First thoughts on tonight's 24

I shall attempt to have something witty to say about tonight's episode of 24 tomorrow. Tonight I will content myself with a serious comment. As a fan of the 90's television show Babylon 5 I appreciate a well told story involving a complex interweaving of plot elements with each character having his own agenda and nothing ever being quite what it seems on the surface.

A well done novel, movie or television series involving such "wheels within wheels" is a pleasure to behold. Watching the story unfold is like opening the back cover of a fine pocket watch and observing the complex interplay of moving parts, each expertly crafted and fitted into a beautiful perfectly functioning whole.

However taken too far and administered with too heavy a hand the "fine pocket watch" becomes a ridiculous Rube Goldberg device fit only for a good laugh.

What made 24 so special in its first couple of seasons was the fact that it genuinely was able to deliver the unexpected. A black politician who acted like Thomas Jefferson rather than Al Sharpton. A government agent who cared more about stopping the bad guys and saving innocent lives than about preserving his pension and benefit package and an overall moral tone which didn't try to convince us that "to understand all is to forgive all".

These things made 24 a fresh and exciting wish fulfillment fantasy in the post 9/11 world.

And the show was not even remotely politically correct.

The 24 producers seem to have lost sight of that. What we get now are convoluted plot twists thrown in for their own sake, rather than to advance the overall story. It isn't enough that there are Muslim terrorists who want to blow up nuclear bombs on US soil, there have to be multiple onion-like layers which are striped away to reveal that to find the true villain you don't have to go any further than your own back yard.

Provided, of course, that your back yard contains a goodly supply of wealthy, white, male businessmen and bureaucrats.

I guess that we can be grateful that they hired Powers Booth to play the Vice President rather than taking stock footage of Dick Cheney and dubbing in their own soundtrack.

What I can't figure out is how they are going to introduce the Scooter Libby character, or is he for next season?