24, eh? I’ve stuck with it through the highs and the (very) lows. And despite the fact that I know it won’t reach the once great heights it achieved back in its first three seasons, there are the occasional episodes where the show takes you by surprise. And last night’s was one of them.
It reminded me of what I love about 24 without it becoming daft. Jack and team discovered where Hassan was being held and had to get to him before he was executed live over the internet. It was tense, it was exciting and it had me on the edge of my seat. The reversal of our expectations however was beautifully played. Not only did Jack not save the day in the nick of time as he usually does but the head terrorist bloke get away, and it was discovered that the ‘live’ broadcast was actually on a delay of a few minutes and Hassan had already been executed. It was gut wrenching, heart breaking and bloody awesome. Perhaps the best hour of 24 this season.
Yes, you could argue that the show did the same thing with Chappelle back in season 3(still my favourite 24 moment ever, for the sheer sucker punch effect it had) but it didn’t make it any less emotional, and reminded the audience that 24 isn’t, and has never been, afraid to do big things within its own universe. And for that, I applaud it.
RIP Hassan, you and your amazing hair will be missed. The silent clock was well deserved.
“WOULD. YOU. LIKE. SOME. TEA?”
So, after a fantastic first episode for Matt Smith, a stuttering second, he has his first plain bad one. Not that he isn’t good in it or the ideas raised are bad, just the whole episode felt like a bunch of ideas thrown at the screen and hoping they made enough sense to form a good story.
They didn’t.
The WW2 setting didn’t really add much apart from allowing the show to shoehorn Winston Churchill in. It really could have been set in any time period and would still have had the same effect. And also, I was distracted by the actor playing Churchill’s flabby jowls the whole time too.
So, yeah, Daleks. Again. I’m not one to complain about the overuse of Daleks in Who, but there inclusion here just seemed like an excuse to create more Daleks (as they’ve been completely wiped out a few times now) for when they inevitably return later down the line, in much greater numbers most likely. And that alone was not plot enough for a whole episode.
One thing I did like however, was the notion that Amy didn’t remember the Daleks from before (the whole stolen planet thing) and that she should. Interesting little plot point, obviously related to the cracks in time thing that has been in the three episodes thus far. Hopefully they’re not making her special in some way like they did with Donna. It worked for her, but doing it again would be far too soon.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Daleks. (see above)
A missed opportunity. Hopefully next weeks ‘Blink’ sequel doesn’t mess up the weeping angels.
Lost, "Everybody Loves Hugo"
Much like the past few weeks of 24, Lost has also been on a roll. After last weeks tremendous Desmond episode we had a not-as-good-as-last-weeks-but-still-better-than-most-of-this-series-so-far episode. And it was a Hurley one. And who doesn’t like Hurley?
Again, this episode feels like it’s moving the plot along, even if it’s doing it very slowly. The flash sideways universe is still interesting and (much like last weeks) is segueing into the main island plotline too. With only a few episodes left though, the show’s got a lot of ‘splaining to do.
I don’t have much else to say about this episode as I feel I can’t really comment upon in much without viewing it in the wider context of the whole premise of the show. So I’ll just say it was very nice seeing Libby again and her reunion and date that never was with Hurley was quite sweet. Seeing Michael again was another welcome surprise, but annoyed me in that seeing him reminded me that we’ll probably never get an answer to Walt’s specialness before the show ends.
Oh, and why the hell did alt-Desmond run alt-Locke over?
V
I watched the first episode of V on the SyFy (ugh, seriously?) Channel during the week, and was quite impressed by it. I remember watching the original during the 90’s at some point when it was repeated. So, I knew the basic alien reptile folk disguised as human folk story. And it seems like this reboot is trying to do a BSG, and I’m quite hopeful that it keeps running. Not sure how long they can stretch the premise out for, but I reckon I’ll stick around.
And also, if the aliens looked like Inara off Firefly and Kara off Smallville, I’d welcome them in a heartbeat. Even if they wanted to rip off my face.
No comments:
Post a Comment