oh, didn't I tell you?

"24" is having a great season, perhaps its best ever. We have been kept guessing as established characters get killed off and great new ones like Robocop and Leland Palmer are introduced. The show rates a Season Pass on my TiVo but I stayed up to watch Monday's episode that night rather than wait until the next day. There are only a few other shows that I will go out of my way to watch on the same night they air. I usually have a Tuesday morning conversation about the latest goings-on at CTU with a couple of other Jack Bauer fans around the office.

My TiVo has a new feature that lets me recover recently deleted programs. I used it today so I could re-watch Monday's "24." I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something before complaining about one of my favorite shows.

This season's story has revolved around the efforts of some bad guys to release deadly gas. At the end of last week's episode, Jack destroyed the gas and was hot on the trail of those responsible. That story line was hurriedly finished at the start of Monday's show. Then it turns out that there's a minor character named Evelyn Martin who has had some important evidence all along. Then we find out that Evelyn's daughter was kidnapped by the bad guys who want the incriminating evidence as ransom. When was this child kidnapped? How could they not have mentioned that in an earlier episode? It's as if the writers are making this stuff up as they go along. I was reminded of listening to a poorly told joke. "So the priest says to the bartender... no wait, wait... there was a rabbi who walked into the bar too. Let me just start over."

By the way, if Audrey and Chloe are secretly helping Jack, why would they put his call on a speakerphone in the CTU headquarters? Wouldn't the new overlords from Homeland Security overhear the conversation? C'mon!