What did you think of 24: Live Another Day Episode 6?

Ozgur–

re: blaming Kate for not being omniscient & realizing it was Navarro.

I don’t blame Kate for not knowing the plot. I’m saying Kate is not perfect because she has yet to even *suspect* the plot. At no point have we gotten any indication that Kate thinks her husband was set up. She married a man whom she thought she knew and she when it looked like he was a traitor, she never thought maybe *others* were wrong– she thought *she* was wrong. That’s a flaw. That makes Kate imperfect because she didn’t trust her own gut where this was concerned. Kate is a spy who seems to have never considered that someone she works closely with could have been responsible for setting up her husband. Right now? Jordan Reed is a better intelligence agent than Kate is. He’s at least wondering if Adam was set up and it would seem like he’s been wondering this for awhile. Jordan has the outside perspective of being able to see this where Kate can’t because she’s too close to the situation. Letting your personal relationships get in the way of your judgement (a theme of this season across the board) is a major flaw and Kate has it. That alone makes her far from Agent Perfect.

re: complex female characters

OMG you think Sherry Palmer wasn’t complicated? A woman who’d do anything to protect her family and her husband– Sherry was the original complicated female character on 24. And not just complicated female character but first one down the rabbit hole that many of the men followed later. Joined a conspiracy to stop a conspiracy? Sherry did that long before Tony. Of course she was a bitch– and it was WONDERFUL. :) Being a bitch doesn’t make you not a strong, female character.

Michelle Dessler was a better agent than Tony was. Michelle and Tony reversed the stereotypes of gender roles in a typical tv romance. He got held hostage, he did the cooking, he wanted to get out and start a family. Michelle was the one who would sacrifice him for the greater good, whose career came first. There had never been a more subversive romance on t.v. when it came to gender than Tony & Michelle.

Chloe O’Brian “nothing but a deus ex machina”? A woman who sasses off to the male protagonist and has some kind of clear personality disorder? A mother who didn’t put her son above the greater good– when do you see *that* on television?

Nina was far from cartoonish. She was the one who outsmarted the very male lead character of the show. She outsmarted *everyone*, consistently. Teri Bauer was raped to save her daughter and beat a guy up with nothing but a rock. Audrey, no matter what you think of her China story, held a high ranking position in several different administrations and made a lot of tough calls unusual for women on television. I dislike that character but that’s because I dislike her choices, not because those choices didn’t make her tough.

Mandy not feminist? A lesbian (maybe bisexual) woman who uses sex like a weapon in the way men typically do on television, who in her first episode detonated a bomb from a trigger she got on board hidden in a rather freudian looking vibrator in her makeup case? The miniskirts and the boots made for walkin’ that walked all over everyone? Mandy kidnapped *Tony Almeida*– she took the show’s male sex god, beat him up, gagged him, made him take his clothes off (thanks, Mandy!) and had him on his knees for the better part of the penultimate episode of a season but no, that’s just something a lot of shows do… *eyeroll*

re: Renee’s story and what was compelling about it and when

To each his/her own on what you find compelling but Renee trapped between The World She Used To Live In and This New Bright and Shiny Jack Bauer World! is a plot given to anyone who has ever encountered Jack Bauer throughout the series. It wasn’t terribly original to me and for the first few episodes, Renee is largely a victim of the circumstances surrounding Jack & Tony’s reunion. She gets buried alive, she gets choked out and left behind, she’s just kind of there until she goes to torture the sniper. That and torturing Vossler’s wife and baby were really the only unique things they gave her to do. Even when she starts to cry and wonder if Jack “feels anything”, she’s slapping him just like Audrey did before and it’s an indicator that Renee might not be as mentally stable as we think she is. But those indicators are kind of few and far between early on, so she’s just Jack’s sidekick for awhile. It took awhile, IMO, for them to really begin pursuing who she was in her own right and until that kicked into gear, Renee was just kind of there for me. I found her a lot more interesting towards the end of Day 7 and on Day 8 than I did at the start.

And Mary is just giving you the top notes of strong, wonderful female characters– although missed Martha Logan who I thought was quite twisted and unexpected.

Even the minor ones stay away from stereotypes: Elizabeth Nash in S1; Lynn Kresge S2; Dr. Sunny Macer S3/S7; Kate Warner S2/S3, Marie Warner S2; Claudia S3; Evelyn S5; Karen Hayes S5/S6 just to name a few. Admittedly there were some misses– but overall by populating the show with men and women portrayed as competent, committed, intelligent and simply allowing them to be good at what they do and well rounded characters even in small parts the writers elevated the whole show. And the fact that they did it without overtly screaming out– hey this one is not just as eye candy! Please give us a pat on the back for being progressive! makes me even more appreciative of the work.

Me too!

My favorite performances of Kiefer’s outside of 24 are always the villains. He’s really truly oscar worthy in Freeway, a B movie masterpiece. But I’m off topic! Forgive me.