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The following takes place after the airing of each new episode of 24 on FOX…

Getting better, but not enough.

I find myself each Tuesday morning wondering why I’m devoting an hour of my Monday night to a television program that was awesome in this season’s first few hours, but seems mired in quicksand since about 11AM. Last night’s 15th hour was another dud on the action front, but finally a few twists and turns along the plot road kept me from changing the channel.

The biggest highlight of the night came with the resurrection of President Palmer (sorry folks, but this guy went from brain-swollen medically-induced coma to lucid faster than my car goes from zero to fifty… resurrection’s about the only term that can describe it) in time to stop the Middle East nuclear retaliatory strike. The Vice President’s questioning response of the President’s return sets up one of the plot lines I predicted last week involving Palmer’s mental capacities.

One of my other predictions though looks like it may fall flat - that of Doyle being the bad guy. His about face on Nadia and his confrontation with Johnson lead us to believe that he may be another Jack Bauer - doing what’s necessary regardless of its implications. I’m not sold yet that he doesn’t have darker ulterior motives.

What else? The prevailing theme of this year’s show seems to be “we’ll make people of Middle Eastern descent obvious villains and then we’ll pull a switcheroo on the audience and make them good.” Case in point last night’s turnaround on Nadia (and in previous episodes Walid and al Hassan). I’m curious how they intend to twist it it with Fayed.

Now for my things this week:

• The story’s hitting the homestretch which means we’re due for some major explosions as well as blood and guts in the final nine hours - THANK GOD.
• Look for Gredenko to lead the story back to Phillip Bauer… and I haven’t given up yet on the connection between Phillip and Doyle and…
• Johnson may provide the key to that connection. He also may have the goods on Doyle’s involvement in Audrey’s death.
• Finally, how about this crazy idea? Will this year bring the real death of Jack Bauer and the replacement of his character with Ricky Shroeder’s Doyle?

That’s all for now, see you next week.