Yuck. Gross. Enough.
Did we really need to watch a “24” baddie take a power drill to the shoulder of poor screaming CTU engineer Morris last night? We should have known they’d be getting out the gore more when hero Jack Bauer used his teeth to rip the carotid artery out of some villain’s neck on premiere night last month. (Right after they’d stabbed Jack in the shoulder. What is it with shoulders?)
But this season’s “24” is trying to top those other five seasons. It’s desperate to. And since earlier adrenaline-fueled plots involved duplicitous presidents, shootdowns of Air Force One, wanton assassinations, heroin addictions and other pedal-to-the-metal threats, the only place to go is up, up, through the roof.
This year they're nuking L.A. and plotting a White House coup. But they're also ratcheting up the body count, blood flow and torture level. We’re getting a weekly dose of one-on-one agony, inflicted by good and bad guys alike. Brother torturing brother. Father killing son. Using every weapon, tool and body part imaginable. How long till they start inflicting slow and excruciating pain on Jack’s teen nephew? Ick.
This antiterror racket is messy. We get that. People die. OK. That’s the action pact. We come for the danger, the thrills. We don’t need extended human suffering in extreme close-up before every commercial break. The “24” we bargained for is a heart-pounding serial adventure, not a gag-inducing slasher flick.
[Carlo Rota as “24” agent Morris: He knows the drill. Fox photo by Kelsey McNeal.]