Day is done

Just a few comments on the last season of "24":

After having spent the better part of last summer racing through the DVDs for seasons one through four, and viewing season five in its entirety in one week in December, I expected much more from this season than we got. Plotlines were picked up and dropped more often than inexperienced knitters drop and add stitches while doing an intricate lacework pattern. Seriously, is it a requirement that you must have ADD to become a writer for this show?

Kiefer Sutherland has been quoted at various times saying that the show is more than just Jack Bauer; if Jack were to die, the show would go on. He's wrong. The show has always been more about Jack than the situation of the particular day. It's about the reactions of a man who is wholly devoted to what is right, no matter what it costs him personally or professionally, nor what it may cost someone else politically. More than once he's been used and discarded by those he has served. It's Jack's character we tune in to see.

So - it makes sense that the only really viewable scenes this season were in the beginning of the day, when Jack is brought back from China to be sacrificed, and the two scenes at the end of the day with James Heller.

Predictions? Personally, I think Philip Bauer is not dead; he was feet away from the boat that brought Josh to the oil rig, and he seemed alert enough to make an attempt at escape before the rig was blown sky-high. Rumors say the next day will center in New York (so, what's wrong with the Midwest, anyway - couldn't they have picked Chicago?), and that CTU will not play much of a role. I'd expect to see familiar characters once or twice, but more in a long-distance supporting role. Look for this new season to be more Jack, but less massive terrorist attacks.

I may watch the first couple of hours of the new day; more than likely, I'll wait for the DVD.