Surfing Through "24"

Quote of the Day -- Bad guy Peter Weller defending his actions during a shoot-out.

Weller: I was protecting the integrity of our government.
Jack Bauer: Our government HAS no integrity!

They haven't missed a beat yet. Usually, "24" sags a tad in the middle but that hasn't happened this season and since the minutes are ticking away, I don't think it will. For all the explosions and shouting, the best scene of the show was when the President was confronted by an adviser about calling off CTU when it was about to capture Jack Bauer and claiming to call in the military when no such order was given. Their tense battle of wills as the President (who ain't so dumb) grasped at plausible explanations that the adviser shot down with careful circumspection was gripping. Stephen Spinella is wonderfully nasty as a mindless drone ("The President can do whatever he wants") who is clever in his slavish devotion. I loved it when Chloe said to him, "I don't think you're as big a jerk as you pretend to be." And while the actress who plays Chloe has about two expressions (annoyed and VERY annoyed) her character is great. Watching her slip out of custody was a hoot and when she picked up a laptop computer on her way out of CTU, it was like watching Dirty Harry grab a gun: when she can get a wireless connection to the internet, this girl is locked and loaded. My only complaint is about a terrible music cue that popped up two weeks ago during action scenes that they keep reprising; it's incredibly cheesy and sounds like an outtake from a spaghetti western.