“Everyone kept telling me to wait until my golden years. I tell ya, ‘golden years,’ what a crock!” The words struck me as I dropped my trash into the compactor, my nose cringing at the stench. Looking up, I saw two men locked in conversation. Oversized glasses and a baseball cap that sat high on …
This week I returned to my novel after a hiatus of almost four months. That is certainly not as long as the infamous break in Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain took from 1876 to 1880, but it was enough to make getting back into the project a challenge for me. I have found the writing life to …
Since Breaking Bad this week swept the 2014 Emmy Awards, it seems to be a good time for me to highlight three narrative techniques the show’s writers and directors exploited well. (There are, of course, many points where the show excelled, and I wish I had done an episode-by-episode analysis when I first watched the …
As a final assessment of the ninth season of 24, I wrote a guest blog for Blackwell’s Philosophy and Pop Culture series, which highlights the moral reasoning of Jack Bauer and Margot Al-Harazi, evaluating what truly separates them, despite the fact they both declare they are doing “what must be done.” Along the way, I …
Jack finishes as martyr. He has played this role many times through the series, sacrificing his humanity in the nightmarish choices he has made in service to his country and the unnamed thousands he has saved from various terrorist plots. So despite my issues with this episode, needing a death to ramp up “revenge rage” …
The Final Sacrifice: The Last Hour of Live Another Day Read More »
Despite the silly move Mark made last episode, calling Anatol Stolnavich to give him Jack’s com link code, as a way of getting back at Audrey after a tiff over whether she’d changed since seeing Jack again, Mark took on a central role in this episode. Over halfway through the episode, Mark must confess his …
The plotlines converge in a powerful way in this episode, offering us two poignant confrontations: on one side, Jack Bauer and Kate Morgan drill Steve Navarro on the consequences of his betrayals, and on the other, Chloe asks Adrian Cross to look around and see the results of his failed anarchist ploys. As the episode …
All Your Work Has Led to This: Hour 10 of Live Another Day Read More »
The conversation where Jack convinced President Heller he and Chloe could pull a fast one on the Al-Harazis must have been on a need-to-know basis. It is a lazy turn for the writers, and I’m not too happy about the cheat, but those who picked up on the absence of a silent clock at the …
Near the start of the episode, President Heller and Jack Bauer have a heated discussion about Heller’s plan to hand himself over to Margot Al-Harazi. Heller argues that his choice to sacrifice himself is a personal, not a state, decision. This scene is the heart of the episode, and the rest is the execution. Heller …
It’s a Personal Decision: Hour 8 (200th Episode) of 24: Live Another Day Read More »
Back in 2010, when I knew nothing of the books, I admired the first film for its characterization, the animation, the thematic material: (1) the misfit who fights against the ignorance of those who surround him to find a new way, and (2) the denunciation of empty-headed violence to find the beauty in creatures previously …
Bigger, Bolder, and More Heart-wrenching: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Read More »
Though this episode is largely an extended cat-and-mouse game between Team Al-Harazi and Team Bauer, there are a few crucial moral moments. In one particular scene, Jack is hurriedly escorting a wounded Simone out of the hospital, reporting that Simone’s mother is sending a drone to destroy the hospital to eliminate her. When Simone expresses …
Please Don’t Leave Me Here: Hour 7 of Live Another Day Read More »
In a crucial scene, when Jack finally explains his risky plan to Kate, he says, “If you don’t want to do this, I can’t force you. It’s a lot to ask.” This episode, along with some important reveals in other plot lines, juxtaposes two scenarios where someone asks someone else to do something very risky: …
It’s a Lot To Ask of You: Hour 6 of Live Another Day Read More »
Today I got to a point in my novel where there is a funeral and an emotional reunion between my two leads, who have been emotionally estranged from each other for several months (and a few chapters). Quite a lot rests on this scene, and it happens also to be the saddest exchange in the …
Since the two-hour premiere (and earlier for those who heard in advance which characters were returning for this season), we’ve been waiting for the drama this episode delivers. Jack finally reunites with both Audrey and her dad, President Heller. Unfolding in the midst of the storm surrounding the Al-Harazi’s hijacking of six drones, these powerful …
Mistakes & Apologies : Hour 5 of 24 : Live Another Day Read More »
Early in this episode, Jack Bauer seeks the help of Chris Tanner in locating the flight key from the drone which the terrorists hacked. Because no one else has believed him, Chris naturally wonders whether he can believe Jack’s intel about a terrorist attack. Jack responds, “Son, the point is, I believe you,” and then …
“I Believe You!” : The Politics of Trust in Hour 4 of 24: Live Another Day Read More »
We are all babies in the water…. As I’ve been wrestling with myself to get words in my computer to finish my novel, and as I’ve been reading comments from fellow writers on Twitter, I’ve been reflecting on this game of fiction writing. I’ve noted how other writers are having difficulty “focusing” and still others …
Although I favored titling this meditation, “It’s the Only Way Forward,” after Jack’s poignant comment to Chloe, I decided upon further reflection this episode seemed more a portrait of the twisted reasoning of this season’s terrorists, the Al-Harazis. Despite important scenes with Jack, Chloe, Audrey, Mark, and President Heller, what felt most important were Margot’s …
“What Must Be Done” : Ethical Reflection in Hour 3 of 24: Live Another Day Read More »
“I don’t have any friends,” or so says Jack Bauer to his Serbian associate Belcheck, just after breaking Chloe out of a CIA black site, near the end of the first hour of 24‘s new season (which breaks with the past and only shows 12 hours out of the pivotal day). Chloe later upbraids Jack, …
“I Don’t Have Any Friends” : A Review of the Premiere of 24: Live Another Day Read More »
Pixar’s animated movie Ratatouille tosses around the slogan, “Anyone can cook!” The story dramatically plays with this slogan, putting a rat inside one of the most prestigious restaurants in Paris. For our quick reflection, I would like to modify the slogan so that it says, “Anyone can write!” Certainly many people feel that way. If we …
It is rare to have a comic-book-inspired movie actually draw intelligently from the comics that inspired it. Dark Knight Rises took material from No Man’s Land in a new direction, and Spider-man 2 (Tobey MaGuire) faithfully handled “Spider-man No More” (Amazing Spider-man 50). Now that we are also on the other side of Christopher Nolan’s other two Batman films and Joss …
A Short Review of Captain America: Winter Soldier Read More »