At this point season 5 is getting close to halftime, and although user votes on this site seem to indicate that these late episodes of part one of season 5 are slightly weaker than the beginning, I cannot quite agree. I was watching the first episodes with great anticipation having heard so much about it before. I wasn't exactly disappointed then and I also admit that it's hard to feel the full suspense if you already know before that Palmer and Dessler will die for example - but still I thought during the early episodes of season 5: well, here we go again, it's all been here. We have Lynn, the inapt superior who somehow forces Jack to act undercover which he routinely does backed up by Chloe and everybody else at CTU. People being killed who seemed to be an integral part of "24" is nothing new, these people being replaced by others who then seem to be an integral part etc.. Meanwhile the employees at CTU are first conspiring against each other and later taking each other into custody all the time - nothing new (but still very entertaining to see, and even though most of us don't work at counter terrorist agencies I get the idea and feel this is everyday life, just put into a different setting).
The story about Jack being framed and said to have killed Palmer and his friends is less but poorly convincing, it's a pity we don't see more of his 18 months in between-life, by the way. Walt Cummings is the usual kind of intriguer, we have the terrorists who are ready to kill others and themselves at any given point, only that this time their targets seem very exchangeable which isn't very convincing either. Next familiar thing is that CTU gets the critical information it needs always at the right time (attack on Suvarov, attack on the hospital) and always out of heaven - this time here called "chatter" - just like technology works exactly as fast as it should and always offers a solution (Jack rescuing Derek at the airport). We've seen all this before. - But still, in the following episodes, the show is getting better.
It is interesting to see how Mike Novick advises the president, alternating between cynicism, rational concerns and his still intact emotions. He truly is a varying character in the show, more good, but sometimes bad, as we have seen in the seasons before. Things are really getting interesting when Logan discovers that Martha is in the Suvarovs car. The following intimate play between Mike and Logan is very well acted by both of them, it is intense, both being forced to solve a problem which has no solution. And also the CTU-hospital-story just like the Bauer-Henderson-story seem to gain from the progression in the action between Logan, Martha, Novick and Aaron Pierce at this stage.
The story about Jack being framed and said to have killed Palmer and his friends is less but poorly convincing, it's a pity we don't see more of his 18 months in between-life, by the way. Walt Cummings is the usual kind of intriguer, we have the terrorists who are ready to kill others and themselves at any given point, only that this time their targets seem very exchangeable which isn't very convincing either. Next familiar thing is that CTU gets the critical information it needs always at the right time (attack on Suvarov, attack on the hospital) and always out of heaven - this time here called "chatter" - just like technology works exactly as fast as it should and always offers a solution (Jack rescuing Derek at the airport). We've seen all this before. - But still, in the following episodes, the show is getting better.
It is interesting to see how Mike Novick advises the president, alternating between cynicism, rational concerns and his still intact emotions. He truly is a varying character in the show, more good, but sometimes bad, as we have seen in the seasons before. Things are really getting interesting when Logan discovers that Martha is in the Suvarovs car. The following intimate play between Mike and Logan is very well acted by both of them, it is intense, both being forced to solve a problem which has no solution. And also the CTU-hospital-story just like the Bauer-Henderson-story seem to gain from the progression in the action between Logan, Martha, Novick and Aaron Pierce at this stage.
