Tag: Colm Feore (Page 3 of 5)

24 7.14: And you will know us by the trail of dead

March 16, 2009 /

Terrorism, thy name is Starkwood. Sounds more like a country club, doesn’t it?

With ten hours to go, “24” finally gives up the name and occupation of Jonas Brother’s company, and I feel like a complete idiot for not guessing that they were a private army. What other organization would have a trained killer like Quinn on payroll, not to mention do business with the Butcher of Sangala? God, it was right there in front of me. (*slaps forehead*)

I like how they’re writing characters’ absences from the screen with the ‘put ’em in holding’ trick. Chloe is finally sprung from the writers’ purgatory – and sorry, babe, but if we were Morris, we would have given up Jack’s location in order to secure your freedom too – but now Jacqueline is being put away for aiding Jack in acquiring Quinn’s identity and giving him Senator Dumbass’ address. I was a bit puzzled, though, that Jackie has better hacking skills than Janis, but I’m sure that’s just me.

“Tell me, Dudley, have you been in a ‘Saw’ movie? Then you don’t really know the meaning of the word ‘terror,’ now, do you?”

Chloe wasn’t the only character sprung from ‘holding’ this week. Tony’s back in play after Jack calls him and gives him orders to assemble a bunch of gear and meet at Alexandria Port to stop Starkwood from acquiring their Candyman-tested bio weapon. God help the show if Jack and Tony try to take Starkwood down – a private military, mind you – by themselves. Come on, really? I know that Jack looks guilty as sin right now after he was the last person seen in the company of Dumbasses Senator and Lil (a moment of silence for the former, please), but the first thing he should do after hanging up with Tony is call Dudley Do-Right, and explain everything to him. “Larry, bomb, Starkwood, Alexandria Port. See you in 20 minutes.” That should do it, right? The Feds see what’s going down, problem solved. Ah, who am I kidding, that makes too much sense. I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Tony’s in bed with Starkwood, that his connection to them is just one of those “bad things” he alluded to earlier. I hope that isn’t the case, but we do have ten more hours left. Lots of time for an obstacle or three.

How, exactly, did Quinn get to Senator Dumbass’ house ahead of the police? Were we supposed to think that he got there by monitoring the police band, or was he already planning on killing the Senator as a means of covering their tracks? For their sake, I hope it’s the latter.

And even though we got a glimpse of what mayhem Jonas Brother has planned, it turns out that the show’s deadliest character is in the freaking White House, baby! The ink is still wet on the paperwork that brought the First Daughter onto her mother’s staff, and Olivia has already set Ethan up to take the fall for Lil Dumbass’ death and Jack’s subsequent escape from custody. Kitten doesn’t just have claws; she has machetes. The pieces are clearly in place for Olivia to be the new Sherry Palmer, though at present, Olivia isn’t nearly as interesting (or fun) as Sherry was. But let’s get to the important part: we have a female character who a) resides in the White House, b) has no ethical standards, and c) will lie to anyone and everyone if it meets her needs. Gosh, her ideal nickname seems too obvious, doesn’t it? Do I dare christen her Hillary Clinton?

24, TV, TV Action

24 7.13: Ask not for whom the silent clock ticks…

March 9, 2009 /

…it ticks for Bill Buchanan.

Even stranger, I had a thought earlier today that Bill might die in tonight’s episode. It just seemed to be floating out there, as if Death itself was taunting me with the knowledge that life goes on within you and without you. Thankfully, 4B’s death was far more honorable than the one that I feared, which is that he would die on his knees at the hands of Candyman as retaliation for misleading them with Madame Prez’s tracker. Instead, they saved the meaningless death for a red shirt character. As it should be.

Jack Bauer must have read what I wrote last week about how anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice, because he offered an on-screen retort that anything worth shooting is in fact worth shooting five times. And seriously, how dumb is Candyman? Jack has his gun up and ready, and Candyman still thinks he can reach for his gun, aim, and fire in less time than it will take Jack to pull the trigger? Also, Jack emptied all of those shots in Candyman’s torso. Was he not wearing a bullet-proof vest? To a siege on the White House? ‘Cause I know that whenever I raid the White House, I wear Kevlar. Maybe it all goes in line with the reasoning that Candyman never intended to walk out of the White House alive since, if the Feds didn’t take him down, Jonas Brother certainly would.

Go with God, Big Balls Bill.

And speaking of Jonas Brother, he is already my favorite villain in the history of “24.” I love how calm and absolutely fearless he is, and most importantly, how much he seems to be enjoying what he’s doing. When they send the spook to kill Senator Dumbass’ weasel assistant, Jonas asks his assistant which spook they sent. “Quinn,” his aide replies. Jonas raises his brow and very casually observes, “Quinn’s good. Bauer’s good.” He was savoring the match-up! Even better was after Quinn killed Lil Dumbass and the next phase of their plan was back on track. “Now we’re having fun,” he said. Couldn’t agree more. Genius casting on the part of the producers to get Jon Voight to play Jonas. I hope he gets an Emmy for his troubles.

The one character who developed overnight – man, I sound like I’m talking about a teenage girl, which will make sense in a second – is Olivia Taylor. Holy cow, what a back story. Fired from her mother’s staff after trying to sabotage her run for office? That’s a therapist’s wet dream, right there. For the moment, it looks as though this near-death experience has realigned her priorities, and the new target of her unbridled rage is Warden Norton for being too stupid to see that the entire government has been corrupted on his watch. Help me out, readers. Olivia needs a nickname, something that expresses both her rage (or lust for vengeance) and her tendency to act like a sullen teen.

Our sullen teen also worked a little “24” history into the conversation during her chat with Old Yeller. She not so subtly asked him about the former First Lady of Crazy, and the phrasing of it suggested that she’s dead. Old Yeller responded with a terse “I’d rather not talk about it,” but I hope they resolve this long-dangling thread. The last we saw FLOC and her ex-husband, President Buck Buck Brawwwwwwk, he was flatlining in an ambulance after she stabbed him. I need closure, damn it. (*takes drink*)

Lastly, I must give props to Dudley Do-Right for playing the role of in-house foil so gamely. He is an endless source of what our fellow blogger John Paulsen likes to call manufactured conflict, but amazingly, the way that things played out this week, his actions created all kinds of conflict, but did not feel forced. He began by telling the Vice President to grow a pair and authorized the attack on Candyman’s men himself – God, I hope that Madame Prez rips Vice President Billy Bob Thornton’s nuts off the next time she speaks with him – and then he suspended Jacqueline Bauer for insubordination after she refused to abandon the idea that Jack could get Lil Dumbass to talk, and went over Dudley’s head to get it done. One act may contradict the other, since he’s suspending Jackie for disobeying a direct order while he saved the day by disobeying another, but neither seemed out of character. He just wants to protect the President, and I think this will ultimately prove to be what puts Jack and Dudley on the same page, where DDR finally “gets it” and understands that they’re fighting the same battle in different ways. Hopefully, it won’t end in a debate over which one can be the other’s wingman, followed by a Kenny Loggins song.

24, TV, TV Action

24 7.11-12: Hey Madame President, you want some Candy?

March 3, 2009 /

As one of last week’s commenters observed, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think that I hate “24.” And to be honest, there have been times – and even seasons – when I did. But last week was an aberration in what has overall been the strongest season the show has assembled in ages, maybe ever. The show is always going to have its You Must Suspend Disbelief moments, and I understand that. I find that those YMSD moments are more forgivable when they revolve around timing, rather than when someone behaves completely out of character in order to manufacture a little more conflict. Just wanted to set the record straight for any newcomers to the blog. (*End of editorial*)

And while we’re talking about suspending disbelief, let’s address the most obvious one in tonight’s two-hour episode, and it’s not that a team of soldiers armed to the teeth found a way to infiltrate White House security. The show lives for that kind of conspiracy thriller stuff, and I would hate to see them stop. No, it’s the fact that no one involved in US intelligence had any idea that General Candyman was on US property. Public Enemy #1 is on your back porch, and you didn’t know? Really? Seth Meyers could riff on this for weeks in one of those Weekend Update skits. Like I said in last week’s comment section, how did he avoid detection? Did he float in on a raft? And if Candyman and Ike Turner are both in the States, who on earth is running Sangala? No one, apparently, because the soldiers are all running for the hills, but you’d think that the American soldiers in Sangala would have suspected that something was amiss before they bombed them back to the Stone Age. But hey, I have no military experience, so I don’t know how these things work. All I know is what a college friend and lifelong Army soldier once told me, which is that anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice, something Jack Bauer would wholeheartedly agree with.

Tonight’s episode finally gave us the smackdown we’ve been thirsting for: Chloe O’Brian vs. Janis Gold. And impressively enough, it ended with Janis getting the drop on Chloe, enough to convince Dudley Do-Right to lock up Chloe in holding. Of course, Janis had to work some magic of her own in order to obtain a recording of the phone call that incriminated Chloe, which opens the door to the possibility that Janis might have some secrets of her own. Perhaps Billy Walsh was just a smoke screen, and that he and Janis were both involved in the day’s events, with each unaware of the other’s involvement. That would certainly make for a nice last-minute twist, the type upon which this show thrives.

“So Chloe, are you thinking what I’m thinking” “I was thinking it before you even walked into the room.” “So it’s on?” “Oh, it’s on, bitch.”

The first hour of tonight’s show was just the buildup to the raid, but I thought they did a good job of ratcheting up the tension. I will, though, call two specific things into question: the fact that no one saw the “orderly” kill Ike Turner thanks to the phantom phone call (Ike’s death was not quite the head on a stake that I predicted in Hour 8, but it makes sense given the circumstances), and the fact that Jacqueline Bauer not only jumped onto a boat filled with soldiers, but chose to stay on the boat once she lost both her gun and her cell phone. All together now: Ahhhhhhh hahahahahahaha! Whew, all better. Seriously, that was just silly. Even better was that she walked right by all of their weapons as they sat outside, unguarded, on the boat’s stern. Had she grabbed one of those assault rifles, she could have at worst crippled Candyman’s efforts and at best stopped them entirely. This part of the show brought to you by Steve Winwood’s “Roll with It.”

So Jack knows that Senator Forman’s weasel assistant is the point man to the day’s events, and gets thisclose to getting him to talk (thanks to the threat of paralysis via torture, of course) when security blows the door down, at which point Weasel Boy predictably asks for his attorney and clams up. And sure enough, minutes later the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Interesting that they kill everyone in sight and then, upon capturing Big Balls Bill, decide that they need hostages. Not that I was rooting for Bill’s death, but it would have made more sense, since he was actively trying to mislead them by running off with Madame Prez’s tracker. Even more interesting was Tony’s story about his “contact,” who’s now “dead.” Are we all in agreement that Tony is the source, and is feeding Jack intel out of atonement for the bad things he’s done/is about to do? Even more curious was the conversation between the Vice President and one of his lackeys about not looking too eager to see the President get offed. This is surely to distract us from the real problem, which is none other than the retun of Jonas Brother (that’s Jon Voigt’s character, for those who missed my “24: Redemption” blog all those months ago), who sold out President Taylor’s daughter in a nanosecond in order to secure the safety of his mysterious shipment. Jonas Brother is like this season’s First Lady of Crazy: the gift that keeps on giving.

Our episode ends with President Taylor giving herself up so that Candyman doesn’t gouge her daughter’s eyes (though Old Yeller takes another bullet protecting said daughter, the poor bastard), and Jack utters the words that will make at least one loyal follower of this blog giddy: “I have a daughter.” Of course, what he didn’t tell Madame President was that his daughter is likely caught in a bear trap, or a hostage in a Kwik-E-Mart robbery, or something else equally crazy, but I suppose this was neither the time nor the place for details.

24, TV, TV Action

24 7.10: Death becomes her, and her

February 23, 2009 /

The only way tonight’s episode of “24” could have been more ludicrous is if it featured a special appearance by Ludacris. Scene after scene contained moments of jaw-dropping ridonculousness (yes, Will, I said it again), be it the dialogue – when Tina’s sister shrieked “You killed her!” at Jackie Bauer, I actually said, “Oh, fuck you” back at the screen – or the laughable attempt by Billy Walsh to frame Erika for everything. I’m actually sad that Erika is dead, because after she had the meltdown in the bathroom, I came up with the perfect nickname for her: Beaker.

Billy Walsh is a dumb, mother, fucker. He kills Beaker, and then shoots himself in an attempt to frame her for everything, without a thought about fingerprints, powder burns, etc. Nope, just toss the gun in her general direction, that should be enough to fool the freaking FBI. Can you picture Gil Grissom investigating that scene? He’d look at the Feds and say, “You’re joking, right?” And if I’m Dudley Do-Right, I don’t care what kind of yarn Billy spins for me; dude is the only living witness to a crime scene. Get his arm patched up, and send him straight to Interrogation Room A to make his “statement.” Don’t forget the pliers and a blowtorch.

Ah, but Beaker wasn’t the only one to bite it this week. Tina does something completely reckless and downright heroic by causing Ike Turner’s driver to crash. (I love how Jack was already pulling the trigger as he was yelling “Put your hands on your head!” at the driver.) Did anyone else find it strange, though, that Tina went from conscious to dead faster than it would take to actually shoot someone to death? Jackie gave up on trying to revive her almost as soon as she started CPR. She made this big scene – several scenes, in fact – about how she said she would protect Tina, yet you wouldn’t have known it from her half-assed attempt to resuscitate her. They should have had her go all Ed Harris in “The Abyss” on Tina. “Fight! Fight!” (*slaps Tina*) That would have been both awesome and fitting, since her character is experiencing all sorts of rage and conflict.

“Listen, baby, I love you for helping me betray our country, but there’s no way I’m leaving my wife for you. Have you seen her? She’s hot. And you talk like a muppet.”

So they kill Beaker and Tina, but First Daughter Olivia Taylor continues to live and breathe. If anyone is looking for proof on why life isn’t fair, there it is. The scene between her and Mommy Dearest was hilarious, with Olivia acting like a sullen teenager. For a minute, I could have sworn that Olivia was even holding her breath, and man, was I hoping that Madame Prez would call her on it. “You realize that I have the power to bring a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘You’re grounded,’ right?”

So the slap fight between Jack and Jackie didn’t end in rough sex, as one commenter predicted, but it actually ended better than that. Is there anyone who is on Jackie’s side of this debate? I know I’m not, and I loved Jack telling her in not so many words, “We have a shitty job to do, so suck it up or quit.” Are we supposed to take her declaration that she was prepared to shoot him as foreshadowing? Ah, who am I kidding. This show never follows up on any of the seeds it plants. Remember Jack’s “nephew” from last season?

This week’s Big Reveal is that the young punk running point on this whole campaign is none other than the assistant to Senator Blaine “my name is a major appliance” Mayer (henceforth known as Senator Red Forman). A brilliant move on the writers’ part, actually, since his boss already wants Jack Bauer behind bars. Still, you had to love the look on his face right before the final clock, when he realized that he was about to be in the line of fire. Hey, if you’re going to commit high treason against your country, be prepared to make some sacrifices.

My wife did not like the conversation between Tony and Jack on the steps. Tony seemed a little off to her, and I see what she means. Could they be opening the door for Tony to still be a bad guy? I hope not, for a couple of reasons, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. And as Inigo Montoya once said, I hate waiting.

Lastly, the selfish writing staff of “24” are getting stingy with the ‘Damn its.’ Only one this week (Beaker). Don’t they realize that people are playing a drinking game to their show? Come on, guys, do your job.

24, TV, TV Action

24 7.9: We’d call the FBI snitch a weasel, but weasels mate for life

February 16, 2009 /

There are times when I think that casting agents don’t realize how much they handicap their shows. We all knew Billy Walsh was dirty, if for no other reason than the fact that he was played by the guy that played Billy Walsh on “Entourage.” Using this logic, we can also safely conclude that Ethan Kanin is dirty because he’s played by the same actor that played Warden Norton in “The Shawshank Redemption.” He also played a baddie in “Demolition Man” and, perhaps most damning, was the boat captain in “Boat Trip.” Yikes. I bet he scrubs his hands for an hour each night before he goes to bed, murmuring, “So…dirty…can’t…get…clean…”

Janice’s method of blackmailing Billy was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe he actually gave in to it. If he’s willing to cheat on his wife, then he’s willing to lie to her, so why not turn the tables on Janice by ratting her out to Dudley Do-Right for blackmail and getting her fired? The worst Janice can do at that point is tell his wife about the affair, but he can always deny it and write her off as a sore, jealous lunatic. Seems like a foolproof plan from here. As it stands, he’s exposed as a potential candidate for the server breach, but Janice’s paranoia will serve as a good smoke screen while he continues issuing APBs for the arrests of Jack and Jackie. Remember that scene where Billy used someone else’s clearance to get his wife’s plane moved to the front of the queue? Our first clue.

Famous last words for any potential Federal witness: “We’ll be able to track you from up to a mile away.” If you hear those words, you can guarantee that your saviors will wind up more than a mile away. Col. Ike earned his Ike Turner nickname this week, showing his volatile nature the moment poor Tina resisted his brilliant plan to run away together. Then he won her over with the lamest trick in the Weasel Boyfriend playbook: “Do you love me?” Ladies, if your guy ever hits you with a sucker question like that in order to get his way, run. Whatever he’s planning is not in your best interests. And who would have thought that, as we were all debating why he would choose to start a relationship with a waitress in a diner while plotting a terrorist attack, it would be because he liked her? We all thought that there had to be a reason for it, and it turned out to be the simplest reason of all. I’m guessing Tina probably reminds him of some old flame in Sangala, whom he fed to crocodiles after she told him she was pregnant or something.

“I’m sorry Ms. Taylor, I can’t hear you over the roar of the crowd cheering my return.”

We had two great old-school “24” callbacks this week. The first is when Morris O’Brian, fresh off of his brief appearance in “Saw V,” dropped Chloe off at the FBI offices. We also got to see Morris and Chloe’s son Prescott. (Prescott? Really?) And while I love Morris, I was practically pumping my fists in the air the second I heard Old Yeller’s voice as he approached the First Daughter. Welcome back, Agent Pierce. I hope nobody shoots you this time around.

The whole end-justify-the-means aspect to Jack’s methods is clearly wearing on Jacqueline, who – gasp! – wept at the thought of what she did to Vossler’s wife and child once DDR laid some righteous guilt on her. What’s it gonna take to change DDR’s tune about Jack, especially after Chloe hilariously reminded him that he’d be wise to clean up his own backyard before pointing any fingers? You’d think the fact that Jack SAVED HER LIFE would be enough, but no, I guess Jack didn’t follow the proper channels. I can’t wait to see how the scene in next week’s episode plays out, where she’s slapping him over and over. “Can you feel that? How about that?” That scene has to end with him kissing her, right?

24, Actors, Actresses, TV, TV Action

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2023 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑