fine whine

Today we finished watching the third season of 24 on DVD. Jessica had been excited to watch this one in particular with its theme of a virus threat and her epidemiological background and whatnot, but I hadn't been holding my breath. The previous seasons were, I must admit, interesting but even to the beginning a lot of it seemed too contrived and the characters all seemed a bit too capable (Jack Bauer is basically superhuman, even without a good night's sleep) for too many hours.

Also, nobody ever uses a restroom except for conversations, chloroforming or other activities unrelated to, er, personal relief. For something that was trying to be purportedly accurate to the minute, that's a pretty big omission. It's certainly possible that everybody runs off and pees when the focus (split screen style) shifts to another place, but still that's a lot of coordination and inconvenience to organize around.

But enough about bathroom matters. I don't want to say the whole show is crap, though it's not nearly as interesting as other shows I've seen. The suspense is at times obviously exaggerated (in the manner of the brain-destoying pauses after Regis asked "Is that your final answer?") and the show's expectations are far too high for the suspension of disbelief. Then again, given the superhuman capabilities of the agents and villains to resist torture and sleep deprivation and the laws of physics, perhaps the show's creators expect a similar elevation of suspension of disbelief from the audience. They didn't get it from me.

I managed to get myself back on the treadmill, but only for the first thirty or forty minutes of Something's gotta give. That movie was all right but not outstanding, though I would say that Diane Keaton does turn in quite a good performance. Amanda Peet, on the other hand, does not. Keanu Reeves has a role that's no bigger than hers but he plays his far better, and what can you say about somebody who is outshone by Keanu Reeves?