This week's episode was ridiculous and I wasn't very pleased with it. Let me explain. We've already established that the stuff going on in the White House is pretty mundane and takes away from the other awesome stuff going on. Well, half this episode was at the White House. First, the President and Ethan are still having the freaking debate about the invasion nonsense?!? Didn't she tell him to shut up more than 3 times already, explaining her reasoning? That was painful, but then they went and repeated the exact same argument YET AGAIN with the whole cabinet versus the President. Yeah, we got the point...no negotiating with terrorists, must protect Sangala, blah, blah. ENOUGH. Unfortunately I am pretty sure this is going to keep coming up with more plane attacks.

Speaking of which, the plane attack in this episode couldn't have been more anti-climactic. It took them less than a minute to set it up, and by the time we got to see it it was a tiny, distant explosion in the sky. Not that I want to see a bunch of carnage and destruction, but it didn't feel substantial or convincing. They mention there may have been residential damage, and I would expect them to show a plane wing going through a house or something.

Furthermore, something about the whole CIP/plane thing is bothering me (besides what I mentioned previously about how easy it would be for them to radio the pilots between attacks and explain what was going on and not to follow orders unless it came from some specific person)...does the CIP device turn pilots (and co-pilots) into idiots? Sure, they got some command from air traffic control, but their planes don't have collision detection systems and they can't manually manuever to avoid the collision? That's pretty absurd, and an inescapable plot hole.

What could possibly go wrong here?

The Henry Taylor storyline was fairly predictable, though it was interesting how much the kid was like Dexter when killing Samantha. And I didn't expect Henry to kill him.

Which leaves the final plotline, involving Smirky Smirkmeida and Jack, and left both Tony and Renee looking like Jack stole their lunch money. I liked how Jack asked if Renee would have believed him if he explained everything at the FBI building, and then walked away before she could answer. And Tony was all pouty because Emerson died and he was "like a brother" to him. But he was almost "like a brother that shoots you in the face" if Jack hadn't intervened. Then they handed over Matobo to Dubaku's thugs in exchange for some diamonds. Are the thugs really dumb enough not to realize there's a tracker on Matobo? And even better is the fact that no matter how secure a place they take Matobo to, you know Jack and Tony are going to kill everyone and get inside anyways.

Thankfully there was more Chloe than Janis in this episode. And Sean (aka Billy Waslh) actually didn't break any rules this episode! (Though he did piss off Larry in an over-the-top exchange)

This was a review of Season 7, Episode 6. Here's my previous 24 reviews. And here's the character countdown.

Mark submitted the following story: "Former Illini superstar Dee Brown is making his professional return to basketball, this time suiting up for former Euroleague champion Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Rumor has it the team is interested in his skills in handling the falafel."

(photo courtesy of Burnsy)

(story courtesy of Haaaaaaaaaaaretz.com)

No, that blank in the title doesn't represent a profanity. I thought it'd be funny to note the similarity (and contrasting meaning) in the titles of two new TV shows, Trust Me on TNT and Lie to Me on FOX. But in searching for similar looking banner images, I found something even better!


Yep, someone found the two posters right next to each other.

Yes, after last week's 4-episode craziness, we're back to 1 episode per week. This week's episode was not terribly exciting, though a lot of it was setup, as evidenced by the preview of next week's episode. It was an interesting episode, but I think I wasn't thrilled by it because most of the developments were pretty predictable. I particularly liked how Sean was surprised that Janis could tell that Larry cared about Renee and was worried about her. The way Larry was whining and getting mad, it couldn't have been more over-the-top for the viewers unless they had Larry exclaim, 'Renee...nooooooooo!!'

As if last week's forging security clearance to get his wife's (or was it fiance?) plane landed wasn't enough for Sean, this episode we find out he's cheated on her with Erica (played by Ever Carradine, the niece of the "Kung Fu" guy, David Carradine!). I wonder how these two things are going to come back and bite him later, as they surely will.

I was right about the kid driving Henry around in last week's review...he ended up trapping Henry and now is trying to kill both him and Samantha while making it look like they got into an altercation. However, I'm guessing at least one of them escapes next week.

Jack and Emerson exchange words while Tony smirks as always

The storyline with Jack and Tony didn't have a lot of real surprises...they pumped gas into the safe room and Matobo's wife ended up opening the door, which didn't seem all that believable, but they had to get them out of there somehow. And despite looking like they were dying due to the amount and strength of the gas, Jack and Tony were able to walk into the room right after the door opened and carry them out without feeling any effects, and moments later Matobo and his wife seemed perfectly fine too...you'd think it would take a while to recover from that. Meanwhile, Renee gets captured while on the phone with Larry (that's what you get for whispering loudly into a phone when you're trying to hide!) and gets taken in the truck with Matobo, Jack, Tony and Emerson. She's calling Jack a traitor, but also hears that there's a mole in the FBI during Emerson's phone call. Emerson gets orders to dispose of Renee, so they go to an abandoned warehouse and he has Jack shoot her...he pretends to shoot her, and then this is followed by a creepy scene of Jack and Tony burying Renee. Mostly it was creepy because she unnecessarily kept her eyes open the whole time under the plastic. I guess she'll escape as soon as they leave?

I can't believe we have to wait a whole week for another episode!

This was a review of Season 7, Episode 5. Here's my previous 24 reviews. And here's the character countdown.

This is cool...Hulu's providing embed code so you can have people watch Obama's Inauguration live on your blog (it includes a link to get the embed code):


It should appear on Hulu at this link, or you can probably double-click the embedded player above to get to the Hulu page.

This is great (and not entirely unexpected) news...Fox and Warner Bros. have settled their lawsuit over the upcoming Watchmen movie, and once the settlement is approved, everything should be set for the movie to hit its March 6th release date. Watchmen is based on a graphic novel which is one of the coolest and grittiest superhero stories, and having read it I'm extremely excited about the movies, particularly seeing how closely the visuals in the trailer perfectly mirror the look of the comic.


Fox originally owned the rights to making it into a movie, but they never did. Somehow, Warner Bros. thought they could make the movie without drawing a lawsuit from Fox because the movie had been pitched to several studios. Fox sued saying they still owned distribution rights, if not also production rights. It was unclear whether the movie would get delayed, purchased by Fox, or just completely axed. Fortunately, they've come to an agreement which has Warner handing over some chunk of cash right now, and then splitting some of the movie revenue with Fox.


See Watchmen trailers in HD on Apple's trailers site, or view the one I've embedded below:

dave submitted the following exchange, along with this link. I'm not adding anything to it because it's hilarious and pretty much as long as the actual article:

What's in the vial?
Urine.
Drink it.
What?
Drink your urine to prove it's not a bomb.
This is ridiculous. I'm filing a complaint.
You said beverage right? I swore you said beverage. Your boarding pass was in your mouth.

Yep, we may not have anything more than rumors about an official Arrested Development movie, but something related to Arrested Development is getting made with cast member involvement.



http://arresteddevelopmentdoc.com/

And regarding Henry Winkler's comment at the beginning of the video, I actually did see him at the London Heathrow airport and didn't ask him about the movie :)

With 4 hours of TV in 2 nights, it's pretty easy to fall behind with the first review. But now that I've seen all of it, I can confidently say 24 quickly reestablished why it's so addictive and awesome. The amount of plot development, twists, and chases/explosions in just 4 hours was ridiculous. In a good way.

The first two hours were primarily setup, and the show quickly tied in both the stuff going on in 24:Redemption (nothing more than background for this season) and the big twist already seen in the previews for this season...Tony is alive and he is a bad guy! He orchestrates the stealing of the CIP device and doing a demo of taking over flight communications using the device and causing two planes to nearly crash into each other when landing. In the meantime, the FBI subpoenas Jack to get his help to capture Tony, which gets him excused from the Senate hearing that isn't going so hot (Jack Bauer answers to nobody!). Tony calls Jack up after the guy he's interrogating/torturing gets shot by a sniper, but he won't explain why he's doing what he is.

Jack Bauer at a Senate hearing

Hours 3 and 4 got a lot more interesting. Jack interrogates Tony and nearly suffocates him, but Tony manages to pass him a CTU codeword. Jack calls up the number and finds Bill and Chloe! Apparently though CTU is officially disbanded, Tony, Bill and Chloe are able to do the same type of things without the whole gang of useless extras (you know, those nameless background people in CTU who couldn't protect the network or even the building). Jack finds out Tony is undercover and that he needs to be released, so he goes about breaking Tony out of the building (if he rescues anymore people from jail and government buildings, they may have to rename the show Prison Break).

They tried to cram in two "touching moments" with Jack apologizing to Tony for almost breaking his neck (because Tony was whining about it, despite provoking Jack in the first place saying he was 'spitting on Terri's grave') and Chloe saying how she missed Jack and was watching him on C-Span. But then Chloe's security feed hacking got busted by the FBI and things got intense in escaping the building. This escape was great, as it took all of 2 minutes for Tony to jump out of a parking garage onto a car and breaking its windows, Bill to fly in with the blue van like a total lunatic, and Jack to drive a car through the concrete wall of the 2nd story of the parking garage. Of course, Jack was barely injured. Best comment ever from the FBI guard as Bill drives the van away with Jack and Tony inside: "Agent Moss. They're gone. They're outside the perimeter." Ummm...no crap. you must not have been watching the last 6 seasons, or you would know that anytime they setup any kind of perimeter, it has more holes in it than swiss cheese. Seriously, has the perimeter ever worked?!?

And on that note, there were some pretty glaring plot holes and inconsistencies:

• Flight control got communications back after the plane miss demonstration...couldn't they have told the planes to ignore any further commands or found another way to contact them? The government can do all kinds of things, but they can't call them via the in-flight phones or something?
• The CIP device can't be disabled or prevented from transmitting? It's a small, single piece of hardware
• After the FBI lost Tony and Jack, their only lead was the Tanner guy that was in the hospital. The ONLY THING they were doing was waiting for him to regain consciousness to try to get a lead. And yet, when he regained consciousness, nobody was there ready to question him?!? Renee had to get Chloe and leave the FBI building...ridiculous.
• Not really a plot hole, but I really hate Janeane Garofalo being on 24. I can't find her believable in the slightest, and it's throwing off everything that happens at the FBI building, not to mention she's like a lame ripoff of Chloe, acting by-the-book at times and defiant at others. And it seems like she's trying to make her character quirky like Chloe too. But even without the Chloe comparisons, I just don't like her role. Am I alone on this?

Tony getting Jack into the terrorist group was too easy, but there wasn't any good way to go about showing it since you know they can't kill Jack. It was pretty weird that Bill told Chloe (seemingly seriously) that Jack would have to die to legitimize Tony's return to the group. It seems like he's ready to let anyone and everyone innocent get killed just to uncover the "conspiracy". Speaking of which, they've made it quite apparent that Ethan is the mole in the presidential council, as he had the fake SEC documents about Roger Taylor (the president's son) and he keeps pushing to call off the invasion. But that kid driving Henry (the president's husband) around is flaky too, with his watching Henry hold up the thumb drive from Samantha. I like how Henry was just sitting there holding it out in the open for everyone to see after trying to have such a secretive meeting and given the nature of what's on it. And since Samantha's already spilled the beans, I'm guessing she dies in the next episode. And lastly, surely Sean's bumping his wife's (or was it girlfriend?) flight to the front of the landing queue using Larry's credentials is going to come back and bite him in the ass at some point.

This was a review of Season 7, Episodes 1, 2, 3 and 4. Here's my previous 24 reviews. And here's the character countdown.

dave submitted a link to a story about the UN pulling out of Gaza aid because their aid workers got attacked by Israel, and 2 of them were killed. Israel has been retaliating against rocket attacks from Hamas, though it seems like many civilians and aid workers are getting caught in the crossfire. In the article, they also mention how the Red Cross is accusing Israel of hindering rescue efforts by barricading roads. So far, 10 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza fighting. A few days ago, Israel mentioned they do not plan to occupy Gaza, just stop the attacks on Israel. Hopefully the 2 sides reach a resolution soon.

This also reminds me to mention the Daily Show segment from this past Monday, in which Jon Stewart makes it apparent that he's not pleased with what's going on, or the media's reporting of it:

Strip Maul



On an unrelated note, I've stopped linking to Google's "hosted news" pages because they only last a couple of weeks. I've changed the submitted link accordingly.