What I’m Watching: 24

24: Season 8, Episode 7 “10:00PM-11:00PM” (C-)

It’s really a shame when diplomacy and democracy lose out to endless suspicion. That’s what’s going on with President Hassan, and I had thought that he was truly interested in achieving peace and taking the advice of Tarin seriously without going behind his back and having him arrested because he wants to secure peace. The assertion from the guards that they’ve been searching everywhere for him when it’s been only ten minutes since Hassan even spoke with him lends itself to the real lack of credibility the real-time format often has on this show. Sadly, that’s the least of its problems. President Taylor isn’t being too smart or subtle revealing top secret information to one delegate in a room full of people, and it’s hardly necessary to maintaining diplomatic relations since her line of work likely demands secretiveness on a daily basis. The idiocy of Kevin and his cohort is unbelievable, and really diminishes the already questionable quality of this show. The fact that he complains about having to remember too many numbers and wastes time by using a squirt gun on Kevin is preposterous and inane. Who jokes about a holdup and, more importantly, who brings a water gun to a major crime? His speedy changeover into an excessively violent manic only minutes later makes even less sense. Renee has managed to single-handedly mess everything up by stabbing not just the crucial villain but also the hero. Sorry Jack, but you’ve just been stabbed; there’s no way you can throw a knife into some guy. And come on Jack, that’s clearly not CTU already there. They obviously aren’t ahead of schedule since they can’t even maintain simple surveillance to track the Russians. Of course it was more Russians – those people are everywhere on this show. Where can this possibly go next?