STORIES TOLD AGAIN
I've been an on and off viewer of Fox's hit thriller "24" since it's inception a few years ago, having been mostly "off" for the last couple of seasons.
But Brad Feld's recent blog posts, with it's palpable enthusiasm for the season premiere last night finally did get me to Tivo the two-hour extravaganza.
Having then watched the show in the wee hours of the morning on Tivo, I have but SIX questions IN ADDITION to Gawker's questions on last night's season opener (SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen last night's shows on Tivo yet!):
"A series of questions raised by last night’s premiere of Fox’s ridiculous and ridiculously addictive action series, 24:
• Isn’t four hours over two nights a somewhat onerous demand for a TV show to make of our time?
• That said, ohmigod, can you wait for tonight’s installment?
• Even in the supersecret, highstakes, subterfuge-filled world of CTU, wouldn’t you expect the news that a man thought to be dead for 18 month is in fact not dead to make people do at least, say, a very quick double take?
• A tough one: Is Audrey Raines, Wayne Palmer, or President Logan the worst actor?"
All excellent questions and reactions. I would add the following:
1. Isn't this season's opening shots of Jack Baeur waiting in line for a day-job on a 
construction site in his new persona reminiscent of similar scenes from the classic sixties mega-hit TV show "The Fugitive"? In fact, isn't the whole Jack Bauer "going off the grid" a major flashback to that show? For those of you too young to remember the TV show, you may remember the excellent Harrison Ford playing "The Fugitive" in the movie version in 1993.
2. When the few CTU guys and gals who knew Jack Bauer start getting blown-up and knocked off, 
didn't that remind you a bit of the scenes from Lethal Weapon 2 when many of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover's cop-buddies are knocked off one after another in explosions and gun-fire?
3. Aren't elements of last night's episode just like a video game? When Jack proceeds to then rip off a helicopter from an Emergency Services station, in order 
to pick up Chloe at a remote refinery, why, isn't something most of us did in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game? Many times, in fact?
4. Want more "golden oldies" moments from video games? The next one occurs when Jack goes back into the building where President Palmer is assassinated, and asks 
for Chloe's help to identify where all the cops/FBI/CTU officers are all over the building.
The "target" screen on Chloe's laptop, showing where all the "bogies" are as blips in the multi-story building, brought to mind one of the first video games by Tom Clancy in 1998, called Rainbox Six.
In that game, you had to take a Special Services agent and/or his team, into a building full of "bogies". One of the main interface elements of the game was a 3-D version of a multi-story building showing all the targets as blips. You then had to devise a plan to either move past the bogies using stealth, and/or "take them out".
5. Then when the bad guys pour out of the UPS-like van in front of the airport in their black 
trench-coats and their best "Euro-thug" demeanor, how many of you had a deja vu flashback to "Die Hard 2" where Bruce Willis plays the role of Jack Bauer last night?
You know, it's the one where the bad guys take over Dulles Airport in a snow-storm to demand the release of a Latin American Generalissimo?
Maybe you need to wait for tonight's two-hour regular "24" when the bad guys demand stuff from the President and the Russian premier to make the connection. And of course Jack Bauer being there to save the da
6. Is there an original plot-line due any-time soon in the new season of "24" to relieve us of this deja vu deluge?
Tune in again tonight to find out.
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