As Charles has thrown down a bit of a gauntlet on the subject of 24 (see his comment on the last posting), I thought I'd pick it up. (One non-critical mini-spoiler ahead.)
Charles' opening position is: 24, victim of its own novelty value.
In many ways I won't disagree that it's somewhat formulaic, it does push all the right dramatic buttons, and it is derivative. The most significant influence on it structurally, I think, is actually Murder One. The issues of pacing that you mention were neatly avoided in that series, because everything was much more leisurely. Yes, there was drama, but it was essentially courtroom drama, and its twists were revealed at a more leisurely rate. It had a quiet intensity, rather than the frenetic intensity of 24.
And 24's frenetic nature can indeed be off-putting. It's interesting that there's a point of something like resolution coming up and that the last few weeks (since 9am, in fact, the point at which the series might have ended if it hadn't been picked up) have felt a bit like they've not moved things on in a significant way, but it feels to me that the creators were almost caught out by their own success, and it's taken them a while to pick up the slack once the original extent of the story they'd fully-planned was over. But while the last few weeks of Jack tracking down the rest of the Bauer clan does indeed feel like it's taken forever, I can't help but think that the important work is being done in the other arcs:
The stuff going on around Palmer is clearly far deeper and darker than at first appeared (and I don't trust that wife of his at all....), something's clearly wrong with Terri, the mysterious Drazen brothers must have a pretty impressive grudge against both Palmer and Bauer, to go to the lengths they have, and I'm far from certain that there was only one mole inside CTU (my money's still on Nina by the way).
On top of which, the thing about watching it in the way Charles suggests he does, of catching the last fifteen minutes of each episode, will certainly bring you up to speed on the primary plot, but will mean you miss out on the sheer density of the way it's plotted.
It's not revolutionary TV, nor profound, nor in some ways is it really taking advantage of its time structure. But it is well-made, dramatic, very, very well-acted, and is cranking up the tension in ways that I've never experienced on TV before, certainly not sustained this effectively for this long.
And I accept the beers and working out the outcomes challenge....
Tangentially, Peter Preston has a few things to say about US TV, UK TV, media ownership and in passing 24 in his comment in today's Guardian (Spoiler for ER post the point Channel4 is presently at).
Couple more links:
Here's a shot of the Daredevil costume that one Mr Ben Affleck will be sporting in the movie.
[Via Parallax View]
112 Reasons to Lead a Barren, Childless Existence That Ends in Your Death - took the words right out of my mouth.
[Via Sore Eyes]
Round up of things that I've noted in the last couple of days:
"The monkey encourages small children to play with matches near a local gas station in Clarksdale, Mississippi." Charles mentioned Furious George the other day - mindless fun for all the family.
The Matrix website has a section of new material by various comic creators, including work by Paul Chadwick and Bill Sienciewicz, and a new short story by Neil Gaiman.
Get Your War On is a comic strip created in the wake of September 11th and the ensuing 'War On Terrorism' - well worth a look.
And in today's news, Cannes Film Sickens Audience.
Loads of car alarms have just gone off because of the *almighty* clap of thunder that just cracked overhead. Fantastic storm.
Diverting from Big Brother for a moment - let's talk about Eurovision....
I'd never heard the UK entry before, nor (not having watched Pop Idol) heard of Jessica Thingy, but it seemed okay, and she's got quite the voice - not sure I'd have expected it to be a winner, but did expect it to do well, and third is surely the most respectably we've done since Katrina won?
I was interested to note how few ballads there were this year - the only two that stood out were ours and the French on, and even though the French woman was trying *way* too hard to be Celine Dion, it was pretty good.
Rounding up some of the others -
What were the Greeks thinking of with that group of men in skateboard padding and the strange 'dance routine'?
Spain's Europe's Living A Celebration was apparently selected via a huge, Big Brother-esque process lasting months, and involving half the population, and I'll confess was catchy enough that I went to sleep with it going round my head.
Russia, as Wogan noted, subverted the usual traditions of the boy band by presenting a group of unattractive middle-aged men singing a not-at-all bad pop song.
The host nation did well with a song that had the potential to turn them into the Ireland of the 21st century by winning a second year in a row.
Generally though, the Scandinavian nations presented completely forgettable numbers.
I'll admit that Bosnia-Hertzogovia was one of my top three for the evening, and Maja, who sang it, was one of the best performers.
Germany was apparently the favourite before the contest, though I couldn't see it - it was a good song, but needed to be delivered more strongly. But I also think it deserved better than barely to get into double figures.
Malta was robbed royally, I reckon - if it wasn't for all those Baltic states voting for each other it would have walked away with it. I thought it was fab, and really well performed.
You *know* I'm going to mention the Slovenian transvestites, don't you? Apart from the glittery cabin crew outfits, I thought they were awful.
Though immediately followed as they were by the winning Latvian number, with its quite blatant lesbian overtones, I thought in retrospect they were the very model of understatement.
Wogan was on good form, though he's starting to get wearying, banging on so constantly about political voting - yes, it happens, yes, we all know about it, so we don't need to keep being reminded. (Though he was unusually reticent about mentioning how Israel failed to give a single point to any country with a sizable Muslim population.)
Generally, in terms of sheer 'pop', I think this year was pretty strong.
Though given that the BBC ran a programme called There's Only One Kylie fifteen minutes later, I don't think anyone needs to be in any doubt about what really strong pop sounds like....
A quick trawl through the mini-profiles of the BB3 contestants produces the following details:
Adele's favourite book is Wuthering Heights and her favourite pop star is Michael Jackson.
Alex (who's a model....) lists Kangaroo as his favourite food.
Alison's favourite food is chocolate orange, and her favourite film is Raging Bull, which demonstrates good taste on two fronts.
Jade says that her favourite food is Kebab, and doesn't list a favourite book, possibly because she can't read.
Relaxing in the sauna makes Jonny happy, and his favourite pop star is Robbie Williams.
Kate's a Madonna fan, and her favourite film is True Romance.
Lee's favourite film is American Pie (that's right, favourite film *ever*), his favourite book is David Ginola's autobiography, and his favourite food is Pasta (What, *just* pasta? Isn't that a bit bland?)
Another Mdonna fan, Lynne's favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption.
PJ's favourite film is The Godfather (though his third favourite is Teen Wolf....) and he wants to get off with Natalie Imbruglia.
Sandy's favourite pop band are U2, and he likes the simple things in life. (Will he get on well with Jade then?)
Spencer's favourite pop star is Michael Jackson, just like Adele, and his favourite book is Roald Dahl's The Witches.
Sunita likes playing on her Playstation, and is obviously eagerly-awaiting the multi-player shoot-em-up version of her favourite book, Memoirs of a Geisha.
Oh, and.....
....in a masterstroke of crap timing, E4 suddenly died on my Sky Digital set-up on the very day that Big Brother started. Unbelieveable.
To nominate JADE call 09011 154409
As Mike noted in his comment to last night's Big Brother posting, Jade is running last in the popularity rankings, a full 30% lower than Lee, who is next last.
Let's see if we can widen that gap, shall we?
(Calls cost 25p)
So....Big Brother 2002.
Has promise. And the nicest thing so far is that there's a surprise eviction that the housemates have no idea will be happening next Friday which the audience at home get to set up. I already know who I'll be voting for - the dreadful Jade, resident of this very borough. Details at the Big Brother website.
A large, formal-looking envelope hit the mat this morning - it's my "To All Known Creditors" letter regarding ITV Digital. I'm invited to attend a meeting of creditors to address the issue of the Administrators' proposals for 'meeting the purposes specified in the Administration Order'.
Translation - 'making sure that the government gets as much as possible, that the insanely greedy football clubs get whatever's left, and that those poor unfortunates who actually paid for a service they will now not receive get bugger all'.
(Note that the proposals naturally contain gaining approval for the almost £2million that will go to the two organisations managing the Administration for their time and trouble.)
It's tempting to go along just to cause trouble, but I'm not sure I've got the energy. Or maybe I should try and gather a large number of people in the same situation as me and cause trouble en masse....