May 14, 2003

BARNEY GUMBLE REVIEWS '24': On

BARNEY GUMBLE REVIEWS '24': On Tuesday's episode of "24," (spoilers!) Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) actually spoke the line "my heart just stopped," becoming in all probability the first television character to utter that phrase since Barney, on a 1992 Simpsons episode called "New Kid on the Block." And while we know that Barney's heart stopped because he had spent several hours drinking beer straight from a tap at Moe's, we don't know what caused Jack's heart to stop and then suddenly start again ("there it goes"), but it may have something to do with the storyline three weeks ago when Jack was clinically dead for most of an episode, even though he was walking around, driving, and shooting people less than an hour later as though nothing had happened. Or perhaps it was his plane crash a few hours earlier, or the fact that a nuclear bomb detonated what looked like 100 feet away from where he was sitting.
It should go without saying that the second half of "24"'s second season (the "proving the recording is fake" part) has paled in comparison to the first half, the "finding the bomb" part. Not only is there less tension, but we've had long periods of little-to-no activity, and no holy-shit surprises on the level of the-blond-sister-is-really-with-the-terrorists moment. And of course not a single believable event has taken place since at least the third or fourth hour... but there is a chance it'll all be redeemed by next week's finale. Let's hope- I still stick to my Bob-Warner-as-ultimate-villain hypothesis.

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 14, 2003 05:34 AM
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