Bauer Power

Jim Henley has interesting, funny, useful thoughts on the new season of 24 here, here, and here. Best point (which I wanted to make, but didn't have the willpower to go back and figure out how long each of the annoying suburban subplot characters lasted):

This season’s “suburban teen subplot that needs to end ASAP” is done, and in record time. Last year, they kept Derek on my TV screen through hour 5. The year before that, Behrooz was on my TV screen for nearly half the season, but it was OK because his terrorist mother was the awesomest villain in any season of 24. In season 3, viral decoy (don’t ask) Kyle Singer was on my screen for 6 hours (and they didn’t even kill him!). And in seasons 1 and 2, despite constant kidnappings, every single villain failed to kill Jack’s annoying daughter.

I also have to say that this season's suburban teen subplot was far less loathsome than the others, mainly because it focused on something directly related to the action at hand. Did anyone really care about Behrooz and his teeny bopper girlfriend? No. Not for a minute. But dealing with the way decent folks handle finding out that their nice neighbors are actually terrorists is, well, kind of interesting (if typically ludicrous).