24 Episode 6.13 - "6:00 PM - 7:00 PM"
Airdate: Monday, March 12, 2007

The ads for this week's episode of 24 promised "the most shocking moment ever on 24!"

As a Lost fan, I've become accustomed to ignoring the madcap platitudes of network television's marketing machine. As a 24 fan, however, I admit to being intrigued. This is a show that could promise the most shocking moment, like, EVAR and then deliver that moment. For realz, yo.

So was it really the most shocking moment on 24 EVAR when Martha Logan, portrayed by the BRILLIANT Jean Smart, shoved a kitchen knife into the shoulder of her ex-husband, former President Charles Logan? I don't necessarily think so. It was more shocking to me when Jack Bauer tried to suffocate his own brother, for example.

Then again, when you're trying to create shocking moments on a series where it's common for the lead character to try and suffocate people, sometimes relatives, the bar is set pretty high.

The thing is, even if the most shocking moment on 24 EVAR doesn't actually, y'know, SHOCK all that much, this week still offered one of the best hours of 24 this season. For whatever reason--maybe the reunion of the Logans, two of television's most whacked-out characters?--the action on this week's 24 seemed somehow amped up from the start. Even minor details like the music and the dialogue somehow kicked up a notch or two; it felt less like a great action TV series and more like a great action movie.

It's not that I think 24 is poorly written on a regular basis; far from it. It's just that the dialogue is more often used as a blunt tool to drive along aspects of the plotting than it is an opportunity to hit some clever, funny marks. This week, I laughed out loud a few times, a rarity for my 24 experience (unless I'm giggling at the bad assery/absurdity of some plot twist or another). Chloe's "I feel ambivalent" to Charles Logan stands out in my mind especially.

As great as it is, 24 isn't always a show that lives up to the stakes it raises. This season, however, the series has managed to consistently do just that. When the plot ratchets upward, so also does the show's quality.

While the Logans were busy launching into their own unique brand of crazy, Powers Boothe got to flex his thespian muscles a bit more as the Vice President, who finally left Air Force One (or does the Vice President fly on Air Force Two? Or Coast Guard One?) and settled into the President's secure bunker. We got to watch Boothe and Peter MacNicol trade chomps on the scenery, which delighted the character actor geek in me to no end. All this show needs is M. Emmett Walsh to become the MOST PERFECT SERIES OF ALL TIME. (Unfortunately, J.D. Walsh is no longer with us, cause he'd be high on my list too. Or Jeffrey Jones. He'd be GREAT for 24.)

Heck, this week they even tossed Rick Schroeder into the mix without missing a beat. Even though I totally bought Schroeder on NYPD Blue, I still had to stifle a chuckle when I realized that the former star of Silver Spoons would be stomping around CTU as a crabby special agent.

By the end of the hour, I was actually disappointed they didn't use him more, but it was really the only disappointment I walked away with. Even if Martha Logan shanking her ex-husband didn't elicit wild and unexpected shrieks of shocks, 24 still delivered with a top-notch installment that may rank among the series' best.

iTunes Links

24 - Series
24 - Season 6
"6:00 PM - 7:00 PM"