Watching 24: 5 pm to 6 pm

ZOMG!!! THAT CAR IS COMING RIGHT AT US!!!, originally uploaded by Jaquandor.

Wow! Proof that I don't wear overalls ALL the time. How about that! But with this, I am now up-to-date on my episodes of 24.

Here I provide an exaggerated reaction to a pretty good little car chase that opened this week's episode, with Jack and Renee pursuing Dubaku. Did they get him?

[SPOILERS - highlight to read]

Well, sure -- after Dubaku's girlfriend reached forward and covered the driver's eyes or grabbed his arms or something, causing him to crash. She died in the resulting wreck, sadly enough -- another 24 cast member who pays the ultimate sacrifice for being unlucky enough to meet Jack Bauer. Meeting Jack Bauer tends to be a cause of soon and sudden violent death, doesn't it?

Anyway, there's something else that bugged me a bit in this episode. After the chase ends and they have Dubaku in custody, Jack has the EMTs cut into Dubaku's torso so as to get at the flash drive he has had implanted there. On this flash drive is a list of all his co-conspirators in the US government, and it's the only copy of the database they know to exist. This is a HUGE piece of evidence, and Jack has to make sure it gets to the people at the FBI. So does he take it there himself? No -- he has some cop do it, a cop he's never met before. Huh-whuh?! The most important piece of evidence in this entire case finally comes into your possession, and you entrust it to some dude you've never ever seen before? That struck me as terribly, terribly odd for Jack to do. But anyway.

Note the SPOILER text above. That's because I'm invoking a new rule. Last week, while driving to the library on Thursday, I was listening to Schopp and the Bulldog, which is a show on our local sports talk radio station featuring Mike Schopp and a guy who goes by "Bulldog". Hence the title. Anyway, they have a daily feature called "Ten Opinions in a Row", in which they trade opinions on anything they want, sports-related or no. Well, one of them -- Bulldog, I think -- starts to give an opinion on that week's episode of 24, which had aired just three nights before; he gave away the episode's plot twists and discussed the preview for next week's episode. But I hadn't yet watched that week's episode, so I was already a bit annoyed.

But then the other one started to do the very same thing, but instead of 24, he was talking about LOST, and suddenly Bulldog and the other guy in the booth (there's a third guy who's always there, even though the show doesn't have his name on it) start shushing Schopp because he's giving away spoilers! And I'm thinking, you just spoiled the hell out of 24, so why is LOST sacred as to spoilerage? Well, someone else made that point, saying "Gee, it just aired last night. Some people haven't watched it yet." Well, ditto 24! Lots of people DVR stuff and don't watch it for days at a time, right? So I therefore have the following new Law of Teevee Spoilerage: it is forbidden to discuss spoilers for an episode of a teevee show without warning within one week of that episode's airing. Once a week is past, all bets are off.

Yes, this only applies to the US. I know, you 24 fans in Europe won't see these episodes for another year or something like that. Sorry, but in that case, the spoiler warning is, I think, implied. But here, it needs to be stated outright within one week.

And I'm now seriously rethinking this series. I look like the world's biggest dork.