Comments Posted By logprof
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Here's a question I had early last night? Did it never occur to CTU to use on Josh the same isotope juice they put in Gredenko's arm the day before, instead of a chip that could be detected and shorted by Philip Bauer?
All in all, a so-so season, probably tied with 3 for the weakest.
By the way, has anyone else seen _Sleeper Cell_ on Showtime? I first saw it over Christmas, and at the time I thought it was just a mini-series but it was in fact the *second* season of it. I just finished watching the first on DVD, and it was also pretty strong. It has a lot of the elements that first hooked us on _24_: tight timelines, opting for suspecse and tension over explosions (but not lacking in the latter either), and interesting personal subplots. Granted, it has some requesite invocation of Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief": For example, the cell hijacks a big rig and has the driver place bogus calls to the dispatcher when any trucking line worth its salt nowadays (especially hauling dangerous gases post-9/11) tracks its rigs via GPS (the white ellipsoid blobs seen attached to the cabs), but for the sake of timelines it is fine. Most interesting is that it is from the perspective of a main character who infiltrates the cell and has mixed passions involved --probably more motivated by the desire to root out terrorists who defile his faith, Islam, than by loyalty to America. The politics in it are also subdued, as it looks more at the personal level (How much does Darwyn sympathize with the cell members? Is his ambivalence toward the American Dream --as a Black Muslim ex-con-- an irrevocable weakness? How much does he hunger for a "normal" life like Jack Bauer?); indeed, only brief scenes take place in Washington, and no silliness from the past couple of years of _24_ has arisen on that front.
Interestingly, due to the structure and perspective of the show, more of the main characters are in fact terrorists than terrorist hunters. It is also a shorter, _Sopranos_-length season which keeps things tight. I am glad I watched it on DVD, because like _24_ each episode made me hungry for the next.
Others may disagree about comparability with _24_, but I offer it as a suggestion if you have not seen it yet and want to get a substitute now that the Day 6 is over!
Comment Posted By logprof On 22.05.2007 @ 13:36
Rick, a good post as usual but why is this one not under the "24" category?
Comment Posted By logprof On 1.05.2007 @ 21:41
Quote:
"And it would be impossible to find a place in Iran remote enough that a warning shot wouldn’t cause fallout to drift over Russian territory since the Russians share a long border with Iran."
While the old USSR did have a long border with Iran, the Russian Federation now has no border with Iran, unless the marine border of the Caspian Sea is included. However, of course the former Soviet republics constitute a sphere of influence for Russia, so the overall strategic point remains.
Speaking of Nadia as the traitor, I think it would be bold and dairing nowadays to actually have her written as the culrpit! As regards these moles, _24_ has already become like an M. Night Shamalayan movie, where the twist is so expected that playing it straight would be more of a shock than anything.
Comment Posted By logprof On 20.03.2007 @ 11:35
Quote: ". . . part of perhaps the most spectacularly dysfunctional family in America. Maybe in world history although the Medici’s could give the Bauers a run for that title."
Rick, perhaps you were thinking of the Borgias? Way more dysfunctional than the Medicis. . . .
Comment Posted By logprof On 28.02.2007 @ 00:32
Hey, who has seen _Blood Diamond_? Isn't the leader of the mercenaries in that movie Marwan?
Comment Posted By logprof On 25.01.2007 @ 10:19
