Big Leather Couch

No matter what, in my opinion, the producers and writers have stayed true to the story and to us this final season and for that I am happy.

Then there is the final season of 24. A show with the unique concept of every second of TV time represents one second of real time. A ticking clock allows you to follow the time and it started with incredible promise.

Season one, day one a character boarded a plane in NY heading to California. They did not arrive until sometime in hour six. Real time!

If someone got in a car and drove 20 miles it would take at least 20 minutes.

Then the clock and the plausibility began to take a back seat. Now, let's all realize that most television shows are not based upon real time. Murders are solved in 46 minutes (60 minute show minus the needed 14 minutes of commercials). In 24, the clock never stopped for the commercials. You might go to break at 1:05:24 and when the commercial ends it would be somewhere around 1:08:56.


With the other shows, we suspend belief that a character can drive from LA to San Diego in the hour.

BUT the producers and writers of 24 asked us to accept that this same drive on their show would take a minimum of 2 hours.

This season the show moved to New York. suddenly Jack Bauer, the lead character can get in a cab downtown New York and be in Queens in 4 minutes.

The President can leave an upper floor of the UN and be in Queens in less than 5 minutes!

The best/worst was when one set of characters left Manhattan for Fort McGuire in NJ (at least a 3 hour trip) and arrived before Jack got in a car and drove from downtown to 160th street!!!!!!!!

Our hero Jack Bauer was stabbed with a 5" blade in the stomach and continued on his quest.

For the THIRD TIME in 8 seasons the group Jack works for CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) was infiltrated by a spy. This is a group charged with protecting the USA from terrorists and they can not vet their employees enough to stop from being infiltrated????

The writers and producers mailed this season in and in doing so, they betrayed the true fans. Strangely enough on the message boards on Fox.com, I see very little anger at this betrayal.

I have continued to watch BECAUSE it is the last season...because I invested 8 seasons of my time into watching what was once a great show because of the concept and the true feeling of the show...but the show is no longer the concept I was sold 8 seasons ago...it is a normal TV program and the clock has just become an annoying sound instead of a time keeper it was originally intended to be.

Fade away Jack Bauer...goodbye Chloe and Renee and President Taylor...fade away CTU, our country will be better off without you.

It is a far, far better rerun that I watch, than I have ever watched; it is a far, far better season that I seek than I have ever known.

Our most excellent friend TRAVIS from "Trav's Thoughts" is back to talking about DWTS...and if you missed it - and even if you think you watched it...well you haven't until you read Travis' recap...


Tonight on the Radio Happy Hour, Doc, Collette and Burl welcome Onision, one of the most popular and most controversial YouTube celebrities. He has over 250,000 subscribers who are arguably the most fiercely loyal fan base on the internet.

Between his main channel, archive channel and “Onision Speaks” channel, Onison uploads video on a daily basis and is alternately comical, goofy, edgy and heavily serious. In his “Onision Speaks” videos he dives into topics such vegetarianism, ethics, morals, and religion.

And...Amy and Nancy Harrington, the “Pop Culture Passionistas“, return for what is now their monthly visit. This month they bring to us their lists of Top 5 Best and Top 5 Worst TV Star to Movie Star Transformations.

TPTB over at Idol are doing all they can to give us a Gokey/Lambert finale. The judges make comments to sway the voting public and dang if they did not do so last week.
Allison was MUCH better than Chris and a bit better than Danny, yet she was the one dissed by the judges and she went home.

This has been one of the better seasons for the show 24. The writers continue to give us some unrealistic time frames however and it will be interesting to see how they bend the plot line to find an antidote for Jack's exposure to the nerve agent.

Yeah, yeah...there are times it is just so off-center, but it is still the best 60 minutes on TV IMHO.

Well right behind it is the show LOST. The writers have worked overtime to stitch together some of the plot lines and answer some of the more intriguing mysteries.

I am looking forward to how they will leave us hanging this season.

Do you ever watch NUMB3RS? I enjoy the way they put math into the equation to solve crimes.

The characters are well written and their personal lives are central to the entire show arch.

The closing scene this past week left me with my jaw on my chest.

Cool news for Sons Of Anarchy fans...Grammy® Award-winning musician and actor Henry Rollins will guest star in six episodes when the show returns this fall. Rollins will play a new antagonist in the show’s fictional town of Charming, California who poses a deadly threat to the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club.

Henry Rollins first came into the public consciousness as lead singer of the seminal Los Angeles band Black Flag. He later founded the Rollins Band, receiving a 1994 Grammy nomination for the song “Liar.” That same year he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Album for Get in the Van. He was host of the Independent Film Channel’s The Henry Rollins Show and the radio show “Harmony in my Head” on Indie 103 FM in Los Angeles. He currently hosts his own music-mix radio show on KCRW-FM.

What show have you enjoyed this season? What show has disappointed you beyond belief? What show can you not wait to start up again?

And the third in this 'theme' is this link to a podcast Richard is involved with...if you are a "LOST" junkie, like we both are, you might want to check it out - a note though, we had a bit of a problem listening to it last evening. It kept stopping and starting, so we did not get the whole way through. We are planning on trying it again today from our office...

The show comes back on this week with a repeat of last season's final episode on Wednesday and then a two hour block on Thursday, the first hour being a look at the characters and the mysteries and the second hour being the first of the new season...with the writers strike still on-going, we will have at least the eight episodes that are "in the can" prior to the work stoppage...