The Jack Bauer Power Hour

Is it bad when you walk in to a co-worker's office and yell "TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO KNOW!" and then threaten them with electro-shock torture until they give up the memo you were looking for? Ok, perhaps a little bit, but that's what happens when you watch eight hours of Fox's 24 in less than a week.

If you haven't been watching this season's 24 you're missing out. This by far is the best season of the show. Let me run it down for you: Jack has been "off the grid" for over a year after the events of last season. He gets pulled back in after the four people that knew he was still alive are targeted by assassins. Shortly after he is reunited with his one true love, CTU in an effort to uncover a conspiracy, track down stolen Sentox nerve gas and the terrorists that plan on using them. In the meantime people learn a lot about themselves, some enemies become friends, some friends become enemies and Rudy makes an appearance.

It'’s hard to say why I like 24 as much as I do. Is it because Jack is a bad ass and I wish I could be like him? Perhaps. Is it because I'’m waiting for the day that Chloe and Edgar get together and make sweet, sweet geek love? Umm...definitely not. I'’d say my love of 24 breaks down something like this:

• Jack'’s nuclear powered PDAs. That thing never runs out of juice. Seriously, he's been making calls, getting e-mails, viewing streaming video, and uploading schematics all day long and I haven't seen it once in a docking cradle.
  
• Self destructing memory cards. Stupid Germans.
  
• The fact that everyone can be a suspect because the writers only script out six episodes at a time.
• Every time a terrorist/informant gets presidential immunity, Jack figures a way to get it rescinded and then goes to work on them. And by work I mean do their taxes. And by do their taxes I mean crush their testicles throat.
  
• This season'’s Spy vs. Spy between Jack and Robocop.
• Curtis. That'’s one BAMF.
• Chloe can find a schematic of any building in Los Angeles and berate three colleagues within 90 seconds.
  
• That President Palmer was Pedro Cerrano in another life.

Things that drive me crazy about this season of 24:

• Is it me, or do people recover from torture aggressive interrogation much too easily? Look at it this way, Henderson got pumped full of chems but was able to awaken, kill Tony, steal a car and rejoin his strike team. Audrey, also after a meeting with Burke, looks like she just left the spa with a make-over. Apparently the solution Burke is pumping into them is just sugar water and they'’re sweating because they know they'’re inching closer to type 2 diabetes. Either that or his breath smells like a diaper covered in Indian food.
  
• I'’ve been to LA numerous times, and have driven from one end of town to the another. It takes forever to go anywhere. How the hell does Jack, Curtis, and the terrorists get around so quickly? Is there a magical flying car that they use to get around SoCal and if so why aren't they showing it? Seriously, bump up the budget a little bit and let's see some Jetson action.
  
• If you were President, wouldn'’t you just stop coming to California? Seriously, everytime they'’re there, they killed, almost killed, or a national emergency drops out of the sky. I would avoid it at all costs.

So, that being said the season wouldn't be complete without at least one night playing the 24 drinking game. I can hear my liver already screaming that it's in a flank two position.