"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, March 6, 2017

24 Legacy 1.6: George Washington Bridge

Something I didn't want to see in 24 Legacy 1.6.  The George Washington Bridge has always been one of my favorite parts of New York life.  I used it hundreds and hundreds of times when I taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the late 1970s and half of the 1980s, and I've used it hundreds of times since.

But 24 has always been about the worst happening, beginning with that shocking end of the first season, when Jack's wife Teri is killed.  This was 24 keeping true to the horror and terror of September 11.  24 never trafficked in happy endings. It depicted a world far too dangerous, a world that hung in the balance, all the time. And, let's face it, we're still in that world now.  Maybe even more so, given the results of our last election.  And 24 Legacy is true to that.

The cop on the bridge did the best that he could.  He almost stopped Amira from pressing the button. A better trained agent would have made sure she was dead, or taken the detonator out of her hand, as soon as he opened the door of the cab of that truck with the bombs.  But he came close to stopping it, and did the best he could.

And the greater terror is all the other cells and heinous plans that are still afoot.   The terrorists have Carter's wife and brother.  There's no way he'll cooperate for real with them, even for a second.  He'll pretend and use this as a way getting closer to the terrorists.

But how did the terrorists know where Carter's wife and brother were?  We're forced to face, again, that there's a mole in CTU.  We forced to return to the question at the root of all of this.  Who can it be? Not the Senator's father, because he was in no position to tip off anyone.   And everyone else looked suitably traumatized at what happened to the bridge.

So ... I'm stumped.  Which is a good thing at this point in a series like 24 Legacy.




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