"24" Day 5: 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (2006)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Tim Iacofano

Writers:

Joel Surnow (creator) &
Robert Cochran (creator) ...

TV Series:

"24" (2001)

Original Air Date:

20 February 2006 (Season 5, Episode 9)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Bierko contacts President Logan and demands information about the route of President Suvarov's motorcade. Jack races to protect a witness who helped supply Bierko the nerve gas cannisters before Bierko has him killed.

Plot Keywords:

Period In Title | Digit In Title | Title Ends With Period | Punctuation In Title | Number In Title

Cast

Kiefer Sutherland	...	Jack Bauer
Kim Raver	...	Audrey Raines
Mary Lynn Rajskub	...	Chloe O'Brian
Gregory Itzin	...	President Charles Logan
James Morrison	...	Bill Buchanan
Roger R. Cross	...	Curtis Manning (as Roger Cross)
Louis Lombardi	...	Edgar Stiles
Jean Smart	...	Martha Logan
Sean Astin	...	Lynn McGill
Jude Ciccolella	...	Mike Novick
Geraint Wyn Davies	...	James Nathanson
Glenn Morshower	...	Aaron Pierce
Julian Sands	...	Vladimir Bierko
Mark Sheppard	...	Ivan Erwich
Nick Jameson	...	President Yuri Suvarov

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 (DVD rating)

Company:

Real Time Productions

'24' Continues To Make Left Turns

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's more of the same in this episode: decisions that involve the lesser of two evils; CTU agents working to help Jack in direct conflict with their boss "McGill;" the President's wife butting into affairs and forcing her will and opinion on delicate matters, etc. This is the same stuff we've been seeing for several weeks, only in different circumstances.

It's become so annoying, frankly, that it made me lose interest - for the first time ever - in this show. I wrote this review months ago and just never got back to watching the rest of the episodes. Hopefully, I will some day.

First, the big story in this episode: terrorist Vladimir Bierko (Julian Sands) calls the President and offers a plan: give him to route to the airport of Soviet President Suvarov so he can kill him, or do not give him that info and the canisters of nerve gas will be released on U.S. Citizens. Take your choice. President Logan is his normal wimpy self ("Mike Novick" should be the Prez as he is the only one who seems like a leader) and makes a decision but - at the very end of the show - we see his wife is going to put a monkey-wrench into his plans. Sometimes it's hard to decide who is the better and more annoying idiot in that First Family.

The second major story is the dissension in the ranks at CTU where Lynn McGill (Sean Astin) is not getting cooperation from his key people, mainly Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), who is secretly helping Jack trying to nab the terrorists. That's admirable but she's constantly lying and McGill knows it, but can't prove it. He's not the villain in here, even though he's portrayed as such. I even feel sorry for him. CTU people have always been the kind you would never seen in real life: those who don't obey orders. Astin does a great job playing McGill.

Once again, as you can see from the above, women are gumming up the works and coming out as those who make the more "humane" and "correct" decisions. This all is very PC and sexist and I'm sorry this program has taken such as left turn politically.

Action-wise, there is a very intense scene with Jack trying to help traitor terrorist-turned good guy James Nathanson. It's a classic "Rambo" scene with all kinds of terrorists and a helicopter full of men all shooting at Jack. They never hit him, but of course, he hits everything. I like "24" but the credibility of these episodes is getting less and less each week.