Hooked!

Everyone is talking about it. I hear ads for it on the radio ad nauseum. I can't go anywhere without hearing SOMETHING about it. What is it?

24.

You: Whaaaaat? You mean you haven't seen that? EVERYONE watches that!

Me: Shut. Up.

I missed the first show ever, though I intended to watch it. So, I figured, I'd play catch-up later. But Trump and life got in the way, and also Medium. All right, already, I forgot!

Did I remember when season 2 came out that I could watch season 1 on DVD and catch up? Um, no.

Season 3? Uh uh.

So here's season 5 and where am I? I just saw Teri end up dead in the season 1 finale. We made frantic trips to Blockbuster and rented the season a week at a time and stayed up until all hours desperate to find out what Jack got himself into. Luckily we hadn't paid attention to the buzz ever, so it was a brand new experience for us, with the only given being that Jack Does Not Die in Season 1.

Cool.

I'm blown away. I'm still thinking about that season finale DAYS after watching. I'm FRANTIC to crack open the plastic wrap of the season 2 DVD we got for Christmas. I want to go drag my husband in front of the television, chain him there, and demand he watch with me, because damned if I ain't too skeered to watch it alone. I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

And television is Not That Good anymore elsewhere. At least not to me. Sure, people are out there Tivo-ing Alias and Lost and American Idol and all that, but, and no offense here, that stuff is compost next to 24.

Here's a show done in the old tradition of weekly movie serials, a wonderful movie experience that was discontinued well before my time. But you've heard of them; the shows where you went EVERY SATURDAY to the one theatre in town where you SAW the hero go off the cliff in that wagon and then waited one hundred and sixty-eight eternal hours until you could get back in there and learn that actually he managed to jump off the wagon a mere moment before it went over. Whew. That was close!

Heart-stopping drama. What a cliche, but actually true. Jack's searching for a spy in the agency, and then riding along on a nightmare rollercoaster as his family is imperiled. Then he's got everyone safe, and rushes back to try to salvage his position at the agency, but no! The family is endangered again! And they won't tell him! For several episodes! And the spy is dead but critical information is still leaking!

And the concept is what fascinates me. A Day In The Life. A really crappy, awful, tense, stressful, petrifying day. Shot in real time. Am I the only one who appreciates how difficult that must be to plot, produce, shoot, and edit? No? Okay.

Call me giddy, call me a Johnny-Come-Lately, but I am addicted!

P.S. And did anyone mention that not once did I mention how Kiefer Sutherland looks?

P.P.S. Don't you DARE put spoilers in my comments!