What I'm Watching: 24

24: Season 6, Episode 19 "12:00am-1:00am" (F)

Hold the phone, Jack's gone rogue??!! He's never done that before. To avoid repeating the same commentary each week, I will focus this week on the romance on "24." There is a movie called "Paris, Je T'Aime" (Paris, I Love You) coming out on Friday. I am beyond excited for this movie, and I think it looks amazing. The genre, as listed on the Internet Movie Database, is romance. The genre of "24" is listed as action/drama/mystery/thriller.

If one thing is certain, it is that "24" is not supposed to be a romantic show. Not that I am opposed to a bit of romance now and then. I was fine when Tony and Michelle joked in Season 2 about how they would go out to dinner and a movie after they found and stopped the bomb. I was fine when it was implied that Jack and Kate had been in a relationship between Seasons 2 and 3. I was fine when Season 4 opened with a romantic scene between Jack and Audrey. And I was fine when Jack had a touching breakup with Diane in the Season 5 opener.

When Marilyn turned her head to kiss Jack and was left awkwardly standing there, I was decidely not fine. That kind of scene does not flow with the pacing of "24," and especially coming from Rena Sofer, who I do not consider to be a good actress at any level, it knocks down the quality of the show. This particular episode was overloaded with not one but four romances. Jack and Audrey we have done before, and now that she has some issues it only becomes less exciting. We thought she was dead, I personally did not have a problem with that and bringing her back, especially in this state, will only drag down the show. The Morris/Chloe plotline makes little sense, since the problems they are having are completely obvious aspects of their personalities which they respond to with lines like "What is your problem??" whereas they undoubtedly faced the same issues during their marriage.

At least those first two were plausible, but the other two are downright ridiculous. Work relationships like the one Bill and Karen have are directly forbidden strictly for this reason, that Karen would cover up one of Bill's mistakes. I will not touch upon the fact that over and over, extremely competent authority figures with one big secret which ultimately does not affect their job performance are removed during times of extreme crisis after episodes and episodes of "we don't have anyone else to do your job, we need you at your best." Karen and Bill are also to me very dull characters. Bill is just plain unexciting (and Jack calls him to thank him for being a friend?? after Bill tries to take him down?) and Karen is annoying, not in an endearing, pursuit of justice kind of way.

And then there exists the wondrous couple that is Acting President Noah Daniels and his assistant Lisa. I have said before that the amount of unscrutinized activity that goes on around the president has reached a ridiculous level. But when Evil President says that he has been distracted from trying to save the world by thinking about Lisa, and then asks her to SLEEP OVER, I contemplate turning off my TV (I know that I make this threat every week, and will doubtless ever live up to it). For someone who knows that other people are always watching, he should learn to be a little bit less conspicuous. And less evil.