There's some pretty cool news regarding a '24' convention for the UK. I'd keep the weekend of 28th - 30th of May 2004 free if I were you, and I'd make sure you were able to get to London.
It's being organised by Crashdown Conventions, who are about to put on a 'Smallville' event. The good thing is that, if they've managed to get the stars of Smallville to turn up, they'll probably manage to get a couple of the '24' actors over as well.
Another bonus is that the first 100 attendees to register also get into an exclusive cocktail party with all of the guests. Here's hoping they can fly Kiefer over. Personally, I'd love to bend Xander Berkeley's ear over a few issues.
I had the weirdest dream last night. Yes, all too boring, I hear you say, but it involved '24', so that's why you're getting the write-up of it.
My dream world is a kinda weird place. Nothing generally happens in the right place - like I'll have a dream about my secondary school friends, but we'll all be sitting in my primary school classroom. Or my work mates will be there, or one of the Spice Girls, or somebody.
They also get punctuated by me waking up and falling asleep again. So halfway through, I'll be woken up by the sound of a car on the road outside, say, and in dream world I'll end up on a motorway, or on the bus, or something. If the alarm goes off and I sleep through it, the dream generally involves whereever I am having the burgular alarm sounding, or a smoke alarm, or something.
So last night I went to bed. I'd watched 'Donnie Darko' on DVD at about 1AM - which isn't the most conducive thing for a good night's sleep.
And the dream was weird. A friend of mine had got her uncle, who lives in the States, to send over a video of the latest episodes of '24' that the BBC hasn't yet broadcast. We began to watch them, but in true dream style, the fantasy and reality elements got a bit blurred. I ended up helping Jack Bauer track down terrorists through a city style landscape that was a bit dark and rainy, a lot like the city in 'The Matrix'.
Of course, in true 'wide awake' style, I've forgotten most of what happened already, but the ending stands clear. In the dream, I'd got an email from somebody about of '24', and how it was set to end. I won't say it here, because it's probably true. Anyway, Jack and me had managed to track down the baddie we were chasing, and I think we were at the BBC, in the front foyer, and we were waiting to see somebody.
We were standing around, waiting for the big final confrontation, and Jack was doing his usual 'Right, I want two teams: Team A should hide behind those mangoes, and Team B can stay here with me, but do some handstands, or something - I'm bored'. So push comes to shove, and the baddie turns up - some woman, I didn't recognise her.
The shocker was that, in true 'Scooby Doo' fashion, Jack pulled the villain's mask off, and it revealed - Nina Myers. She'd been the one plotting to do this dastardly deed all along - and, yes, I know it doesn't make much sense in the way of plot but, hey, I was unconscious at the time, so give me a break, yeah?...
And since the dream was at an end, I woke up. Then staggered around the house in a five-minute haze, thinking "Shit, I've just watched all the episodes of '24', and the writers ended it in that shitty Scooby Doo rip-off way. Bastards". I was quite confused. Then, of course, clarity arrived, and it all became much clearer.
Now I'm looking forward to seeing how the series turns out, because it's bound to be better than the way it'd go according to my unconscious mind...
05.27 | Phwoar, eh lads?
Bloody Hell. Sarah Wynter, the actress who plays everyone's favourite terrorist's sister, Kate Warner, scrubs up rather nicely. She appears in a photo-shoot for the July 2003 issue of Maxim. There's an interview as well, but I'll be knackered if I can find it anywhere on the magazine's website. I'd be grateful to any geeky fan-boys out there who could throw a copy my way. Cheers.
UPDATE: For any of you Yanks reading this, it's the UK edition of the magazine. However, there is this interview with Ms Wynter on the American version's website. Where, strangely, she also admits to linking AC/DC. We can forgive her, though - she's an Australian (as are the band themselves, see?). Kiefer, however, has no excuse.
The five best bits from last night's episode:
1. Jack Bauer hurtling down the runway in his jeep, chasing the terrorist who's about to take off with the nuclear bomb. When Jack popped his head out of the side window, how many of you thought he would jump onto the plane's wing, Indiana Jones-style? And how many of you disappointed when he merely shot at the guy driving the plane at near-enough a hundred or so miles an hour? I think Jack forgot that there was a nuke on board.
2. We see George Mason struggling to put his suit jacket on over his heavily bandaged and painful looking right arm. Two minutes later, he greets Hammond, the visitor from Division. They shake hands, and Hammond manfuly pats George on the forearm whilst doing so. The grimace that Xander Berkeley gave was absolutely priceless. If you've got the episode to hand, give it another watch - it's a great piece of in-jokery and visual humour. Can he get an Emmy for that shot alone? If so, he should.
3. Sherry and Lynne arguing in the lift. Which was odd, because they seemed fine when they 'bumped into each other' at Lynne's meeting with her 'source' outside the OC in the last hour. You can cap off this moment with the look of power spreading across Sherry's face when the lift stopped and she found herself in the control centre of America.
4. When woodland survivalist Lonnie convinced Kim that the bomb had gone off. He tells Kim that all the radio stations and police bands have gone to static, and that they should head down to his fall-out shelter. Look closely, though, and both times that he was twiddling the dial, the read-out said that the radio was tuned to '00000000'. Either it's a clever move on his part, or a slight fuck-up by the graphics department and the continuity people. Either way, it works, but wish I knew which it was.
5. If you were paying even the slightest bit of attention, you could predict that there was no way that the bomb was going to be on the plane. Remember when Marie Warner and Omar, the plane's pilot, said their goodbyes? Well, just before that, Marie is seen waving off a van just outside the airplane hangar. And obviously, in light of the fake bomb Jack finds, we know that the van is where the real nuke is. The question is: where is it going?
05.26 | One pair of CTU standard issue ear-muffs, please
"It's 8AM, and Kiefer Sutherland is leisurely enjoying a bowl of Corn Pops in his Los Angeles home before heading out to a day filled with the typical elements: a regular day's work, a casual lunch, a nice chat with his daughter, a real dinner, a few laughs and, finally, a restful night's sleep."
The Daily Dublin Interactive points out that Kiefer Sutherland's life really isn't as cool as Jack Bauer's. For a start, Kiefer Sutherland admits to liking Bad Company and AC/DC.
Things don't look good for Miguel. Last we saw of him, he was lying prostrate in the back of a police truck with various injuries, waiting for the police to pick him up.
Do you see what I did there? Oh, I'm a master of the English language.
Fans of actor (and singer) Innis Casey have cottoned onto the lack of round-house karate kicks in the last few episodes and set up a petition to get him back in the series.
I hope that the show's producers are reading it. The petition's picked up 155 signatures so far. Here's hoping that 24weblog.com readers can get it past 160. I hear that's enough to get Innis a $3-an-hour job sweeping the floors of the sound stage for the next season.
The one interesting fact I learnt from last night's 'Pure 24':
That set of steps down to the scary fall-out shelter that Kim's got herself trapped in - recognise it? If you do, you're even more eagle-eyed than I am, because it's the same set as used in the first series for the water tower that was used as the pick-up point for Terri, Kim and Rick when Jack and the CTU agents tried rescuing them from Gaines' complex.
Needless to say, I didn't pick up on this myself. I'm not that much of a geeky fan-boy.
05.24 | They've done this on purpose, doubtless
"One really good thing I found out last night is that 'Six Feet Under' is finally coming back to Channel 4 in the form of series 2. I loved the first series, so I'm really looking forward to this new series, even if our American friends are already half way through the third series. There is only one small problem; Channel 4 in its infinite wisdom has scheduled it for 10PM on Sundays - exactly the same time 24 is on BBC2."
Someone else called James has noticed a few scheduling problems. It's not even as if you could watch Six Feet Under first, and then switch over to BBC3 for the second episode of '24' - you'd miss the first ten minutes.
He might have signed up for a third season, but Kiefer's lost a sweater. I'll be sure to inform you lot when it turns up on eBay.
I'm not sure what to make of this, but according to my super-secret American telly mole, the only actor to have been signed up for a third season of '24' is Kiefer Sutherland. So far, I'm hoping.
So what of Carlos Bernard, AKA Tony Almeida? He's GOT to come back (I'm presuming here, that he's not going to get killed off in season two). Does this mean that that the ditzy Kim Bauer, played by delectable Elisha Cuthbert, is for the trash heap?
05.21 | The glamourous world of '24'
"The hot and heavy romance between '24' star Elisha Cuthbert and '7th Heaven' actor Andrew Keegan just died a fast death. They were both seen canoodling with new partners at separate clubs in LA recently."
So reports The Irish Examiner. There's an awful lot of '24' news flying around at moment. I won't link to much of it, because most of it's to do with the last episode of seaon two which was broadcast in the US last night. Even the BBC has posted a story which ruins the storyline for it's own viewers. I mean, how stupid is that?
Still, the above report is pretty amusing. Rumours abound that Elisha is 'seeing' one of Justin Timberlake's friends. No, really.
If I were you, I'd stay away from '24' websites all week. The season two finale episode is about to be broadcast in the US on Fox TV, and they're about to reveal the final dramatic storyline twist that the entire twenty four hours was a sick dream, dreamt up by the unconscious Terri Bauer just before she suffered her 'Amnesiac' phase in series one.
I guess that most of these characters won't be returning, and most of them aren't even dead.
Bob Warner - I liked his beard. I can't see him waiting around for one daughter to plant a nuke, the other to go insane in the course of one day. I think that CTU will lock him up in the interrogation room and throw away the key. If he's lucky, he might get let out so that he can organise Reza's funeral. They can get Chinese take-out for lunch before the service!
Gary Matheson - Will he make it to Mexico? Could he be catching a flight from this mysterious Norton Airfield? Will he kidnap Megan from her aunt? Who knows? We'll probably never find out.
Nina Myers - What would she do if she came back into the storyline? Let Jack shoot her? She's better off in prison.
Keith Palmer - You're the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. Half your country and most of the people are about to die in a terrorist attack. So what do you do? You leave your son outside the nuclear bunker all day, fishing with a couple of friendly CIA agents. Either that or he's found a new psychiatrist's couch to go lie down on.
Agent Richards - The shifty looking dude shot dead by Marie alongside Reza. He had that excellent line where he wouldn't let Kate or Marie enter the room in their own house where their father and Reza were questioned. If my memory's straight, he appeared in the first season, too.
Err... - That's it.
Jack climbs down into a secret passage to find a man. He needs the element of surprise. So what does he do? Shines a huge bloody torch down the tunnel. If I was Syed Ali, I'd have committed suicide right there and then. Good thing that the terrorist obviously wasn't paying attention at this point. But he was obviously paying attention enough to be able to hide the trapdoor back underneath the carpet after closing it behind him.
I think that the most enduring image of this episode was Jack punching Ali in the face to stop him swallowing a cyanide pill. Much on a par with Jack asking for a hacksaw, a scene that's (almost) been long forgotten.
An enduring image, mainly because we've already seen the 'oh, someone stop him dying before I get to question him' trick done a few times before (the guy Nina killed on the airplane, the torturer who pierced Kate's ear). I was most surprised when Syed didn't die.
Bob Warner explained that his family used to live in London, and that Marie ran away after her mother died. And that's presumably when the terrorists got to her. Oddly, this part reminded me of the conversation that Tony Almeida had with Reza Naiyeer about his London upbringing - back during his interrogation at the Warner house. The BBC cut out a line about the Finsbury Park mosque in that episode, so maybe they did so again last night. Can anyone who's seen the US broadcasts let us know?
Marie tells her sister Kate that she murdered Reza. Dunno about you, but I hated that scene. Well, I hated Kate, with her whining and crying and the protesting of her sister's innocence and the whining. Marie seemed rather cool, though. Wasn't expecting her to just come out with the 'Well, I killed Reza' revelation to her sister like that, and then the writers go and top that by allowing the CTU agents to trace her call. People always hang up before the phone gets traced in telly and the movies. It's hard to guess why they even bother, knowing that they're 99% bound to fail. So well done those CTU boys on beating the odds.
Randy 'Howlin' Mad' Murdoch gets brought in to do some forensics work, much in the same way that Milo Pressman the computer contractor suddenly 'appeared' halfway through the last series.
The image that could be enduring (but wasn't) was Jack apparently killing Ali's eldest child. Though, automatically you should know that this is a show produced for US prime time, and therefore you won't die if you're under eighteen. As soon as President Palmer wouldn't sanction the killing, you knew Jack would find a way to fake it. And the videotape gag from Speed was easily the most unoriginal way. They could have hired suicidal Arabian midgets ready to take a bullet for the US. I'm sure you could find them as quickly as they found Ali's family, anyway.
Cleverest moment of the episode was Jack continuing the phone call from the President after Palmer had already hung up. That's the kind of thinking on your feet that we could all do with.
As for George's bad coughing and irritability? I think he's ready to drop dead any time now. Maybe he'll borrow Second Wave's big bag of cyanide pills?
05.15 | I'll make someone a star yet
"So who saw 24 on Sunday? Amazing episode - with one flaw, of course - Kim. Still running aimlessly through woodland, only to be trapped by A MOUNTAIN LION. That's more ridiculous than Teri's rape-induced amnesia in season one. Still, the bit where the bloke was on fire in the mosque was amazing and Kiefer Sutherland is certainly setting a precedent in the looking-cool-while-in-grave-danger stakes."
Some great posts by Anna on her site. If anyone else is publishing stuff about '24' on their weblog, please let me know.
So, those of you with brains even more addled by the effects of time and sleeplessness than mine may care to be reminded that Marie Warner has turned out to be a baddie. Yeah, really.
My favourite symbolism of this week's episode was Marie's sister Kate donning a burka-style dress and turning out like the singing nun. The whole point being that, the nice American good girl on the side of good helps out and saves tries to save the lives of millions of people, whilst the good girl gone bad to the dark side of whatever-we're-stereotyping looks like a hooker in a cheap wig, no less. Still, better than looking like one of the Barbie Twins.
Marie and Kate Warner, one hour ago. Yesterday.
So while I recycle the same jokes used on 'Pure 24', fansite forums and pubs everywhere, the show's plot revolves around like the revolving doors at Enron's headquarters in a tornado. (Look! Topical humour! I can do it!)
I have instances to back up my statement:
Episode three - The episode begins by continuing with Kim, who has just stopped a car and is running away from Gary Matheson
Episode eleven - The episode begins by continuing with Kim, who has just stopped a car and is running away from the police
Episode four - Eric Raeburn, the shifty-looking NSA guy, was led away from the presidential complex after acting dodgy
Episode eleven - Roger Stanton, the shifty-looking NSA guy, was led away from the presidential complex after acting dodgy
Episode seven - Jack Bauer gets together a team of agents to storm a building to look for a dodgy muslim character, who nobody recognises except one woman who he can't exactly trust
Episode eleven - Jack Bauer gets together a team of agents to storm a building to look for a dodgy muslim character, who nobody recognises except one woman who he can't exactly trust
Several times in the last series - The computer files of a major character (Mason, Jamie, Jack) are locked. They complain of not being able to get access to the network.
Episode eleven - The computer files of a major character (Roger Stanton) are locked. They complain of not being able to get access to the network.
And so it continues...
Going back to Marie, you might have thought that, rather than go into a locked room with a rather unsavoury-looking mechanic and show him her 'appreciation', she'd be more likely to shoot him in the chest and lock the door afterwards. I was hoping for a bloodbath. I was baffled when the same guy popped up, looking rather pleased with himself, in the storyline split-screen montage at the end of the episode. I hope she got her trigger, that's all I can say.
As for Bob Warner? When Tony told him that Reza was dead, you could tell the first thing he wanted to say was "What about the wedding now, eh?" Those self-deleting computer files and organising chinese take-out for lunch are the least of your problems now, mate.
I've been rather critical so far this week, haven't I? Well, I enjoyed Roger Stanton's little footbath in the interogation scene. Remember in The Simpsons where Homer couldn't afford a heart operation? Well, like he says, the defibulator just pays for itself. I'm sure Roger would agree.
I also liked the way how the room in the mosque where Syed Ali supposedly sets himself on fire is handily equipped with a fire extinguisher and a blanket to put out the flaming body. I'm also guessing that Marie and the mechanic also had a blanket in their room, but hopefully things didn't get too hot in there.
The big question is: where's Nina? And what about the lesser-known disappearing Mason? I think they must have popped down to the chemists together to get something for his nasty cough.
05.12 | Remind you of anyone?
There was something uncanny about seeing Marie Warner wearing that wig in this week's episode. Many of you might have been thinking of Uma Thurman in 'Pulp Fiction', but I was more reminded of this Barbie version of top Icelandic pop singer Bjørk. I guess it's because they're both still plastic and tacky, and nothing like the real thing, but still infinitely preferable to the blonde version.
Johnny Candon, the comedian, and Matt Wells, the media correspondent from The Guardian, were great guests on 'Pure 24' last night.
I'll expect a few more articles about how great '24' and BBC3 are in that particular broadsheet over the next few days, and no doubt they'll be a few more pub jokes about random members of a particular American drama series once people's mates go down the pub and start repeating the quips they pay to go and see.
Also, probably thanks to inviting on some intelligent journalist type, the show had plenty of interesting conversation and not just pissy references to the characters and sex, like what I normally do.
Even more fun than that was that whenever the camera panned over the audience, you could see a spare camera stashed down behind the comfy sofa that Tamzin Sylvester sits on. Oh dear.
I bet someone'll get fired for that, once someone high up the chain of command googles for 'that time on Pure 24 when we left the camera sort of hidden but everyone at could see it camera fuck up'.
05.11 | One for the ladies...
"One hot summer parade, when a student passed out, the wind blew the kilt to reveal all. It was quite a concern and a little embarrassing."
Scotland's Sunday Mail reports that Kiefer Sutherland wore a kilt at school. And it's all thanks to his great radical socialist grandfather. So he's going to Falkirk to unveil a statue to the man. As you do.
05.08 | Will the second series DVD box-set lack the same features as the first did?
In Fox Home Entertainment's rush to release the first-season '24' DVD last fall, it had to forgo its usual plethora of special features such as script texts and commentary tracks. All fans got was a brief alternate ending in which Jack Bauer's wife survived. "There was a lot of pressure to get that out in time for the season two premiere," Staddon says. "We weren't able to get a lot of added material." At least during the second season, they knew to collect "extras" along the way.
The second season box set is now scheduled for a state-side release on 2nd September, a matter of days before the third season starts. 'Isn't that convenient?', asks Diane Werts of Newsday.com.
Rumours around here are rife that pop princess Kylie Minogue is eyeing up a guest spot on '24'. So will the next series (or a possible film?) revolve a 'The Bodyguard'-style plot, with Kiefer and Kylie taking the Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston roles? I doubt it.
05.08 | Oh yes.
"We've got a big Die Hard-style spectacle planned in the back of our minds."
That's Kiefer Sutherland speaking about the possibility of a '24' movie. Bring it on, that's all I can say. It's Kiefer's use of the definite article (when talking about 'the movie') that makes me think that this is more than a rumour.
I don't know how you'd squish 24 hours of real time into a feature-length 90 minutes or so, but I'd like to see them try. Anyone got any thoughts?
05.07 | A picture from far longer than 24 hours ago
Oh dear. Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Kim Bauer, didn't look too hot in her younger days. I'm really digging that Hermione Granger-style hair, though.
A tip: if you want to see Ms Cuthbert looking a bit more grown-up, it looks like she has a part in the new movie 'Old School'. Which also stars Will Ferrell, and so therefore must be excellent, because he's hilarious. The film is out in the cinemas in the UK on Friday 9th May. You can even see her in the trailer.
Get ready to do your own Jack Bauer-style late night antics this Saturday (10th May) when repeats of episodes 8, 9 & 10 are shown on BBC2, starting at the late hour of 12.20AM. Yes, it's another three-episodes-back-to-back repeats shocker!
Relive the glory of:
Jack Bauer in plane crash mayhem!
Nina Myers holding Jack hostage!
Marie Warner turning bad!
So there is a reason for Michelle Dessler being in the story... she's there so that in real life Kiefer Sutherland can driver the actress who plays her to hospital when she falls over drunk. I might be blurring the line between fiction and reality, but I think Tony Almeida should keep away from pisshead alcoholics as well as dirty double agent spies.
Probably just more cross-promotion from The Sun (owned by Rupert Murdoch) and the Fox TV network (owned by, err, Rupert Murdoch).
