could so easily be. 7.4