24 Hours 3 & 4 comment

My interest in 24 after watching the season premiere on Sunday left me (as I stated in a previous entry) less then enthusiastic about the rest of the season. As a result, I watched 24 in the background of my weekly poker game. From what I saw, I highly doubt I will bother to continue watching it unless I really have nothing better to do.

Two thoughts: First, why would you negotiate with terrorists? At least the wife did something sensible and called the police (setting aside the fact she could have poisoned Ahmed (or Kumar, as he is better known, or Taj) earlier and he probably would not have been the wiser). The father, faced with a Sophie's Choice of sorts, decides to deliver the mysterious package for the terrorists. Good one pops. And then the bomb goes off.

Second, I believe Jack was only about a half hour away from the bomb. I've never been near a nuclear explosion, and I suspect size has something to do with it, but given what he saw and his distance (probably 20 miles), wouldn't he still have to fear some sort of immediate radiation poisoning? I would imagine California would be in pretty big trouble. Oh well.

For these two reasons, I conclude that 24 has continued off the deep end of reality (setting aside where it was to begin with) and I cannot justify spending my valuable time watching it anymore. I will remain continually surprised that last season (and presumably this season) receive such rave reviews.

P.S. I would have liked to see Ahmed's friend's reaction to Ahmed telling him that he had pronounced his name wrong all this time to be something along the lines of, "Dude, if I was saying it wrong all this time, why didn't you correct me? A little notice and I would have fixed it. No need to point a gun at me." Then a shoulder shrug. Is that too much to ask?