Hour 10: Like an Oasis Amidst a Vast Swamp of Stagnation, So Was This Episode

For the most part, I really liked this one! It was paced really well and for a sitcom, wasn't too implausible.

A few observations.

1. I like how Denny and Shaggy talk in code. Apparently "I'll call the police" actually means "Let's put these dead scumbags in the Silence of the Lambs van AND PUT THEM IN THE RIVER!"

And I'm sorry, but NO ONE has noticed that they've now been gone about two hours?! Yeah, right.

2. I figured out why BBQ Shrimp gets on my nerves: HE TALKS TOO MUCH! The producers use him to keep the audience up to date, and it's really not necessary. I wish they would tone down his abundant synopses.

3. In spite of my previous statement, BBQ GOT HIM SOME COJONES! I appreciated the way he stood up to Weiss, forcing Weiss to slap the door jamb half-heartedly as if he were starring in a junior-high production of A Streetcar Named Desire. And didn't Hastings use the phrase "The hook has been baited" at some point? We all know what the hook was baited with...

4. The verbal standoff between President Taylor and President Hassan rocked. President Taylor really showed her BRASS SPHERES OF THUNDER, threatening an all-out invasion if he didn't hand over the security files.

We haven't seen these since Martha Logan was around.

5. Considering she put her own daughter in prison, I thought it was touching for Prez Taylor to empathize with Hassan. She seemed genuinely concerned (as concerned as a character in an implausible Fox drama CAN be) when Hassan revealed that Kayla, star of Kamistan's only daytime drama, Discreetly Draped Loins of Admiration, had gone missing to get her freak on with Tarin, the Studcake from Constantinople. In a field of lilies during a dangerous lightning storm.

That was a nifty wrestling move they displayed right before cutting to a commercial.

Sexy.

6. Poor Jason Schwartzman seemingly kicks the bucket...

...but is instead apparently rendered immortal with CTU's special reanimation technology...

...or so that kid from the Fame TV show thought...

...when he shot him four times WITHOUT KILLING HIM!

7. What the heck is Mare Winningham doing on 24?

I kept expecting Rob Lowe to come in and snap her granny underwear right there in her own bed!

Those of you who don't get my reference here, don't worry about it.

8. Magic Dummy needs to be put in storage. She's stomping up and down on my last nerve.

 

Here she sits on Arlo's lap during his coffee break, looking alarmingly like Shirley MacLaine in a longshoreman's outfit.  

I loved how her call to Jack magically coincided with the only three-second lull during the entire 24-hour national crisis. To do what? Fret about their relationship. GEEZ! Someone please put her in a wood chipper!

9. Poor little Doogie Howser (Agent Owen) looked like a deer caught in the headlights...

...but he did step up to the plate. Good for him! However, I do have an uneasy feeling that Doogie's not long for this world.

10. Meanwhile, that kid from Fame...

...miraculously survives a fall out of a second-story window only to lock himself in either a fancy sauna or Michael Jackson's hyperbaric chamber...

...forcing Jack to use his AT&T calling card. That can't be good.

Next week, that kid from Fame gets past CTU using a clever disguise.