806: '9pm - 10pm'
Wr: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: President Hassan's moves to quash any dissenters in his country starts to draw concern with President Taylor and other members of the United Nations. Kevin Wade starts to push Dana to the breaking point, forcing her to help him get into an NYPD evidence lock-up for a huge score. Josef has had success in treating his radiation-poisoned brother Oleg, but the treatment is cut short by their father, who is furious. Renee gets the plan back on track to acquire the uranium, but not without a demand by Vladimir, who also, without Renee's knowledge, has plans for the buyer, Jack.
Review: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jack and Renee's undercover soiree continues to be the best thing about 24, with both Sutherland and Werschung acting their little socks off to create something truly captivating. For whatever reason, as soon as the writing staff turn their attention to these characters, they automatically become about ten times better at scripting dialogue (or maybe it's just that the actors are so talented that they can disguise the hokum nature of what they're given). The dynamic between these two, the desperate determination of Jack and the resigned melancholia of Renee, is mesmerising and creates a far greater level of suspense than most of the show's extraneous dramatic events. It helps that they have an excellent foil in Battlestar Galactica's 2 (or Leoben), who plays the duplicitous Vladimir. His quietly methodical portrayal makes for something truly sinister.
It is a slight pity that the writers play the 'madcap' card so early in the day; it would've been nice to see a more tempered progression towards the sort of ruthless masochism and misogyny that is depicted here. Did he really need to threaten Renee so soon after being reunited with her? Was it necessary for him to lapse immediately back to his aggressive ways? Some build would have been nice, as this suddenness gives the story a slightly artificial after taste. Plus, the two make the beast with two backs in the space of about five minutes. We cut to commercial and... bang! That's it. All over. While it's tempting to suggest that this says rather a lot about Vladimir, it's likelier that it as such for convenience's sake. Still, for the most part, this is all very good stuff, and it only improves when Jack shows up dressed like Great Uncle Hans, complete with ludicrous glasses, and starts speaking in plain English with an American accent. If they'd gone the 'cod German' route, this would have fallen flat on its face. Thankfully, we are spared Sutherland's attempts to pronounce his 'w's as 'v's and consequently, we are able to invest in the dramatic tension of the narrative without any niggling distractions.
Elsewhere, President Hassan's predicament proves to be somewhat interesting as the writers continue to layer his character. His knee jerk reaction to the assassination attempt counters our previous impressions but helps to give a more rounded and believable political viewpoint. This works in conjunction with the problems facing Taylor to manufacture some intriguing political manoeuvring, and the inclusion of the European representatives only magnifies this, lifting the urgency and significance of the plot by incorporating a macrocosmic element. Kensei's attempts to save his desperately ill brother are also rather entertaining, even if the boy's murder at episode's end is completely predicable. The only truly problematic storyline belongs to poor old Katee Sackhoff, who must, by now, be thoroughly sick to the back teeth of the pointlessness of what she's been given. No longer is this a passable deviation with some nice acting (well, from Sackhoff anyway). Now it just irritates. The story completely obliterates the narrative's forward momentum and is made even worse by the fact that it's woefully obvious that Agent Ortiz is just going to find everything out and 'bury' (or some such euphemism) Evil Kevin. Couple that with Arlo's frustratingly smarmy attitude to the whole thing and the terrible, terrible combination of 'please, won't you stare at my ass as I walk past?' with AN ACTUAL SHOT OF CHLOE'S ASS and you've got a cringeworthy load of gumf that the show would be infinitely better without.
Generally, '9pm - 10pm' is a fairly solid episode with some interesting plot developments, a number of excellently written and executed scenes (usually involving Sutherland and Werschung) and a great deal of forward momentum. It's just a shame that a horribly redundant storyline and a handful of minor niggles prevent it from being truly great. 7.8
807: '10pm - 11pm'
Wr: Chip Johannessen & Patrick Harbinson
Dr: Milan Cheylov
Synopsis: Jack tries to pull Renee out of the undercover operation with Vladimir, but Renee tries to reassure him that she can get the operation done. President Taylor tries to get answers from President Hassan, who continues his personal war against his opponents including certain members of his own staff. Dana Walsh has to guide ex-boyfriend and former partner-in-crime, Kevin, to a $100,000 score in a police warehouse. Arlo tries to call Chloe's attention to the situation.
Review: Traditionally, 24's '10pm - 11pm' slot is reserved for the kind of suckerpunch-packing episodes that floor you with their intensity, provide the perfect marriage of character drama and edge-of-your-seat plot development and contain the kind of jaw-dropping twists that'll have you reeling in disbelief for weeks on end. In season one, we discovered that ever-reliable Nina Myers was actually a mole. In year two, George Mason sacrificed himself to save millions as a nuclear bomb exploded in the Mojave desert. Year three, Salazar's attempts to secure a deal for the bioweapon were thwarted. And then, in subsequent years, we've had Airforce One crash landing, President Logan revealed as being a duplicitous, conniving SOB, orchestrating a terrorist threat within his own country and so forth. The legacy is a decidedly lofty one that sadly, it takes all of about ten minutes for Chip Johnannessen and Patrick Harbinson to utterly and completely annihilate.
To be fair, the primary reason for the success of previous '10-11pm's is their positioning within the season: usually, they come just after the mid-point, just as the show is about to turn the cogs of the narrative, and channel the plot in a new direction. Here, we're only seven shows into the season so perhaps it's inevitable that it doesn't contain quite the same level of unrelenting surprise and suspense as some of its predecessors. But still, that's no excuse for the laziness on display here. Undoubtedly the worst offender is the extraneous Dana/Kevin storyline, which continues to go absolutely nowhere of any interest. While it's still highly likely that Agent Ortiz will put an end to the man as soon as he cottons on to his missus's dodgy past, that moment shows no signs of appearing any time soon. Instead, we get to see how Kevin's robbery plays out in excruciatingly protracted detail. Far, far too much time is spent on this story, with the writers even injecting moments of realism to pad everything out... so the hapless criminals get the wrong case number because they mishear Dana, they engage in ludicrous water pistol fights, and so on. While such things are inherently welcome in 24, since the show purports to be representative of real time and could do with a bit more verisimilitude now and again, they only serve to irritate here because the last thing any of us want is to waste any more precious minutes on this God awful, pointless display of procrastination.
To make matters worse, on CTU's end, no one bats an eyelid at the fact that Dana keeps sneaking off, without any semblance of stealth whatsoever, to a dodgy back room, all the while conversing on her mobile (WHY IS THIS ALLOWED??!!) at a perfectly audible level so that everyone can hear her. Oh sure, Arlo thinks she's having an affair and Chloe at least acknowledges that something's up, but given the serious implications that such behaviour has had throughout the agency's history, you'd think someone would consider this a red flag. From a storytelling perspective, it's so tired it's untrue. Every single beat has been utilised countless times before, and consequently, it's a struggle to feel any sense of engagement with the narrative. It's as if the writing staff get together at the start of a season with a checklist of 'required elements' and simply construct their plot as a result. How about not, eh guys? How about throwing the rule book out of the window and starting afresh? Daring to do something more? Sometimes, what's comfortable isn't necessarily what's best.
Frustratingly, at times, it seems like Johnannessen and Harbinson know this. As with the past three episodes, Jack and Renee's undercover operation is undoubtedly the highlight of the hour. The reason? It dares to take the narrative in unexpected, and previously unexplored, directions. We've never really seen this kind of concentration on a regular character's emotional stability in the show before (with the possible exception of President Logan in season five). In a way, it contravenes the fundamental laws of 24 in that it doesn't propel the plot forward in itself. It's effectively a pause, a diversion, but thankfully, because it's so wonderfully written and such care is taken with the character represented, it works beautifully. It certainly helps that Annie Werschung is spectacular in every scene: even when she's basically demanding that Vladimir call people back, there's so much sincerity and so many layers to her performance that you feel like you could watch an entire episode of this and not tire of it.
Sadly though, even this previously untouchable strength is qualified in this episode by the incorporation of one of the most patently unbelievable moments in 24 history. Fine, so Renee lashes out at Vladimir when he becomes aggressive with her. I can even accept her brutal murder of the guy, repeatedly stabbing him in a sort of Psycho-induced rage, screaming "die! Die!" at him like some sort of possessed lunatic. She's disturbed, after all. What I struggle to forgive, however, is that after she stabs Jack in the chest, he manages to remove the blade and throw it directly into the jugular of an oncoming enemy Come on guys! Yeah, it looks cool and my God, it makes Jack seem so badass, but you've got to draw the line somewhere or else Bauer just turns into freaking Superman. Jack is supposed to be a hero we can believe in and aspire to, not one that's so far removed from reality that he's unattainable. He's even up and about within seconds too, without exhibiting any signs of pain whatsoever. This just detracts from the believability of the narrative and demarcates 24 as a television show while you're watching, rather than forty five minutes of dramatic escapism.
Similar problems dog the other narrative strands. Hassan's knee jerk reactions to his attempted assassination are now becoming tiresome, especially since he is basically suspicious of everyone in his inner circle and it's patently obvious to every member of the viewing audience that he shouldn't be. It's a bit of an eye-roller that his head of staff (or whomever he is) just so happens to be involved with his daughter too. We couldn't just be satisfied with the conflict produced by the inherent nature of the plot, oh no. Let's throw familial involvement in there too and make things nice and messy! And predictable, hopelessly predictable. She's going to protest to daddy when she finds out what's going on, he'll dismiss her, something bad will happen and he'll repent. Guaranteed. The other Presidential storyline is fairly ineffectual too: after showing promise by proposing the inclusion of a conference of delegates in the last episode, we start this one and it's all over! In fifteen minutes! They've all agreed to everything in fifteen minutes! That strike anyone as absolutely ridiculous? To make matters worse, Cherry Jones then blabs confidential information to the British Prime Minister in direct earshot of every other bleeding delegate! Take the guy into a separate room, for God's sake! Whisper! Anything! This is just poorly thought out but the episode suffers further for it. The only other strand worthy of note is the prospect that the 'dead son' will get a nice, undignified funeral, but for all this is nicely written, it's hardly enough to counter the disappointing nature of much of the rest of the plot.
Sadly for Johannessen and Haribson, their attempt at a '10pm - 11pm' certainly doesn't live up to the legacy established in years past. This is a resolutely underwhelming episode, focusing far too much on pointless extraneous incident to seem worthwhile and even botching up those elements that play to the show's strengths. There are moments of brilliance and a number of strong scenes but unfortunately, they're subsumed by the laziness of much of the writing. At times, it really is difficult to care about any of what's going on and when you're praying for another snippet of Renee and Jack to come around so you can forget about everything else, you know there's something seriously wrong. A considerable backwards step; let's hope it's just a blip and not the beginning of a trend. 5.3
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