Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outer Range; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Monday, May 26, 2014

24 Season 9.5: Jack and Audrey

The 9th season of 24 is now operating at peak performance, which means it's as heart pounding, complex, and peopled with compelling and multifaceted characters as it ever was, at its best. Among the best scenes and developments tonight in 9.5:

Audrey and Jack, and Jack acting as the perfect gentleman, with Audrey in his arms and their lips nearly touching. Hats off to Kim Raver for the best performance I've ever seen her give, not only in earlier seasons of 24, but other shows like Third Watch, Revolution, etc.
Her father, President Heller, continues to be just a little behind the 8-ball. You would think that, after his grievous error in not going with Jack last week (or, in 24 time, just an hour before), he would have agreed to Jack's recommendation this week. Not so - which is both plausible (he's not at his top mental capacity) and keeps the peril brewing to the max.
Chloe standing up to the Julian Assange character was heartening to see, too. Adrian (the Assange character) is hard to fathom. He may yet come through with a decisive move for the good guys. At this point, he has point-blank refused Chloe's plea for assistance, and wants to exit London as quickly as possible. But Chloe being on the job for Kate and Jack may be enough to stop Margot - as it almost did in stopping the ambush to tonight, and managed to save some lives in any case.
Kate continues to be a vibrant, powerful character - about as good as Renee at this point, which is good indeed. Whether she'll sleep with Jack - especially with Audrey around - remains to be seen, but it'll be a pleasure to see Jack and Kate continue to work together.
And Margot continues to be an arch villain, as intelligent as she is ruthless. She understood Naveed completely, engineered his replacement, and apparently got her daughter to go along with this execution. The only mistake she might have made is believing so totally in his replacement, who may in the end not have to talent of Naveed.
Jack, it's worth noting, tells Heller he can get the information out of the Margot-contact via "stealth". This is an improvement over the torture which served as the last resort in interrogation in some previous seasons.