24: Day Seven

I've been watching 24 since midway through Season Three. After seeing that, I caught up on DVD and have watched ever since. I admit that the horrific Season Six nearly made me give up on the show, but I had heard this season would be better so I gave it a chance. So far it has been better.

Nevertheless, I have a complaint or two.

One of the things that made 24 such a great show was the fact that anyone was expendable. It makes the viewer feel some of the danger that Jack is in and thus become more invested in the show. Having said that, I think that it's lazy to simply kill characters as an emotional wrench. They have failed to consider what cast chemistry means. A good example of this is Tony Almeida. In Season Six, they unceremoniously killed his wife, the former president and then Tony himself. This seemed to have almost no purpose, particularly the death of Tony. Then through a somewhat contrived plot twist worthy of As the World Turns, Tony is alive.

At first, we were sure Tony was a bad guy, but then we learned he was double crossing the bad guys to uncover their plot. Tony was working with other former CTU operatives and quickly agreed to help Jack. As everyone who has been watching has since learned, Tony seems to be bad again. This will lead to the inevitable showdown which will undoubtedly result in Tony's death.

I'm disappointed in this twist because I think it's a lazy way to create tension. I'm not saying I know what would be better, but I think these writers underestimate the importance of cast chemistry when they decide to knock of a character or make them turn evil. Now I suppose it's possible that Tony is double-double crossing the secret group that apparently is at the head of this plot, but he's already killed one agent directly and blew up a whole bunch on last night's episode.

I just don't see how they will write their way out of this one and make it seem satisfying. If this is the end of Tony as a good guy and a character on the show I'm going to be really pissed. Again.

Don't even get me started on what's wrong with Heroes.

Windy

I know people who live in places like Chicago would smirk, but we get some pretty strong winds here in Lovettsville. When I was a kid, it had snowed several inches and then rained on top of it. The rain froze so that there was about a inch or more of solid ice over the snow. My brother and I nailed our sleds together and added a sail to it. We used the gusts coming off the Blue Ridge Mountains to fly across our fields. It was a blast ... literally.

The past few days have been really windy. I was walking over by the elementary school and saw this:



I really hope no one was inside.