AOB: 24 heaven

(This blog recently had its 1000th visitor. While this probably isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things, it seems a fairly significant landmark to me so thanks to everyone who’s perused my site so far, I love you all :) )

Yeah, it’s another AOB. I can’t really think of anything interesting to write about United at the moment, unless one counts an essay on the career highlights of Terry Fleming as interesting, ho hum.

The trailer for the series seven of 24 was released this week, raising my excitement levels to previously unreached heights:

http://www.bebo.com/FlashBox.jsp?FlashBoxId=4920439582&

I love 24, it’s my favourite TV show of the last few years, possibly of all time. For anyone unfamiliar with it, the basic premise is this: Kiefer Sutherland stars as Jack Bauer, a government agent working in for the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). If you watch the show over an extended period of time you come to realise that, while practically every other character is expendable one way or the other, Jack is invincible. If he was shot in the head he’d probably pull the bullet out, sew the wound up himself and be back up torturing a suspect or shouting “TELL ME WHERE THE BOMB IS” within minutes, or something.

Bauer is without doubt one of the coolest characters ever created. He kills and tortures using levels of imagination beyond any normal human, his loyalty to his government and country is bizarrely unflagging, and he has an unerring ability to make people do what he wants just by uttering the immortal words “you’re gonna have to trust me.”

Every series revolves around a terrorist threat of some sort (usually perpetrated by a nameless country in the middle east), which Jack is out to stop, despite the interference and general incompetence of his superiors and colleagues. Luckily, being the uber-maverick, he has no problems disobeying anyone in authority or breaking every rule and law ever dreamed up, so long as it for the good of his country that is.

The other selling point of the show is that it occurs in real time, and the events all take place over the course of one day (there are 24, hour long episodes) so while the action is going on, the clock ticks on in the background towards the inevitable (and usually bloody) conclusion.

If this all sounds a bit ludicrous and repetitive that’s because it is, but by the time you’ve watched a few episodes you won’t care because you’ll be sucked in. The plot twists and turns at break neck pace, with characters going from good, to bad, to good again, often in the space of a few hours, and even though hardly any of it makes sense, it’s just brilliant, compulsive, fun, TV.



So if you’ve never seen it before, I would urge you to buy or rent the DVD’s and prepare to relinquish control on your life for a few days. As Jack would say, just trust me on this.