Some thoughts apropos of last night's two-hour season premiere of 24 ...
1) Is is just me, or is the show managing to polarize the torture=necessary evil / civil rights=danger debate even further than it already has? I wouldn't have thought that possible, but here we are. Evan Handler's star turn in season 4 as the querulous ACLU lawyer was bad enough -- now we have the president's sister presented as an hysterical evidence-shredder. Also, I liked the president's qualification that most historians see the internment of Japanese in WWII as an blot on America's history. Most? That's kind of like saying most historians agree that the Holocaust happened. Is seriously there anyone besides Anne Coulter or Michelle Malkin who still attempts to defend internment?
(2) The stab wound Jack received to the shoulder healed pretty quickly, seeing as he was neat and trim in a snug gray shirt soon after with no sign of blood seeping.
(3) It's nice to see Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine getting work. I was never exactly a loyal viewer of DS9, but I always liked his character. He has to find it slightly ironic however, that having anglicized his name from "Siddig El-Fadil" to "Alexander Siddig" midway through his Star Trek tenure that he now seems to be typecast into the role of the enigmatic Arab.
(4) Speaking of typecasting: it's a pretty breathtaking display of Hollywood's Middle Eastern & Arab bench strength when you see Kal Penn (Kumar of Harold and Kumar fame) and Newfoundland's own Shaun Majumder from This Hour Has 22 Minutes being cast as sinister terrorists. It must be a rather ambivalent comfort to actors of Middle Eastern or subcontinental descent to know that, whatever else happens, they can always get roles playing terrorists.
(5) Yet more typecasting: the big dumb blond redneck guy who beats up Kumar (sorry, I really can't think of him as anything else) and gets shot for his trouble looked really familiar ... then I recognized him from the Vietnam drama Tour of Duty in which he played -- wait for it! -- a big dumb blond redneck guy. 24: where creative casting goes to die.
(6) And yet, I can't wait for more ...
1) Is is just me, or is the show managing to polarize the torture=necessary evil / civil rights=danger debate even further than it already has? I wouldn't have thought that possible, but here we are. Evan Handler's star turn in season 4 as the querulous ACLU lawyer was bad enough -- now we have the president's sister presented as an hysterical evidence-shredder. Also, I liked the president's qualification that most historians see the internment of Japanese in WWII as an blot on America's history. Most? That's kind of like saying most historians agree that the Holocaust happened. Is seriously there anyone besides Anne Coulter or Michelle Malkin who still attempts to defend internment?
(2) The stab wound Jack received to the shoulder healed pretty quickly, seeing as he was neat and trim in a snug gray shirt soon after with no sign of blood seeping.
(3) It's nice to see Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine getting work. I was never exactly a loyal viewer of DS9, but I always liked his character. He has to find it slightly ironic however, that having anglicized his name from "Siddig El-Fadil" to "Alexander Siddig" midway through his Star Trek tenure that he now seems to be typecast into the role of the enigmatic Arab.
(4) Speaking of typecasting: it's a pretty breathtaking display of Hollywood's Middle Eastern & Arab bench strength when you see Kal Penn (Kumar of Harold and Kumar fame) and Newfoundland's own Shaun Majumder from This Hour Has 22 Minutes being cast as sinister terrorists. It must be a rather ambivalent comfort to actors of Middle Eastern or subcontinental descent to know that, whatever else happens, they can always get roles playing terrorists.
(5) Yet more typecasting: the big dumb blond redneck guy who beats up Kumar (sorry, I really can't think of him as anything else) and gets shot for his trouble looked really familiar ... then I recognized him from the Vietnam drama Tour of Duty in which he played -- wait for it! -- a big dumb blond redneck guy. 24: where creative casting goes to die.
(6) And yet, I can't wait for more ...
2 comments:
what i found interesting was the brief moment when jack bauer merged with David from the lost boys, biting into the neck of that guy before escaping. maybe they'll push this vampire thing further...it would at least explain his healing ability, etc.
The redneck guy was also one of the dumb jocks on Can't Buy Me Love, the movie that Patrick Dempsey is famous for. Go figure.
And while we're nitpicking...isn't it quite fortunate that the clothes in the rental house they went into happened to fit Kiefer perfectly. Especially considering that he probably wears a shorter length of jeans...
I agree, the two hour premiere was awesome and I'm so glad I got into this show. It was so shocking and I'm looking forward to the two hours tonight!
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