I know I speak for both myself and Kat, and I have no doubt that I speak for Matt as well, when I say that last night’s episode was a real disappointment. Even the return of Bryan Spicer, who we highly regard as one of the best ever directors of 24 for bringing us s1 6-7AM and s3 2-3AM, could not save this horrible, uninspired and boring episode from itself. I’m about the hardest core fan there is. I’ve even defended Kim and the cougar, for god’s sake. But right now I am just overwhelmed at how sloppy and lackadaisical the creative team on this series has become that even *I* can no longer defend the downward spiral s4 is in.

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Happy Holy Day!!! I’m a terrible webmistress and a terrible 24 fan. Despite the long weekend, I was unable to get updates done. I was running around the entire time visiting various family members. When I finally got home last night, I had every intention of finishing the updates for episode 15, but I laid down to rest for an hour and I ended up falling asleep and sleeping straight through to the morning. Blast it.

I’m honestly unsure when I will have time to finish them. I may end up doing them along with tonight’s episode all at once for one large update sometime later in the week. I’ll have to play it by ear.

Regardless, we do have two new affiliates: Dennis Haysbert Online, a comprehensive resource site about (obviously) Dennis; and Twenty Four Icons, a wonderful place devoted to beautiful and original fan-art icons for MSN, AIM, message boards and more. Most of the icons are devoted to Tony and Michelle, but there are a few others as well. I hope to see this site grow in the future.

Welcome Back Chloe! Yes yes. Well, I haven’t had a chance to get to this week’s major updates, but tomorrow is Good Friday and I’m off work, so hopefully I will have some time to get that done tomorrow. In the meantime, I have posted transcripts of 3 chats – the official 8-9PM debrief with Kat, further discussion on 8-9PM with Matt & Kat (the first time all 3 of us have converged in quite awhile) and a psychedelic chat between Matt and myself which is a bit of a retrospective and addresses numerous issues related to all 4 seasons.

What I can’t keep getting out of my head is how the creators of the show did a complete 180 with the cast. At the beginning of the Season, none of the old cast was anywhere to be found except Chloe, who was booted after only a few episodes. You all may recall the inumerable nauseating articles that were posted about a complete cast overhauil and the firing of all of the s3 cast, with the creators waxing poetic about how the characters are all a slave to the format anyway so none of it mattered. This was obviously bullshit, because it’s difficult to invest much in what has this far been a pretty uninspired plot when you don’t give a damn about any of the characters. Well, it seems as though the writers have obviously either realized that they made a massive error in judgment and are bringing back the characters the fans actually give a damn about, or else the whole thing was planned all along as a test of our loyalty.

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Happy Holy Day!!!!! Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have saved copies of all the Carlos Bernard audio and video clips from 24 Online to our own server here, so there are no more problems with dead links due to the 24 Online server not allowing hotlinking.

Hola Tony fans! Many of you may be wondering where the updates are for this week’s excellent T/M-laden episode. Unfortunately, due to St. Patrick’s Day festivities, my usual schedule of updates was pushed forward, so a full set of major updates will be happening over the weekend.

In the meantime, you can check out a highly introspective delayed debrief on this most recent episode between Kat & myself. I have also posted links to 2 new Carlos articles.

Furthermore, I have finished capping Episode 3×15, but have not yet had a chance to format the caps for posting to the web. Expect another episode’s worth of screencaps to be available in our Gallery over the weekend.

You may also have noticed that I’ve changed the menu and headers of the site a little bit. I had received numerous complaints about the previous menu font being difficult to read, so all of you who were complaining can quit your bitching now. It took me a long time to get through, so I don’t think I’ll be making any more design changes in the near future.

My compatriots have abandoned me. For the second week in a row, I was the only one to show up for the weekly debrief. In an episode this significant, it saddens me that neither Matt nor Kat showed up to talk about it. So, I’ll simply do my analysis here.

First of all, Michelle. It amazes me how far her character has come since the beginning. The reason I say this is that I’ve been watching Season 2 on DVD with my boyfriend (who had never seen 24 before, can you believe it) and so with s2 Michelle still fresh in my mind, seeing this brash, cold and bureaucratic version of our Righteous Angel was difficult to watch. It was obvious that the events of Season 3 changed her. She learned how much she was capable of, and she was definitely the epitome of the strong female agent. It is also now apparent how much Tony’s imprisonment and the breakdown of her marriage, and her subsequent promotion, has changed her too. Gone is the doe-eyed idealist who flagrantly disobeyed both Tony and Chappelle to help Jack because she had to follow her conscience. Gone is the gritty survivor who drop kicked Marcus Alvers and escaped from Stephen Saunders by making herself bleed. Gone is the trusting wife and underling who believed in Tony’s decisions implicitly. Gone is the hopeless romantic who swore never to give up on her one true love, even if he went to prison. In her place is a jaded realist from Division, putting intel ahead of the lives of Jack Bauer and Paul Raines and treating her soulmate like something she scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

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For the first time, I saw The L Word, the Showtime lesbian drama broadcast on Showcase in Canada. One of the stars is none other than our favourite DangerSlut Mandy (Mia Kirshner). She sure does make a great lesbian.

How excited are you all that Michelle is back and we will once again have TMA to keep us warm at night? The smouldering looks! The sidelong glances! The painful subtext! 24 finally has meaning again. With all due respect to Alberta Watson, who is a fine actress and was a fine addition to this season’s cast, BRING ON FHTMA!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so ready for it.

And how beautiful did Michelle look? It’s just gonna make it all the more painful for Tony to see that she hasn’t been letting herself drown in the suffering of their failed marriage. Nonetheless, you better believe that both of them are in exquisite pain and it’s gonna make for some damn good TV viewing before their inevitable reconciliation and FHTMA Part Trois. This will be the best reunion in 24 history, dare I say better than the Jack/Nina reunion in s3. Michelle, how I love you!

The last two episodes also marked the return of Jon Cassar behind the lens, and it was worth the wait. No wonder they were so good. With these last two episodes, everything we loved about the show has been rejuvenated — the subtle character work, the classic ongoing themes, the excitement and urgency. Oh Cassar, I bow before your genius. Just as Tony has come back to life, so has the greatest TV show in the history of the world, and not a moment too soon.

It is great to be home!!!! I REALLY missed this site while I was away and I hope all you Tony fans out there didn’t feel too deprived without me for a couple of weeks’ worth of episodes.

After 2 weeks out of Canada in the UK, attending my grandfather’s funeral and visiting with my family, I am finally home. Despite the fact that my trip was quite full and I was concentrating on family matters, 24 and Tony were also on my mind constantly. Yesterday during my flights home, all I could think about was the two episodes of 24 I had timer-recorded while I was away that would be waiting for me when I got home. And how sweet they were.

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