Rating:

The market demand for TV entertainment is changing, and Fox and 24 are leading the way in meeting the demand. New episodes every week, DVD quality episodes streaming online the next morning, and the DVD set released the day after the season finale — well done.

Rating:

While 24 is an action show, its best moments for me are the pivotal ones in the lives of the characters we care about so much, especially Jack. (Like, in Season 2 Jack talking with Kim while flying the plane, then Mason showing up and talking to Jack about what Jack should really be doing with his life; or, in Season 3, Jack and Nina’s final confrontation; or in Season 5, our last visit with David Palmer.) There are several such memorable moments in Season 7.

This season benefits from a great cast, including some returning favorite characters (Tony, Chloe, Agent Pierce, and a couple others) and some great new ones (FBI Agent Renee Walker, super talented & resourceful and a possible love interest for Jack in Season 8 – if he lives that long), and uber bad guy Jonas Hodges, played to a tee by Jon Voight.

Season 7 borrows the more successful plot elements from previous seasons, and does them well in a new context. Jack, once again, is working on the outside, with the help of Chloe on the inside. Jack, once again, must infiltrate a group of bad guys by pretending to be one of them, and must pretend to kill someone he – and we – care about to convince them of his loyalties. There’s a well-placed mole, feeding intel to the bad guys and keeping them a step ahead of our hero. There’s a Sherrie Palmer-like character in the President’s daughter, and, finally, once again, a President with principles – like David Palmer.

I am hoping the writers try some different plot elements next year instead of rehashing the same formula. Stop making Jack prove he’s a good guy – sheesh, he’s saved the world 6 or 7 times over, you’d think people would have learned by now. Give him some real resources and the unconditional faith of the leaders he serves.

But, after the disappointing Season 6, the writers did a fantastic job, and Season 7 brings the comforting feeling of the old 24 magic. Most fans, I think, will easily forgive the writers for reusing some past plot points. And while not all seasons of 24 portray their villains as 3-dimensional characters with plausible motivations, Season 7 gives us a nicely fleshed out villain in Jonas Hodges, and another guy who’s pretty bad reveals his true motivations to Jack in Episode 24, and it’s pretty plausible and satisfying.

In the end, despite the terrorist threats to the nation, and all the great action and stunts and car crashes, Season 7 is more intimate – it’s about Jack facing his demons and about other characters we’ve long known dealing with theirs. And as a bonus (I hope this isn’t too much of a spoiler), Kim’s reappearance sets things right with fans – she doesn’t wind up in any cougar traps – far from it – and she makes a positive contribution when it counts most. In my view, everything wraps up perfectly in Episode 24. The writers don’t explicitly show the actual resolution to certain things, like what Renee is about to do when we last see her, or what will happen after the very final scene. But they show enough to make it clear how things turn out. And it is very satisfying.

If you have not seen 24 Season 7 yet, I envy you for the treat you’re in store for.

I did it in an old house and it turned out that the walls were plaster and lath. At that time I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and thought I was screwing it into the wall studs when in fact all I did was screw it into the lath. It only took a couple of pull ups before the whole thing ripped out of the wall, taking a pretty good sized chunk of plaster and lath down with it.

I agree with many of the others suggesting that you put it in a doorway and just bend your legs, but if you’re set on trying it in the hallway, just make sure that you’ve got it anchored really well in the studs.

Rating:

Season 7 was a rollicking good time, restarting the adrenaline drip that ran somewhat dry last season. I’m a big fan of Cherry Jones and am still grousing about how she lost the movie role in “Doubt” that she so sublimely played on stage. With the shadow of Mother Aloysius hanging over things, I spent the first few hours wondering whether Ms. Jones was miscast as Madame President. Where was the edge, the certainty, the petulance? But after a couple of terrorist attacks the cussing started, she was in her groove, and we were finally treated to a President whose grim grit even a testy nun could respect.

It’s hard actually to discuss the story arc of a season of 24 without running into the spoiler alert problem. Suffice it to say that season 7 is in a new town with some new characters and some returning friends and foes. But the grander messages carry on from earlier seasons. Terrorists never sleep, so neither may heroes. There are many good people in government, but they just can’t seem to keep the hatches battened down on their security systems, their classified information, and the whereabouts or plottings of their families and friends. Moral dilemmas will never be resolved, as the need to protect our way of life and our system of laws can only be served by violating our way of life and our system of laws. The people who opt to abide by the law are a lot more frustrating – and more boring – than the heroes who throw the law out the window to save our ability to have law. Terrorists never, ever display compassion. Heroes pick and choose. There is a conspiracy behind everything, and no matter how far up the chain you go, there is always someone higher and nastier and better dressed. Jack may seem easy to fathom, but he’s complex. Very complex.

Lordy, I love this show.

The big flaw to me in season 7 was Jack’s little problem with his nervous system and the magic hypodermic. Since everyone knows that Kiefer Sutherland is under contract for at least one more season, just how are we expected to get on the edges of our seats wondering if he’s going to make it? SPOILER ALERT: He’s going to make it.

But one thing 24 proves is that with enough well-designed and well-photographed bombings, conspiracies, chases, shootouts, car wrecks, whizbang technology gadgets, and dramatic confrontations both loud and soft, the audience will hang in through any amount of untenable doings.

Did I say how much I love this show?

Go for it.

Why dont you want to bend your legs ?