Renee is going dark! Two Russian Mafia brothers have held a health clinic hostage with their whiny demands! Starbuck continues her shockingly poor conflict resolution skills! Jack is driving a car! Where do these tension-laden events lead us in this episode?
To Snoresville. Which is somewhere in Coma County in the United States of Shoot Me in the Face.
Last week’s episode was definitely a filler show, but there were flashes of entertainment embedded in the plodding narrative. This week? Just barrels of slowness and tedium. It wasn’t until the very end that we got to sniff around some righteous 24 action, with a few well-placed sniper shots and Jack getting his shout on. That was at like minute 57. Everything that preceded it? Ugh.
Let’s check up on the different storylines that Season 8 is juggling so far:
Renee Walker undercover. The gloomy gus revealed last week that she’s on a self-destructive downard spiral and this is obviously reflected in her deicision-making skills, as she chooses to drop her earpiece down the sink for whatever reason and then, wouldn’t you know, panics when she finds out her evil former boyfriend is going to nuke the deal and probably kill undercover Jack. “Say, Vlad, you don’t happen to have a pipe wrench, do you? Don’t ask, it’s a woman issue.”
Starbuck’s decision-making is even worse. Frantic to cover up her secret past life, CTU Agent/blithering idiot Dana Walsh agrees to get her trashy ex-boyfriend and his trashy friend into a warehouse to steal drug money. The hell???? Strikes me that the fallout from this complicated and obviously doomed mission will be a whole lot worse that telling her boyfriend that she spent some time in juvie.
Boring brothers are boring. So the two sons of the Main Evil Russian Bad Guy go in this clinic and force the doctor to ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
President Hassan arrests his friend. And maybe tortures him? Or sets him on fire and pushes him off the building? Man, I hope so. Something to spice up this flagging sub-plot. Then again, anything’s better than another hour spent on his domestic troubles.
As is the case with similarly lame 24 episodes, this one focused on the dumb storylines, depriving us of consequential Jack Bauer action, Chloe barbs (she did land a nice one on that d-bag Arlo) and, well, anything resembling suspense. I’ll even take more Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Sadly, next week’s show looks even more painful as Jack and Renee have A Moment.
2. February 2010 at 8:22 am
Seems like we had the exact opposite reactions to the last two episodes. I thought last week was boring beyond belief, but this week actually managed to build some tension. Once again, Jack didn’t have much to do besides forget what a German accent sounds like, but the scenes where had to listen to Renee deal with Vlad were actually effective. That said, this whole Renee storyline underscores the fact that 24 is lousy at writing female characters with any kind of subtlety. Case in point, the season’s worst side plot. Dana would be way better off ‘fessing up to past crimes than committing new ones on a federal level, although considering CTU’s track record when it comes to catching internal baddies, she stands a pretty good chance of getting off scot-free.
3. February 2010 at 3:41 am
“That said, this whole Renee storyline underscores the fact that 24 is lousy at writing female characters with any kind of subtlety.”
Or how about not writing for them at all? Is it me, or has President Taylor been almost a non-factor throughout these 1st 6 shows?
I’m with Erich on the suicidal Renee/Jack storyline. Renee’s scenes are easily the best parts of the show. The main problem is the Russian Mob guys are boring & I don’t buy them as a threat. We all know they’re going to be gone (or dead) by the 12th episode, so the real threat will emerge. At least with last season, Dubatku was so charismatic & entertaining, I thought he could pull off a Marwan & last the whole day.