Lots of Stuff

Well, I was thinking today that there are about five different significant things that I could blog about right now. The weekend of January 5-7 was our college winter retreat, and it was a great, great time. Then I was down in sunny California (actually I was in Mammoth in sub-zero temperatures) for ET07, which pretty much rocked. I also got to go to an MLK day celebration yesterday, and I will probably post on that later in the week.
To what will probably be no one's surprise, I will post first about 24. Sunday night and Monday night were the 2 night, 4 hour season premier. Here are some official comments from this fanatic.

I'll start with the high points: The final episode of the four-hour premier (9:00am-10:00am) immediately goes into my top-five of all time. The ending was unbelievable. It took me a while to release all the tension I had going.

If you have not seen it, and don't want spoilers, don't read anymore from this
point on.

Okay, if you have seen the first four episodes, you know why I have the picture of Curtis on the left. At about 9:50am he was yet another victim of 24's commitment to making the audience feel that no one is safe. Let me just say that I called this after seeing the first two episodes. Many of you heard me and can confirm that I said, "Tonight Curtis is dead. 100%." I can't exactly say that I am glad that I was right. I was not surprised that Curtis died, but I was surprised at how it happened. It was gut-wrenching to see Jack have to take out a friend, a good guy. One of the most compelling strands of 24 has become Jack's tortured soul. In Season 3 (in the greatest episode of all-time) Jack had to execute his boss, Ryan Chappelle to appease a terrorist and obey an executive order. In season 4 he had to make the call to let Paul Raines die in order to have doctors save a guilty man who could help CTU find the main bad guy (Habib Marwan). Now Jack had to actually shoot and kill Curtis. While I felt bad for Curtis, I felt absolutely sick to my stomach for Jack. I almost cried. No wonder he said that he was out.
Curtis was not one of my favorite characters. I liked him, but was not incredibly attached to him. Still, the death scene was unforgettable. It was done right (unlike Tony; okay, I'll get off that one).
Another high point was, of course, the mushroom cloud. I still have chills. I was so dumbfounded when the bomb went off. I just did not see it coming, and I love that. So powerful.
Third high point: Jack doing what he has to do to escape from Fayed. Wow. It was one thing to see Jack cut someone's jugular. But to see him bite someone's jugular was new territory. I was amazed, disturbed, but very respectful to Jack because it was his only option.
The final high point: Jack working with Assad. I love it when Jack is partnered up with someone. It worked great with Chase in season 3. It worked better with Tony (R.I.P.)in Season 4. It worked nicely with Wayne in Season 5. Assad pretty much rules, and is probably right now my second favorite character (if you need to ask who is number 1, give me a break).
The low point for me so far: Wayne Palmer. The writers have some work to do. I am just not buying it, and, at times, the White House strand has been pretty boring. I think it will improve when we continue to learn more about how Wayne got into the White House, but it was overall weak for the premier.
Anyway, I can't wait for next week. My favorite line-that-has-not-yet-happened in this season:
Man-Being-Choked-by-Jack: You're hurting me.
Jack: Trust me. I'm not.
Have a great day, and I'll be back later in the week.