Moose watches 24

Oh yeah, that too. Muslims love nuclear weapons apparently.

Season 6: 9am - 10am

The terrorists managed to arm and detonate their nuclear weapon. For a second I was wondering what the rest of the season would be about, but it turns out they have 4 more of them. What was potentially an interesting season just became potentially very boring.

Also, Jack killed Curtis. The President did a deal with Assad and Curtis couldn't handle it, so he tried to kill Assad and Jack had to stop him. After that he was all torn up and decided to quit, but I reckon the nuclear explosion probably changed his mind.

I was not expecting the bomb to be detonated, so that was quite a shock. I know it's on the table now though so if any others go off it won't have the same impact. Unless someone important dies, like Chloe or something.

Oh my God Chloe's going to die. Actually, it'll probably be Milo. Or Chloe's husband. One of them is bound to die.

Season 6: 10am - 11am

Okay, wow. What the hell. Jack went to see his brother because he needs to find his father. As soon as Jack was alone with his brother he knocked him out, tied him to a chair and started interrogating him. Gray (I think that's his name) swore on his family's lives that he didn't know anything, but Jack was "Not good enough". The man's a psychopath.

Although Gray isn't entirely innocent. Don't know if I mentioned it, but throughout the final stretch of season 5 President Logan was always on the phone to some mysterious men in a non-descript room somewhere, who he had apparently planned everything. Gray was one of those men.

The random adding of family members is getting a bit silly now. There's also a new Palmer, a sister that evidently just burst into existence for season 6.

Anyway, Jack needs to find his father because he may have been involved with the man who sold the bombs to the terrorists. Also, Chloe had a line that really stuck out. "Why do people I know keep dying?". Morris and/or Milo are definitely going to die.

Season 6: 11am - 12pm

Graem (looked up his name) revealed that BXJ (the company I think Jack's father owns, or is at least heavily involved in) had hired this guy Darren to decomission the nukes, but Darren had sold them instead. Well, more specifically Graem hired Darren.

So Jack's father is out looking for Darren. They didn't report it to keep Graem out of prison. Jack his dad meet up at Darren's office and Jack convinces his dad to involve CTU in the search. But Graem doesn't want that, and his men capture Jack and his dad.

Meanwhile with the terrorists, their engineer died in the explosion, so they can't arm the other 4 bombs. But Darren is lookin for someone else who can do it for them.

Not sure what to think of this twist with Jack's family. It seemed like it could be cool, but I highly doubt that when Graem was shown last season the writers had it in mind that he was Jack's brother, and that kind of thing bugs me. At the moment the show is just swinging back into season 2's story again. Nuclear threat, pressure to retaliate, blah blah blah.

Season 6: 12pm - 1pm

Okaaay... Graem tried to kill Jack and his dad, but they got out of it. Jack then went back to Graem's house with some teams from CTU and properly interrogated him. Graem didn't know any more about the nukes but he did reveal his role in the events of last season. Including ordering the deaths of Palmer, Michelle, Tony and Chloe. Jack flipped and almost killed him, but his father stopped it.

Then a short while later Jack's dad went in to talk to Graem alone before he was moved to CTU, and it turns out his dad is in on it after all. Graem's just protecting him and the company. But then Phillip (the dad) killed Graem anyway, for some reason. He was afraid he would talk or something, but Jack nearly killed him and he kept his mouth shut.

I don't get it. Why not let Jack kill him if he was going to kill him anyway. Graem would still be dead and Jack would probably be removed from the investigation or something.

Also Darren kidnapped Morris (Chloe's husband) to give him to the terrorists. Everyone's worried of course but I really can't see Morris helping them out. So they're going to end up killing him. I knew it.

Season 6: 1pm - 2pm

What the hell Morris?! What the hell! He actually built the device for Fayed so now he can arm the remaining 3 nukes. Just because they killed some woman he didn't know. They were torturing him for a while but he didn't give in, then they shot this woman and he was all "I'll do it". And he did it. I thought he was going to pull some trickery and make the device trackable or something, but apparently he just did exactly what the terrorists wanted. What a twat. Not bothered if he dies now.

Season 6: 2pm - 3pm

There's this Russian guy that was involved with Phillip's company. He was the one who handed over the nukes for decommission. But he's a terrorist too and wants to use the nukes to attack America as revenge for the cold war or something. He using the Arab terrorists so they take all the blame for it.

Marilyn (Graem's wife) thinks she might know where he is because she followed Graem to his house one night thinking he was having an affair. But Phillip found out about this and threatened to kill Josh (Graem and Marilyn's son) unless she led Jack to a different house. Which had a bomb in it. But Jack survived.

Jack also mentioned to his father that there were 4 nukes left, but there's 3. He'd keeping his dad out of the loop, so I'm betting his dad is going to slip up and say something he shouldn't know at some point.

The terrorists were talking about targeting software, so I guess there's going to be missiles involved, like in season 4. This season isn't bad exactly, it's just boring because it's full of stuff that the show has already done.

Season 6: 3pm - 4pm

Through a long series of events that I can't be bothered to explain, Jack rescued Josh but Phillip escaped. However he left a phone and a number for Jack to call. It was Charles Logan's number. Which is jusy confusing. Apparently he knows something about Gredenko (the russian terrorist).

So now as well as Muslim terrorists (again), we have Russian terrorists (again), and Charles Logan is somehow involved (again). This season has managed to consistently keep up the constant twists and turns for longer than the other seasons, that's for sure, but it's all stuff we've seen before. There isn't really any active threat at the moment. CTU have no idea where the bombs or the terrorists are. For the last few episodes it's just been about Jack's family.

So I guess Jack telling his dad there were 4 bombs left was just a mistake? I assumed he layed that misinformation down on purpose because he was suspicious of his dad, but an episode later he found out his entire role in it through other means.

Season 6: 4pm - 5pm

There's been this plot to kill Wayne Palmer building up for a while now. Some high up people don't think he has what it takes to properly defend the country from terrorists. Apparently they want to lock up every Arab person in the entire country just to be sure. Yes that's actually their plan. So they set up a bomb to go off during Assad's speech to kill him and the President to make it look like Assad did it.

Which makes no fucking sense. There's no possible way that could make matters better. America's already been hit a nuke and there's 3 more out there. Current security measures have already alienated pretty much the whole Arab community and given the terrorists even more justifacation for their actions. And now they would have the world believe that a terrorists tricked his way into the presidential bunker and killed the President. Surely that's just handing the terrorists an enormous victory for free as well as showing the country that the terrorists can do anything they want and that absolutely no one is safe.

It's the dumbest plan ever. It might have worked too. Don't know yet if Wayne is still alive.

Season 6: 5pm - 6pm

Palmer is alive but incapacitated. Everyone thinks Assad did it despite Lennox telling everyone exactly what happened. The new president is going forward with the "arrest every muslim in America" plan, like a retard.

Jack invaded Russia. You'd think he would have learned his lesson from China, but apparently not. Tortured the Russian Consulate for information. He got it, but then got captured. Turns out Fayed and Gredenko are going to stick the nukes in flying drones.

I don't really have any enthusiasm or hatred for this season. It's not provoking any reactions from me. It seems really muddled. Early on there were a couple of season 1-3 style side stories, but they lasted about 4 episodes and one of them was almost as irrelevent as Kim's story in season 2. It feels like there's a new plot and a new cast of characters every 5 episodes.

Season 6: 6pm - 7pm

Oh CHRIST. Now Martha's involved again. And because she's a mentalist she stabbed Logan. The episode had the nerve to end on Charles Logan's possible death. NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT CHARLES LOGAN.

Jack got out of the consulate and told CTU where the terrorists were but it's probably too late. The vice President is being a total cunt and lying about the assassination just to have an excuse to go to war with an entire religion.

You what's wrong with this season now? There's a complete lack of interesting characters. The lack of an interesting story was bad enough but this is just terrible. Each season has been speading up the story telling and subsequently running out of decent ideas faster and faster since season 3. You know where season 1 peaked? Episode 24. You know where season 6 peaked? Episode 4.

Season 6: 7pm - 8pm

How the fuck did this guy get to be vice president? He might as well be a skinhead. Last episode he called in the ambassador for Assad's country and was all "Listen here buddy, some of these terrorists came from your country. Therefore I will nuke you if they nuke us again". Because that's not insane.

But CTU intercepted the drone and the nuke didn't go off. So what was the vice president's reaction to the news that the bomb had not been detonated. "That's a technicality". That is what he actually said. He's still going to nuke Assad's country because bombing things makes him feel better I suppose.

Why do they never name the middle-eastern countries? It's okay to name Russia as a source of terrorists but not Iran or Afghanistan or wherever? What's the deal?

There was also another leak at CTU. Someone was helping the terrorists avoid satellite coverage. Apparently it was Nadia. You know, the only muslim that works there. Didn't take long for the new head of field ops to zero on her. "She's muslim, that's enough to go on" were his exact words.

I hope it wasn't her though, as that would be incredibly annoying. For most of the season all of the good guys have had to deal with the new racial profiling protocols and Nadia was having to go through extra security checks for all of her work, which was slowing her down. Everyone was like "Oh, this is so wrong and stupid", but if the show turns around now and says "Hey, sometimes racism works" I'll be pissed off.

Oh and you know what else? The last episode ended with Charles Logan in an ambulance about to die. That was the big scene before the clock ticked over to 8:00. No mention of it at all in this episode. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT.

Season6: 8pm - 9pm

Nadia's innocent. Yay.

This vice president is the most irritating character in the entire show. Except maybe Sherry Palmer. First he threatens nuclear retaliation if America is hit again. It's not, but he still goes ahead with the plan. Now CTU has captured Gredenko and he's offering to give up Fayed and the bombs, but he still wants to nuke the mystery middle-eastern country.

Now President Palmer is conscious again and he directly ordered that no hostile action be taken, and the vice president's reaction is "Well, he's obviously not thinking clearly. I'm going to get him removed from office. Then launch the nuke". This guy is so one-dimensional it's not even amusing.

Season 6: 9pm - 10pm

Oh what the hell?! The whole episode was about Palmer reinstating his authority and his opposition to the nuclear strike. He finally get's the presidency back with no further challenges and the first thing he does is launch the nuke. Bullshit.

Jack finally got to Fayed, but he doesn't have the bombs with him. One of his men is likely going to take the bombs and blow them up the normal way now that Fayed's captured.

Season 6: 10pm - 11pm

That was a packed episode. The nuke was a bluff to see if the country was hiding any useful information, which they were. There was a general in their army that was helping Fayed. So Jack staged an escape for Fayed and used the general to make Fayed think it was genuine. Didn't work but Jack ended up following Fayed back to the bombs anyway.

Rather than calling CTU and giving them his location, Jack stormed in alone and killed all the terrorists by himself. His fight with Fayed was good and first but it went on a bit too long and became goofy. Jack straight up killed him too. Like, on purpose. He murdered him. But they have the bombs so I guess it doesn't matter.

So... season over? The bombs are secure and there's been no mention of a bigger conspiracy behind them. The main plot is concluded and there's still 8 episodes left. How are they going to fill that time?

Well. Audrey's not dead. She's alive and being held by the same Chinese guy that took Jack. They called Jack at the end of the episode. So our story going into the end of the season is rescuing Audrey from the Chinese. This makes no sense to me. Audrey's "death" happened a few months ago, which means the Chinese had her and Jack in prison at the same time. If they were going to use her against Jack, why wait until now? When they handed Jack over in episode 1 it was made clear that Jack hadn't told them anything in the 2 years he was there. If they want to get information out of him using Audrey they could have done it already.

Season 6: 11pm - 12am

So the Chinese want Jack to steal a component from the bombs and give it to them in exchange for Audrey. This component will apparently give them all sorts of knowledge and codes to Russian weapons technology, which they've been after for years because it would allow them to defeat Russia in a war.

Obviously no one is very happy with this prospect, but Wayne Palmer agrees because it's Jack bloody Bauer and America would have been destroyed 5 times over if it wasn't for him. However soon after Wayne collapses because of his injuries and is taken to the hospital. Once again, the boringly villainous Vice President takes over, and his first action is to stop Jack's operation.

Jack doesn't take this too well, and steals the component to do the deal by himself.

This is a weird turn. It's a completely different plot. I mean, completely. Season 1 sort of did this, where the first half was about rescuing his family and the second half was about finding the bad guys. But it was the same bad guys. At least it all fit together. This just feels like the writers ran out of ideas for the nuclear story, and instead of adding a stupid plot twist (like "The President is behind it all!") they just came up with an entirely new plot.

Season 6: 12am - 1am

Jack set it up so that he could make sure Audrey was safe, and then he would blow himself up along with the component and the Chinese guys. But CTU followed him and opened fire on the Chinese, so Jack didn't detonate the bomb and CTU lost the component.

Another operation completely ballsed up because someone didn't trust Jack.

Also Audrey's mental now or something. I guess she doesn't have the magical immunity to torture and stress that Jack seems to have. Seriously, dude spent 2 years being tortured in a Chinese prison and just got out less than 24 hours ago so he could be handed over to a terrorist, who also tortured him. He's been in close proximity to at least three explosions, been knocked unconscious a couple times, and been shot (the bullets hit his bullet proof vest, but I'm sure it still hurts a lot). He must be all kinds of fucked up internally, but he just miraculously keeps going.

Season 6: 1am - 2am

I like this. I'm surprised. This is quite good. Since the crisis usually gets resolved in the final episode we never get to see the immediate reactions of the people involved, but this time we are getting to see that.

Plus it's finally other personal story line like season 1. Jack's invested because someone he actually cares about is at stake, not just because the country is under threat. That's a motivation that's much easier to get involved with and be interested in.

Anyway the doctor wanted to stuff Audrey full of drugs that would apparently shock her out of her state of shock. Or kill her. You know, whichever. What a nice doctor. Jack just wanted to talk to her, and if he has to crack a few skulls to do that then hey, what the hell.

Jack actually did get through to her though, and she remembered something that might help CTU find Chang. But now her father is there and he doesn't want Jack anywhere near Audrey because Jack is "cursed". Which, to be honest, seems like a fair assessment. However, he's Jack Bauer, and you have to root for Jack Bauer because he's always right about everything in the end.

Season 6: 2am - 3am

The component was damaged, so the Chinese needed to find someone who could fix it. To that end they broke into CTU to kidnap Josh Bauer. All the way through I was thinking "Why the hell do they want Josh?". But then at the end it was revealed it was actually Phillip who was fixing the component, and he had arranged this all with the Chinese or something.

I really have no clue what's going on. I have no idea why they had to break into CTU to get Marilyn and Josh. They weren't under arrest, they were getting released in the morning. Phillip could have just dropped by to see them if he wanted. If he was insistent that they be kidnapped for the hell of it, he could have waited a few hours until they were out of CTU. This makes no sense.

Also Milo was killed. Called it.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

The obviously evil guy with the little beard could be a red herring, but the little beard is so twattish that I'm going to say he's the inside man.

I went back and read some of my early season 1 posts, because I'm boring like that, and it took me a few minutes to realise I was talking about Tony here. I forgot he started out as the straight man.

Season 6: 3am - 4am

So Phillip fixed the component for the Chinese in exchange for them getting his grandson. He wants to take Josh to China and rebuild his company or some dumb shit, I dunno. It's all bollocks. Again, why he couldn't wait for a few hours until Josh was out of CTU is anybody's guess.

Anyway the Chinese failed to get Josh because Jack stopped them. So Phillip called the Vice President and offered him the same deal. He'll give up the component if he gets Josh and safe passage to another country. The Vice President agreed because he doesn't want to start a war with Russia over this.

This has all gotten out of control again. If these last episodes had just been about rescuing Audrey and getting revenge on the Chinese guy it would have good. They had 6 episodes to properly flesh that out. But as usual this season can't stick with one plot for more than a couple hours and now it's all gone to shit.

Season 6: 4am - 5am

Of course Phillip can't be trusted, and for some reason everyone ignores Jack when he tries to tell them this. Thankfully Karren finally realised that Jack is always right about everything and helped him break out of custody to stop the exchange.

But it was too late. Phillip handed over a fake component which promptly exploded and made away with Josh.

So our finale going to focus on rescuing this kid that I don't care about and capturing Jack's father, who I also don't care about. Why couldn't this have just been about Audrey? That one episode a few episodes ago where it looked like the final stretch would revolve around her was actually good. I was ready to get into that plot. Things were looking up.

But no. Season 6 simply refuses to do anything worthwhile.

Season 6: 5am - 6am

Okay, this episode was great for all the wrong reasons. Jack's done a lot of crazy shit but this was the episode where he finally transcended and became some sort of mythical fairytale being.

Everything was resolved, the component was destroyed, etc. But, while they were flying away from the oil rig, Jack dropped from the chopper and swam to shore. Josh was all "We have to pick him up!", but Jack just held up his hand and Bill understood that Jack was going his own way. "Why are we leaving him?" Josh asked. "Jack's not ready to come back." Bill said. It was the same thing wen Bill go back to CTU. "We have to find him!" Nadia said. "We won't find him." came the reply.

Like Jack Bauer is some elemental force that's summoned in times of crisis but can't live a normal life and has to vanish until he's needed again. Like friggin' Goku at the end of GT. Like the next time there's a national crisis they'll gather 7 magic stones and chant the magic words and Jack Bauer will appear to save the day. Like he's going to disappear into the sunset leaving people wondering if he was even real.

The final scenes with Heller and Audrey were very good. Still wish it had all been about that instead of dragging Jack's father back into the mix.

Overall, this is the worst season so far, but it had one of the better finales. Possibly the second best finale, although season 3's was pretty good, and the season 1 finale is still the best single episode of the show so far.

Before I start season 7, the season rankings so far.

In joint first place, seasons 1 and 3. I'd like to put season 1 first on it's own, because the good parts are better than season 3's good parts. But the parts are really bad. Teri's amnesia drags the season down, but it's still great. Season 3 is the most consistently good season with great moments dotted throughout, but it never quite reaches the highs of season 1's high points.

In second place, season 4. It's a bit ropey but still consistently good and enjoyable. No real bad parts to speak, but no real great parts either. It's satisfactory.

In joint 3rd place, seasons 2 and 5. Jack's story is season 2 was good, but Kim's side really brings the whole season down. It was fun in parts, but there was no need to give Kim a completely independant plot that lasted the whole season. Season 5 started off amazingly, but after episode 6 it steadily got worse and only picked up again for the finale.

In last place, season 6. Easily the most muddled season, full of bland hereos and dull villains. Mike Doyle could have been a good character if he'd had a personality for more than 5 minutes.

And as a bonus, the current finale rankings;

1 > 3 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 2

You need to watch 24 Redemption first.