While I might not have mentioned it here previously, one of the things I'm most passionate about is the television show 24 - not because of its strange, schizophrenic politics or ludicrous plot twists, but rather because Jack 24 is the only character on television that I can count on to shoot a whole lot of people through the course of a season.
Every year, I judge the relative success or failure of 24's season by two criteria: the number of people Jack kills, and the number of geek-friendly guest stars the producers cast in minor and major parts.
This season is off to a middling start - in four episodes, Jack has only killed two people, mercenaries that he cooperatively shot with an FBI agent. For a while it looked like he had been responsible for another death - he used a third Merc as a human shield to defend against bullets, but then the guy turned up alive later on.
While there wasn't a lot of murder, at least there was one classic action scene, in which Jack drove a car through some concrete blocks and off the second floor of a parking garage. This is the kind of action we haven't seen on television since the loss of Walker, Texas Ranger.
On the other end of the equation is the geek casting, which was much more robust:
Colm Feore (For me, he'll always be Legion in Storm of the Century. Or, you know, Trudeau)
John Billingsley (the Doctor from Enterprise)
Peter Wingfield (Methos from Highlander)
Kurtwood Smith (By my count, he's the fourth Robocop vet to turn up on the show)
And even though he only shows up in photo form, the real casting coup of the piece is Tony "Candyman" Todd, perhaps the finest actor of his generation, playing the evil general who rules troubled county Sangala.
As of 12PM TFST (24 Standard Time), the counts are:
Kills: 2
Geek Castings: 5
Let's see how things progress in the coming weeks.
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