"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Monday, February 19, 2007

24 Season 6: hr 10: The Civil Servant & Darth Vader

"A civil servant" - that's what Jack's father Phillip contemptuously called Jack tonight, as he stood over his son with a gun, about to kill him.

And then he disappeared. Was this part of Phillip's plan all along, or did Jack somehow manage to elicit a bit of humanity in his Darth Vader of a father, as Jack talked about how he never meant to turn his back on the family, how he just had needed to go his own way...

Hard to tell, at present. But what is clear is Kiefer Sutherland put in one of his best performances yet on the entire series. This family angle is bringing out the best in him as an actor - or, at any rate, better than we got from him with Kim, his attractive but irritating daughter.

I also like Josh's mother better than Audrey, but that's not saying all that much. Still, Marilyn Bauer has done a good job as Jack's sister-in-law. (And, if we can believe the exchanges between Jack and her tonight, Josh is not Jack's son.)

The action back East in the White House was also good tonight, if predictable. I never believed that Tom Lennox would go along with the assassination of the President, however much he disagreed with him. But the scenes were taut with tension, anyway. And the second President Palmer seems in more danger than ever.

And speaking of Presidents - we have Charles Logan, bearded and baiting Jack for something ... which we'll learn more about in Hour 11, next week, as one of the worst days in the life of Jack Bauer, Civil Servant, continues...

Useful links:

listen to 2 and 1/2 min podcast of this review, at Levinson news clips

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Great episode last night, wasn't it? Wow! :D

My review is upcoming...I was busy all last night and today, and I'm just now getting to finishing it.

Paul Levinson said...

Excellent episode Carina! Looking forward to your review.

Anonymous said...

The whole thing is well written and who cares about a few bombs. The real danger is that the "civil" servants all have their own issues and they all seem to override the security of the country.

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