The KA-CHUNK weekly: Hour 21.

Looking back, I can tell you, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Because with a season that started out full of promise, so full of the golden hope of a new day and a new life for our own Jack Bauer, it certainly has dulled down pretty fast.

We are in that final stretch when it all comes together, but tonight's episode of 24 made me think they were rerunning an old one, with their recap of Bierko in the beginning. Bierko? Hmmm....oh, yeah! I remember him! And then there's that throwaway line about Secretary of Defense James Heller surviving his spill into the water. What, no triumphant William Devane emerging from the frigid depths, pumping his fist in the air, yelling at those misbegotten bastards?

I honestly think there's too many characters and too many tangents this season, and some of them are falling by the wayside or just plain getting lost. Even with all these things hanging, somehow they seemed to be running out of story in the final episodes. I'm hoping they have enough left for the 3 remaining ones. The plane thing was actually kind of silly, when you think of it. The president being behind the whole thing is brilliant and different and it HAS to end with a showdown between Jack and Logan. It has to. If not, all is for naught and we will end up feeling we wuz robbed.

My local Fox station (the one with the female anchor who used to be on Channel 11 in Pittsburgh and has been on out here since the station started a 10pm newscast and who now looks ALARMINGLY thin...not to mention the world's most obnoxious weatherman, canned by 2 Pittsburgh stations to become San Diego's most obnoxous canned weatherman, now a sportscaster at this station...they NEVER learn) just ran a 24 piece. You can tell it's ratings season when each newscast focuses on some kind of puff piece for a show that appears on the network. And, of course, when they run this type of thing, they run it near the END of the newscast, to make sure all the poor souls they suckered in from promos running on 24 stay tuned. If your TV market is like mine, and has a Fox station, you know that watching one hour of a local Fox affiliate is like cutting open an apple and watching it turn brown. But I digress. (Don't get me started on local news.)

What did my 47 minutes of perseverance gain me? New insight to the show? Exclusive information? The final twist? None of the above. In this one-minute blowjob of a piece, all I learned was that the entire season is narrowing down to a showdown between Jack and President Logan. See paragraph #3 above. So there you have it. Tune in next week for more secret knowledge. Bring your dog along and I'll tell him a secret, too.

Comments

[John J]

If you watch Gilmore Girls, did you see Chloe (L.Raksjub, sp?) as one of the street singers on last night's show? The former town troubador had been "discovered" and signed to open for Neil Young (identified by "Kirk" as one of the Monkees) so several musicians had come to play on the streets of Stars Hollow. I'm kicking myself for not taping the show since I thought I should recognize many of the players.