Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

OK. Time to talk for a little bit about 24...spoilers abound, of course.

I'm a bit non-plused as to the cliffhanger, here. Is President Palmer dead, or on the verge of dying? Presumably Jack Bauer will spend part of next season seeking out the assassin (whom I am told is a character from the first season, which I did not watch), but clearly some time needs to go by, seeing as how Jack was barely conscious by the time this season ended. I expect, then, that Palmer will die, and be replaced by Vice President Prescott, who has just relinquished power after his ninety-minute coup. (I also wonder if the fact that Prescott spent those ninety minutes as Acting President will ever be made public....)

As for the story in the last episode, I thought it did a great job of tying in plotlines from earlier in the season, while at the same time it seemed at bit of a deus ex machina. The way certain forces that have been acting against Bauer suddenly do a 180 and act with him felt forced, but it might actually play out better if the show is actually watched in real-time on DVD. (And I loved the fight scene between Bauer and that one goon. Even on the verge of heart failure, Bauer is one mean fighter.)

So, I can't wait for next year. I hope Palmer's not dead, because Dennis Haysbert simply did a magnificent job of portraying this man, the President we'd all like to have. (On one Internet message board I read occasionally, one poster waxed poetic a while back about how wonderful Palmer is, because he's sticking to his guns in not wanting to go to war against innocent countries. This same poster, though, had two months earlier said that it was a crime against civilization -- exact words, there -- that Baghdad and Tehran had not been reduced to smoldering craters by 9:00 am on September 12, 2001. I didn't bother trying to point out the disconnect.)

What I loved most about 24 this year was that the writers didn't take the obvious route by keeping the bomb the focus of the entire season. That would have been too easy -- just end the last episode of the year with Jack's fevered attempts to defuse it or whatever. Instead, they wove the bomb plot into an even bigger story, and for the most part they did so convincingly. A lot of the details in 24 this year don't really stand up to scrutiny, but while the thing was taking place, my disbelief was always on full-suspension. Kind of like how Casablanca is an utterly engrossing, classic movie -- and the face that the "letters of transit" make absolutely no sense at all does nothing to change that.

(Oh, and here's an interesting Salon article about this year's edition of 24.)