24
Fox
Tuesday, 9 p.m / 8 p.m. CST

Fox's "24" is an action-espionage drama that unfolds in real time — meaning that the hour it takes you to watch it corresponds to an hour in the lives of the characters. Correspondingly, Flak will be providing a written-in-real- time-alongside-the- show review of "24" each week for the duration of the series or until the gimmick of the review becomes tiresome.

Episode 10: 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.

"Don't worry about what you've missed … worry about what you will miss."

So goes the current slogan for "24," and here's the recap with which they're trying to prove it. They're coming out of a two-week break and a burst of synergistic Super Bowl publicity, as well as a new narrative direction. It is, presumably, a good time to come aboard, but like any serial, there really never is a good time to come aboard except the beginning. The recap hardly delved into the whole assassination plot, and instead just displayed those narrative threads we can expect to pick up over the course of the episode. There's not much else Fox could do, though, except perhaps to show a marathon on Fox sister network FX. And while that level of synergy is certainly a boon for the network, what this all really boils down to is that you'll never see a real-time drama quite like this on network TV again. The idea of a second season seems exceedingly unlikely.

I was going to attempt to get into the aesthetic differences — and similarities — between film and television as media this week, but I'm still recovering from the Super Bowl project, and don't really have it in me. Rather than layering an argument over my observations this week, let's just stick with what we can see.

Hm. This episode isn't directed by Stephen Hopkins. Everybody needs a vacation, I guess. In an interview with Salon today, producer Joel Surnow acknowledged that the main visual flourish of the show — the split screen — was a joint innovation between Hopkins and editor David Thompson. Integrating that technique has turned out to be extremely simpatico with the scripts; unlike film, TV is a writer/producer's medium more than it is director's, and so TV direction, particularly of episodic dramas, tends to be very workmanlike … well, I said I wasn't going to get into this, didn't I? Nevertheless, few TV programs can be credited with anything like innovating a visual narrative style. And, again, it's not like no one's ever done split screen before, but particularly when working with the 4:3 aspect ratio of television, and particularly when using the different image areas as panels instead of details of a master image, and particularly when using it for a sustained narrative (as opposed to a music video/short film), the case can be reasonably made that "24" is doing something reasonably new.

What a virtual Mexican standoff that they've built — Jack, whose carbound escape from police pursuit has led him to a surface parking lot, is now skulking around between cars trying to avoid the patrolmen looking for him while talking on a cellphone with his wife, Teri; Teri is on a cellphone that she stole while being raped by her captor, with her daughter on the lookout for more trouble; meanwhile, back at the office patching the two cellphones together and trying to trace Teri's call are Nina and Tony — Nina may have had an affair with Jack and is now seeing Tony. On top of all of those layers, Jack is doing the gallant thing by not letting his wife on to his predicament, trying to carry on a normal conversation while whispering, rolling on the asphault, hiding under SUVs, picking locks, while at the same time the women have hidden the cellphone but left it on because its owner has returned and is audibly threatening them, to which Jack can only grimace silently. It really is a bravura construction for a scene that easily could have been put together much less elegantly.

"Did you get anything with that e-mail address?" "Yes, it's coming through now." Which is followed directly by Jack warning his office to keep up appearances if Gaines tries to contact the now-deceased Jamey … and a cut to Gaines e-mailing Jamey. They get so much equity with elegant set-ups like the parking lot, and then they always squander it right away on these credibility strainers.

We got lots of good info on the latticework beneath the conspiracy — the people who have hired Gaines want both Palmer and Jack, for "personal" reasons. And nothing undercuts the malevolence of a villain more than introducing you to his superior, and now Gaines' superior has threatened Gaines' life. All this drastically changes the Gaines character — Darth Vader had the Emperor, Saruman had Sauron, etc. So the one-dimensionality of Gaines' character now gets transferred up a level, and Gaines becomes a two- or three-dimensional character. Very interesting; we'll see what they do with it.

And a new recurring character: Alberta, an imperious woman with personal history with Jack and Nina, is now acting director of the CTU — Jack's old position. And one of the prominent themes of this episode has been just how much useful stuff the office has done and can do for Jack; now, the people in the office are ostensibly charged with finding him. It's a good shake-things-up wrinkle.

Wait — did they just say Palmer's biggest contributor is Frank Gaines? I must have misheard.

I really am taken with the development they've put into the Palmer character; he seems pretty real. But let's put some clues together, momentarily: The recap included the scene where Palmer was told specifically that Jack Bauer had been involved in the assassination attempt, to which Palmer was nonplussed; Teri told Kimberly that she thought an alleged training seminar that Jack had attended was actually a covert mission; whoever hired Gaines has something personal against both Jack and Palmer. These three things are related. Guaranteed.

And now we get Jack setting off a fire alarm to delay the elevator followed by him having to run down 14 flights of stairs … and he hasn't slept since when? Probably 24 hours now? I do wish that they would portray Mr. Golden Globe Winner as a little more haggard.

And, for once, a funny cliffhanger with Jack masquerading as the driver … well, if not funny, at least funny compared to the rest of this dour, dour show. (They really could use a smidgen of humor now and then.) Wait: There's something wrong with Teri? Arrrgh.

— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)