Gareth over at TV or Not TV has posted a hilarious “Year In Review” piece, dishing out a flurry of smart and funny commentary on the greatest performances, biggest disappointments and other goodies on the boob tube in 2009.  24‘s seventh season is featured prominently!  Highlights:

TV or Not TV Nominee for Man of the Year – Carlos Bernard:

I couldn’t forget the Almeida could I!?

‘24’s seventh season seems like a lifetime ago but it was only back at the start of the year that we got to witness the resurrection of possibly the most beloved character on the show.

Brought back from the dead, Carlos Bernard’s Tony Almeida went on one hell of a journey through ‘24’s seventh day, culminating in his master plan to avenge the murder of his wife and unborn child being thwarted and him being carted away in bracelets.

Almeida’s journey was by far and away the best thing about season 7 and encompassed some great moments as well as some truly shocking moments. This was the first chance the producers gave Bernard to really sink his teeth in to Tony and he did not disappoint, which makes his reported absence from season 8 all the more mind-boggling.

TV or Not TV Nominee for Most Shocking Death of the Year – FBI Agent Larry Moss:

This has to be the biggest TV “what the fuck?” moment of the year.

As Larry Moss, the by the book anti-Jack Bauer, escorted Tony Almeida back to FBI HQ following the formerly soul-patched ones heroics in thwarting Jon Voight’s scenery chewing criminal mastermind Jonas Hodges, the pair landed their helicopter to pin down one of Hodges’ men who had made off with some of the season’s MacGuffin: the bio-weapon.

As soon as they landed, they came under fire and Larry was hit twice with a shotgun from pretty close range, as Tony checked on the wounded FBI man, the villain, Tracy Morgan on steroids looking Galvez, loomed behind Tony. While Larry spluttered to try and warn Tony of the impending danger, Almeida turned and gave a look to Galvez that broke a thousand hearts – the bad guy lowered his weapon, Tony apologised to Larry, and proceeded to smother the remaining life out of the prone Agent Moss.

The episode ended with Larry dead and Tony seemingly on the dark side (again) – it was the moment that defined the season for me and remains one of the biggest out of left field shocks on a TV show, not just in 09, but ever.

TV or Not TV Nominee for Guest Appearance of the Year – Jon Voight as Jonas Hodges:

If there was an award for hammiest, scenery chewing, campy villain of the year then Jon Voight would be in a category all of his own.

His performance as Jonas Hodges on ‘24’ was so over the top and ridiculous it was a stroke of genius. As the season started to flag as it headed towards its final quarter, for about 4 or 5 episodes in a row Voight was the single greatest thing on the show.

He looked like he was having the time of his life and it shone through on screen; he was criminally ignored at the Emmys for this performance but he will not be ignored here. Jonas Hodges was the greatest unintentionally hilarious villain of the year and deserves this award on the strength of this line: “they’re six year-olds, Greg, and they need to eat their carrots” – I don’t know what it meant but it was fucking ridiculous, yet so great.

I loved this article, and the concept is so good that I must post a follow-up rebuttal with my own selections.  Forthcoming very shortly!