As longtime readers know, I'm an addict of the Fox television show "24." So when I missed "Redemption," the two-hour prequel to the new season that aired November 23, I was disconsolate.
Then, through the magic of Google, I realized that I could watch all one hour, 27 minutes of the two hours (well, it's two hours "real time"--including commercials) on my computer.
So tonight I made my cup of tea, tucked a throw pillow into the desk chair, fired up my computer and settled in to watch the show. It was customarily engrossing, brutal, and suspenseful, but I have learned, the hard way, that on-computer viewing will never rival the comfy living room sofa-and-television combo. I have a backache, a crick in my neck, my eyes are scratchy, and a vague headache threatens.
Still, these minor complaints are nothing to what our fictional hero Jack Bauer had to endure in the space of 90 minutes. Holy machete, Batman. I'll stop there to avoid playing the spoiler for those of you who still have "Redemption" TiVO'd and ready to go.
Yahoo recently had a blog face-off between Jack Bauer and James Bond. I'm incredulous that James Bond won. I mean, James Bond has been around on film since I was a kid. How many actors have played Bond? A half dozen? One as immeasurably dull and perfect as the other?
However, there is only one blood-spitting, fist-splitting Jack Bauer!
I don't even bother with 007 flicks. I think I saw a couple back in my high school days, but they bored me. Tuxedos? Martinis? Sex and fancy cars? Phooey. Give me dirty, gritty, hell-bent-on-good-triumphing-at-any-cost Jack Bauer any day, with his perpetual 4-day beard and his highly creative renegade ways. I'm one of legions of Bauer fans who agree, as evidenced by this link to "24 Reasons Why Jack Bauer rules.
At the end of the Yahoo face-off, the question is posed: "Which operative would you rather have saving your life?" My answer is, of course, the one I contorted myself into an office chair to watch for almost an hour and a half.
Bauer. Jack Bauer.
