24 and Jack Bauer

The House that Jack Built  (24)

Just as in the Middle East I have access to a wide range of pirated DVD’s.  Recently, I got the entire set of 24.  I had already watched the first five seasons years ago and still have the original DVD’s you copied for me Paul.  

Ironically, at the end of season five I left Jack Bauer on a freighter imprisoned and heading for China, that was the end of the season. I felt helpless, there was nothing I could do for Jack at the time.  All of these years since I have been worried sick about Jack and what happened to him in China.  I have often wondered how it is that the free world is able to remain safe without Jack Bauer yelling and screaming and saving the world every season, each year in only 24 hours. 

I thought maybe while in China I could unravel the mystery, so under the pretext of finding a principal’s job I decided to do something about the situation.  I have gone through season six in record time.  I have discovered that the time tested formula is still intact. That is: a combination of  high octane, adrenaline driven plot lines in which people you trust only turn around and  betray you, then die, while Jack whispers and then yells, is wounded, never eats, or goes to the washroom, or changes clothing in any given 24 hour period, kills hundreds of people and never skips a beat. Jack is backed by the CTU staff who work tirelessly in a dismal poorly lit cement bunker and are constantly betrayed by fellow workers, often tortured themselves and then say they are okay and go right back to work because its for the good of the country.  

Ironically, when I got to China, Jack had already left and, as I write this is fighting terrorism in the Los Angeles area by preventing old Soviet style suitcase bombs (from a recent 50% Bentley sale) from being detonated.  All the bad guys are dead, yet the viewer knows the plot must thicken because its only 2 am and this is in real time and the day is not over my friend...as I ponder the time plot differentials the phone rings.  I let Jack get it.  Wouldn’t you know it, the call is from China.  I get a surge of adrenaline, hope springs eternal, because I know with certainty I am still in the game with Jack and there’s 8 hours left.