I know I speak for both myself and Kat, and I have no doubt that I speak for Matt as well, when I say that last night's episode was a real disappointment. Even the return of Bryan Spicer, who we highly regard as one of the best ever directors of 24 for bringing us s1 6-7AM and s3 2-3AM, could not save this horrible, uninspired and boring episode from itself. I'm about the hardest core fan there is. I've even defended Kim and the cougar, for god's sake. But right now I am just overwhelmed at how sloppy and lackadaisical the creative team on this series has become that even *I* can no longer defend the downward spiral s4 is in.

Here is a list of my grievances:

1) Mamud Faheen has somehow miraculously come back to life after having his throat slit by Nina and is now one of Habib Marwan's underlings. Is the pool of capable Arab and Middle Eastern actors in LA really so scarce that they had to double-cast Anthony Azizi from Season 2? This was either a truly horrible and sloppy oversight on the part of the casting directors, or just a really bad decision to start reusing actors. Shows like Law & Order can get away with re-casting the same actors in different roles, seasons apart, because the stories are not continuous. But in a show like 24, where everything carries on from whence it began, this is just BRUTAL! SHAME ON YOU, 24!!!

2) I just don't give much of a fuck about the villains. Both Marwan and Andersen thus far are completely yawn-worthy and there is NO GOOD REASON to be giving Anderson 3 consecutive preclocks. I miss the days of complex, three-dimensional HUMAN villains that we could really sink our teeth into. How am I expected to care about what Marwan and Andersen are planning when they bore the shit out of me?

3) The plot is just like one loose thread that keeps on unravelling and unravelling. I can barely remember how we got from there to here by this point, and moreover, I don't care. I haven't seen the edge of my seat since Tony returned at the end of episode 7. Remember when EVERY preclock had us wailing for more? Now I just yawn. I miss the times when everything was so tightly wound together that exposition in an episode created a revelation about something that happened hours earlier. Now, the plot is just plodding along, going from place to place, arc to arc with NO cohesiveness whatsoever. There is no coherent theme holding this season together. Writers, what is going on?

4) The characters are there, but are not being used! What's the use of bringing back Tony and Michelle if all they're going to do is sit there and explain to us about Jack getting kidnapped by terrorists AGAIN. Give us more T/M tension! Tony and Michelle going from the ultimate in disrespect and resentment to super smooth sailing is totally unrealistic and is really doing fans of the show and that 'ship a dis-service! There is zero character tension happening right now, and the show is really the worse off for it. It's a sad day when the most tension in an episode is coming from Edgar and Chloe.

5) There is no originality in the scripts at all, either dialogue-wise or plot-wise. After being kidnapped by Victor Drazen, Ronnie Stark and Ramon Salazar, Jack is now kidnapped by Marwan. Behrooz is tortured? Big fuckin deal! Haven't we already seen CTU torture like 12 people already today? Yawn. CTU trades Behrooz for Jack. This already happened with Alexis for Jack, Jane for Michelle, etc etc etc. Ugh I'm just so bored by the plot. I don't even care what is happening. My sole purpose for watching right now is to see interaction between any combination of Tony, Michelle and Jack (and somewhat Jack and Audrey). Other than that, it's all just background noise.

6) WHY would they bring in some new guy from Division named Bill Buchanan when they could have brought back BRAD HAMMOND for God's sake?

I could go on, but I don't want to depress my readers any further. In my heart, I will always love 24, but even I am forced to admit at this point that maybe the creators outdid themselves last year and there is nowhere to go but down. Right now all we can do is wait for Palmer and hope that somehow, shit is pulled together for Act 3.

In the meantime, I've been playing with icons, and have created a new section for my icons in our Gallery. Check out my original icons here.

I have an entry in this week's contest over at LiveJournal 24 Icon Contest Community, so don't forget to vote in their poll whenever it is posted. That's all. I'm spent.

--posted by Kasia

OK, the next episode is about to air here in approx 45 minutes, and I have just finished updates for last week's episode not a moment too soon. We hope you will enjoy the latest installments of Almeida Verbatim, Godlike Moments and Famous Last Words.

Will write more after watching tonight's episode. HHD!!!

--posted by Kasia

Happy Holy Day!!! I'm a terrible webmistress and a terrible 24 fan. Despite the long weekend, I was unable to get updates done. I was running around the entire time visiting various family members. When I finally got home last night, I had every intention of finishing the updates for episode 15, but I laid down to rest for an hour and I ended up falling asleep and sleeping straight through to the morning. Blast it.

I'm honestly unsure when I will have time to finish them. I may end up doing them along with tonight's episode all at once for one large update sometime later in the week. I'll have to play it by ear.

Regardless, we do have two new affiliates: Dennis Haysbert Online, a comprehensive resource site about (obviously) Dennis; and Twenty Four Icons, a wonderful place devoted to beautiful and original fan-art icons for MSN, AIM, message boards and more. Most of the icons are devoted to Tony and Michelle, but there are a few others as well. I hope to see this site grow in the future.

--posted by Kasia

Welcome Back Chloe! Yes yes. Well, I haven't had a chance to get to this week's major updates, but tomorrow is Good Friday and I'm off work, so hopefully I will have some time to get that done tomorrow. In the meantime, I have posted transcripts of 3 chats - the official 8-9PM debrief with Kat, further discussion on 8-9PM with Matt & Kat (the first time all 3 of us have converged in quite awhile) and a psychedelic chat between Matt and myself which is a bit of a retrospective and addresses numerous issues related to all 4 seasons. All 3 transcripts are available in 24 Mega-Fandom.

What I can't keep getting out of my head is how the creators of the show did a complete 180 with the cast. At the beginning of the Season, none of the old cast was anywhere to be found except Chloe, who was booted after only a few episodes. You all may recall the inumerable nauseating articles that were posted about a complete cast overhauil and the firing of all of the s3 cast, with the creators waxing poetic about how the characters are all a slave to the format anyway so none of it mattered. This was obviously bullshit, because it's difficult to invest much in what has this far been a pretty uninspired plot when you don't give a damn about any of the characters. Well, it seems as though the writers have obviously either realized that they made a massive error in judgement and are bringing back the characters the fans actually give a damn about, or else the whole thing was planned all along as a test of our loyalty.

First Tony, then Michelle, then Dennis Haysbert was confirmed to return to reprise his role as David Palmer. According to IMDB, James Badge Dale is now slated to return to reprise his role as Chase Edmunds, Jack's former partner and protoge, near the end of the season. I won't say which episode he is slated to return, as I don't want to ruin anything for anyone. As yet, I've been unable to find any independent news sources to confirm this, so if any of you hear anything, feel free to contact me.

Gorilla Sport Shop, of all places, has named us their Link of the Week this week.

We were also offered up as Bubba's fansite pick for March 11 on radio personality DJ Adam's website.

Finally, Cast Spotted Log has been updated. More updates are imminent.

--posted by Kasia

Happy Holy Day!!!!! Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have saved copies of all the Carlos Bernard audio and video clips from 24 Online to our own server here, so there are no more problems with dead links due to the 24 Online server not allowing hotlinking. These are all available in The Man Behind Almeida and all links are working, so full access to Carlos has one again been restored.

Also, Cast Spotted Log has been updated to include Riley Smith's latest project, the stunning work of art from CBS, "Spring Break Shark Attack." Yes, that was supposed to be sarcasm.

--posted by Kasia

Happy Holy Eve! I am pleased to report that major updates for episode 4x13 are complete. Godlike Moments, Almeida Verbatim and Famous Last Words have all been updated. Additionally, I have added screencaps for episode 3x15 3-4AM in our Gallery.

This is a quick update, as I have spent all afternoon working on this and now I must clean my house.

--posted by Kasia

Hola Tony fans! Many of you may be wondering where the updates are for this week's excellent T/M-laden episode. Unfortunately, due to St. Patrick's Day festivities, my usual schedule of updates was pushed forward, so a full set of major updates will be happening over the weekend.

In the meantime, you can check out a highly introspective delayed debrief on this most recent episode between Kat & myself in 24 Mega-Fandom. I have also posted links to 2 new Carlos articles in The Man Behind Almeida. Who Is Almeida? has also been updated to reflect the events so far in Season 4.

Furthermore, I have finished capping Episode 3x15, but have not yet had a chance to format the caps for posting to the web. Expect another episode's worth of screencaps to be available in our Gallery over the weekend.

You may also have noticed that I've changed the menu and headers of the site a little bit. I had received numerous complaints about the previous menu font being difficult to read, so all of you who were complaining can quit your bitching now. It took me a long time to get through, so I don't think I'll be making any more design changes in the near future.

--posted by Kasia

My compatriots have abandoned me. For the second week in a row, I was the only one to show up for the weekly debrief. In an episode this significant, it saddens me that neither Matt nor Kat showed up to talk about it. So, I'll simply do my analysis here.

First of all, Michelle. It amazes me how far her character has come since the beginning. The reason I say this is that I've been watching Season 2 on DVD with my boyfriend (who had never seen 24 before, can you believe it) and so with s2 Michelle still fresh in my mind, seeing this brash, cold and bureaucratic version of our Righteous Angel was difficult to watch. It was obvious that the events of Season 3 changed her. She learned how much she was capable of, and she was definitely the epitome of the strong female agent. It is also now apparent how much Tony's imprisonment and the breakdown of her marriage, and her subsequent promotion, has changed her too. Gone is the doe-eyed idealist who flagrantly disobeyed both Tony and Chappelle to help Jack because she had to follow her conscience. Gone is the gritty survivor who drop kicked Marcus Alvers and escaped from Stephen Saunders by making herself bleed. Gone is the trusting wife and underling who believed in Tony's decisions implicitly. Gone is the hopeless romantic who swore never to give up on her one true love, even if he went to prison. In her place is a jaded realist from Division, putting intel ahead of the lives of Jack Bauer and Paul Raines and treating her soulmate like something she scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

Don't get me wrong. I can fully understand Michelle's motivation as a character. She stood by Tony and waited for him to get out of prison and when he did, he seemed no longer to be the man she fell in love with. He abused alcohol and wallowed in his own despair, pushing her away. She didn't want to get dragged down with him, so she left him and tried to move on with her life. She threw herself into her career to numb the pain and succeeded admirably. When she returned to run CTU and saw Tony there, into the job, involved in the work, back to form, it must have been very painful for her. And so she used her power over him to express that anger.

I was glad that Michelle softened by the end of the episode, as I was starting to fear that the pure-hearted, empathetic character we had grown to know and love was lost forever, another casualty of both Tony's addiction and the ruthless, uncompromising world of Counter-Terrorism. She has a lot of reason to be angry with Tony and to resent him, but the glimmer of reconciliation is already there. Michelle only left Tony because he had turned into someone she no longer recognized. The man before her now is the man she fell in love with -- so what will she do with that? Michelle can front all she wants, wearing her high heeled and putting on her stone-cold bitch face, but underneath it all, she still loves him -- you can see it in her eyes.

I felt that the arc regarding Audrey's feelings for Jack and her subsequent discussion with Tony was extremely significant and really cut to the heart of what 24 has been saying all along about its protagonist -- some people ARE more comfortable in hell. When Audrey saw Jack torturing Paul, she saw the side of Jack that he tried to bury when he left CTU and went to work for DoD in DC. Perhaps Jack believed that side of himself was the root of all his misery, and maybe it was, but a man cannot change what he is. That is precisely why he had to hide it from Teri and Kim, and why Kim as his daughter was only able to reconcile and accept that dark and ruthless side of Jack with the loving father side by entering his world herself. I think ultimately, given all his experiences, the hell Jack has gone through in the name of protecting his country has given his life meaning. To turn his back on that would be to turn his back on his true nature, which is what Tony was getting at when he seemed doubtful Jack would return to drive a desk in DC after this day was over.

I just loved how Michelle unceremoniously fired Sarah. All the crappy CTU characters no one gives a damn about are being picked off, and not a moment too soon. Michelle doesn't have time to deal with Sarah's crap! Actually, I think Lana Parrilla is a wonderful actress and I will always have a special place in my heart for her as Teresa Ortiz on Boomtown, but let's face it, the character of Sarah Gavin was really not that interesting and I'm glad the writers booted her to make more room for Tony/Michelle action. I am hoping that this means both T & M will be there for the duration of the rest of the season.

Jack is on his way back to CTU now and I can't wait to see the CTU family of Jack, Tony and Michelle reunited!

OK, WTF did Marwan mean when he said "the President of the United States is on a tight schedule, we cannot be late"???!!!??? Could it be that Matt and I were entirely correct in the theory we tossed around weeks ago about Keeler being behind this whole thing? I'm starting to think we're not far off. If we are right about this, man...this season may just turn out to kick serious ass after all.

--posted by Kasia

Happy Holy Day to all. No new screencaps yet, but I have updated the Cast Spotted Log. More to come this week.

--posted by Kasia

All hail Almeida, I have finally managed to make some headway on the rest of the s3 screencaps, which have been hanging over my head like a black cloud for a couple of months now. Two more episodes, 3x13 and 3x14, have been posted in the Gallery.

I am planning on doing more episodes tomorrow, so stay tuned for updates.

--posted by Kasia

For the first time, I saw The L-Word, the Showtime lesbian drama broadcast on Showcase in Canada. One of the stars is none other than our Mandy (Mia Kirshner). She sure does make a great lesbian. Cast Spotted Log has been updated accordingly.

Not much else to report. I didn't manage to get any screencaps done yet, but I am on a mission this weekend.

--posted by Kasia

I am pleased to report that all major updates for all aired Season 4 episodes are complete! I worked like a crazy banshee, but Almeida Verbatim and Famous Last Words have both been brought up to date. I have also posted 2 overdue debriefs in 24 Mega-Fandom. I received bad news from Kat that Matt lost the debrief on episode 11 from when I was away. Ah well, we all must suffer losses.

I have also added 3 new products to our Store - a men's Grey t-shirt, AIG button pins and AIG fridge magnets.

This is just a quick update, but I am about to start working on some more episodes of s3 Tony screencaps. Thanks to all our loyal visitors for their patience.

--posted by Kasia

Woo Hoo! OK, I have managed to get Godlike Moments updated for episodes 9-12, 3PM-7PM, so that section is now completely up to date. I will hopefully have the quotes for Almeida Verbatim, as well as Famous Last Words, done by the end of the day.

Kat informs me that Matt has a saved transcript of a debrief for episode 11 while I was away, but I still have yet to make contact with Matt. When I do, debriefs will be updated accordingly.

How excited are you all that Michelle is back and we will once again have TMA to keep us warm at night? The smouldering looks! The sidelong glances! The painful subtext! 24 finally has meaning again. With all due respect to Alberta Watson, who is a fine actress and was a fine addition to this season's cast, BRING ON FHTMA!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so ready for it.

And how beautiful did Michelle look? It's just gonna make it all the more painful for Tony to see that she hasn't been letting herself drown in the suffering of their failed marriage. Nonetheless, you better believe that both of them are in exquisite pain and it's gonna make for some damn good TV viewing before their inevitable reconciliation and FHTMA Part Trois. This will be the best reunion in 24 history, dare I say better than the Jack/Nina reunion in s3. Michelle, how I love you!

The last two episodes also marked the return of Jon Cassar behind the lens, and it was worth the wait. No wonder they were so good. With these last two episodes, everything we loved about the show has been rejuvenated -- the subtle character work, the classic ongoing themes, the excitement and urgency. Oh Cassar, I bow before your genius. Just as Tony has come back to life, so has the greatest TV show in the history of the world, and not a moment too soon.

--posted by Kasia

Happy Holy Day to all! I am sad to report that I got no work done on the site over the weekend. Things were just too hectic trying to settle back in after 2 weeks abroad, plus I came down with a mild chest cold and ended up sleeping quite a bit. I am hoping to catch up on the 3 episodes tonight, even though it will mean skipping my workout at the gym. Ah well. I need to get caught up before I fall too far behind.

At any rate, Cast Spotted Log has been updated after I finished watching all my taped stuff. I hope to write again later tonight with major updates completed. This site will be back on track within the week, I promise.

--posted by Kasia

It is great to be home!!!! I REALLY missed this site while I was away and I hope all you Tony fans out there didn't feel too deprived without me for a couple of weeks worth of episodes.

After 2 weeks out of Canada in the UK, attending my grandfather's funeral and visiting with my family, I am finally home. Despite the fact that my trip was quite full and I was concentrating on family matters, 24 and Tony were on my mind constantly. Yesterday during my flights home, all I could think about was the two episodes of 24 I had timer-recorded while I was away that would be waiting for me when I got home. And how sweet they were.

Before I move on to the small amount of site updates I've had a chance to complete since I've been back, I'd love to share my thoughts on episodes 10&11, which I watched last night almost immediately after stepping in the door. Forget unpacking! Tony beckoned me. Though I did spend a couple of hours chatting with my boyfriend before I watched the episodes, because as much as I love Tony, Tony is still the #2 man in my life behind my boyfriend Brady. Anyway, I don't know what Matt and Kat have been up to while I was away, I'm not sure if they debriefed or what, as I haven't talked to either one of them yet. If not, then sadly there will be no official debriefs for these episodes, though I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion on them once I actually get a chance to talk to my partners in crime.

Hmm, where to begin. I'm afraid my comments on these two episodes might run together a bit and be a bit disjointed, because I watched them one after another and by the time I finished watching the second one, I had already been up for 21 hours, so I was somewhat delerious, but not too delerious to appreciate the awesomeness of Almeida.

It was so great when Jack introduces Tony to the new CTU field team on-site at the hospital where Navi is holding Behrooz hostage -- as AGENT Almeida, even though Tony isn't officially an agent. Tony has always been and will always be an agent, representing all that is pure about the agency, in our minds. It was great to see the character of Jack and the writers of the show throw in that little bit of gratification for the fans. Jack wants to ensure that everyone involved with this operation shows Tony the respect he deserves! It was just a small little moment, but it was a real payoff.

The scene where Jack tells Tony he can get him reinstated at CTU if Tony wants that ... WOW! When Jack says over the last few hours he has watched his friend come back to life, I started to choke up. Then he offers to get Tony reinstated, and asks if that's what Tony wants. Tony says he doesn't know. Jack says he guesses he was wrong, and starts to walk away, but stops to remind Tony how he saved the life of the daughter of the Secretary of Defense. When Tony calls out Jack's name and then says "Thanks..." with tears welling in his eyes and his voice all sticky in his throat, I was totally welling up myself. WOW! This scene was so profound on so many levels. First of all, despite the close friendship he's had with Jack and the trust they share, Tony has always resented and resisted every effort Jack has ever made to help him. In that moment, when Tony thanked Jack, for believing in him and for being his friend, Tony at last finally verbally acknowledged their bond and has I think finally let go of the chip on his shoulder and what Matt and I refer to as "protagonist envy." It was like he finally figured out that Jack's actions came from a personal committment not only to their friendship and history, but also to his belief in Tony's abilities as an Agent, and that Tony no longer had to prove himself. You could see Tony's revelation that Jack saved him from the life of addiction, misery and bitterness that Jack himself had so narrowly escaped five years before by coming back to CTU.

And believe it or not, I think that as an actor, that was Carlos Bernard's most emotional moment as the character of Tony Almeida, even more emotional than the scene when Tony finds out Michelle is not infected in Season 3. Not because Tony and Jack's brotherhood is more significant than Tony/Michelle being soulmates, and not because Tony feels more emotion for Jack than for Michelle, but because in that moment, Tony as a character glimpsed two roads: choosing life or choosing some kind of miserable imitation. And he had Jack to thank for opening his eyes to that and for bringing him back to life!

When Tony is interrogating Dina and tells her how he knows that if Behrooz went to prison, he'd want to committ suicide within 3 months, my heart just broke. I imagined what Tony went through in prison and how close he came to taking his own life. Jack and Palmer literally saved his life by getting him a pardon, and Thank Almeida for that!!!

Massive props to the fact that in episode 11, in the whole "previously on 24" bit, Tony was once again "the face of CTU". In a matter of 3 hours, he had gone from being a washed up alcoholic ex-con to the face of CTU once again. Awesome.

It was really awesome to see Jack and Tony working together in the field, but when Tony was back at CTU talking with Jack, holding down the fort while Jack was in the field, I couldn't help but think how it all felt like right and order had been restored to the chaos and aimlessness that was CTU during the first 8 episodes before Almeida's return.

Now that Tony has been reinstated to CTU, I CANNOT WAIT for Michelle's return. You totally know it is coming. And when it does, it will be so gutwrenching.

A few words on other aspects of the storyline. I enjoyed the whole Paul Raines thread. Paul seemed pretty useless at first and it was like "why is he even here" but the writers made that interesting, especially when the appearance of his involvement in Audrey's kidnapping turned out to be a red herring all along. Flip flop flip. A nice resolution to the Marianne Taylor storyline. Good riddance to her, and Curtis is finally useful.

Regarding the death of Erin Driscoll's daughter, although I always found that subplot somewhat useless, I am glad the writers found a way to incorporate it into the long-standing, multi-seasonal themes of the show, namely the eternal conflict between being committed to a high-stress, demanding job working for CTU and maintaining relationships outside of work. Maya dying just as Erin completed her mission and was about to take her daughter home and be with her continued the classic tragic tradition. So Bravo to the writers on that front.

All in all, I finally felt that with episode 10, s4 has finally gotten back on track, and I really hope there is no looking back from that. That was the first episode this season where I have really felt the old familiar adrenaline rush of watching 24. Thank Almeida for that.

I managed to get through a bit of the backlog of site updates in the last half a day, but I'm nowhere near finishing complete site updates of our regular features. However, I've processed the entire backlog of fanlistings membership applications, so all fanlistings are once again up to date. I added a couple of Cast Spotted Log entries. We also have a new affiliate: 24 Hour Bauer. I am now 3 episodes behind on our regular features and screencaps are a distant dream for right now, but I'll be working hard over the next week to get everything up to speed.

Blind Ambition: The Approved Ryan Chappelle Fanlisting has reached a membership milestone after hitting 50 registered fans.

I'm really glad to be home and glad to be back worshipping at the altar of Almeida.

--posted by Kasia