The 24 watching crew and I have finished our marathon. Jack had us at “damn it” in that first episode of Season 1 in summer and we’ve stayed by his satchel-carrying, tight jeans-wearing side through to the finale of Season 6 tonight. It’s been a long and bumpy (and sometimes nauseous) ride and now we’ve made it to the end (so far). I feel a sense of accomplishment even if it means that I’m one step closer to defending the Patriot Act.

I was holding my breath until the last minute, when I promptly exhaled and muttered the title statement above. The stalled Season 7 better bring some excitement. I have hopes that they will inject (metaphorically and literally) some thrills, especially with the addition of Janeane Garofalo and Cherry Jones to the cast, as well as the prospect of the return of a dearly beloved character who shall remain nameless. All I’m saying is that a) they have to make up for that lackluster ending and b) I’m waiting for a seemingly inconceivable plot twist of Lazarus proportions, I’m waiting for that Chicago Cubs coffee mug to be sitting on a desk in CTU. Now if the Producers would only end this Writers Strike…

Friday Night Lights. The show is well written, well acted, and has an interesting and effective style. I have only one disc left of Season 5 for 24 and only the premiere for Season 6 is out on DVD. That means about a month of waiting for Jack and company. Luckily, I have found this show to fill that void. For those of you who have yet to watch Season 5 of 24, I will hold my commentary except to say prepare for heartbreak. 24 teaches the painful lesson of not getting too emotionally involved, especially with characters on television. It’s tough love and loss on 24.

Back to Friday Night Lights though. There are some great people behind the show, notably Creator Peter Berg (Writer/Actor/Director, he directed the film) and Head Writer/Executive Producer Jason Katims (former Producer/Writer on My So-Called Life), who made some bold choices, especially in the way that they choose to shoot the show. They shoot in Austin in real locations rather than on a stage in L.A. They shoot at least three cameras simultaneously at all times, documentary style. Little to no blocking or rehearsal is involved and actors are encouraged to improvise in both lines and performance. According to actor Kyle Chandler, Berg said, “The few rules to the game that we play are, you come to the set, you know your character 110 percent, you know the lines that are on the page 110 percent, and then be prepared to get rid of everything and start all over.” The lighting setups are minimal, which allow the actors more freedom to move where they want, there are no marks that they have to hit. The cinematographers looked to Direct Cinema pioneers like D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles for inspiration. The result is a very realistic looking and seeming show. The performances are more natural, and the cameras (because of the multiple camera setup) are free to capture subtle things like a hand fidgeting or a bored look. They can wander and capture these small nuanced moments that add depth and realism to the show and its characters. Apparently, they often shoot on long lenses to stay out of the actors’ way and to go more easily undetected.

The characters feel like real people, and for a cast of mostly unknowns, they’ve kept overacting and melodrama at bay. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, as the coach and his wife, are really talented and pull off one of the few believable representations of a husband and wife on television. You can tell that the producers and directors pay close attention to performance and are attuned to when a performance feels real or when it feels like acting. Also, I love Matt Saracen on the show, and the actor Zach Gilford is from Evanston.

Season 1 is out on DVD and you can also watch episodes on nbc.com.

The title of this post is a term I learned back in my undergraduate days at Michigan, taking television classes and watching a lot of The Cosby Show. It conjures up a pretty depressing image of a family huddling around the television like they would a fire in the olden days. All I have to say is the electronic hearth in my home is glowing bright.

I’m on a VERY brief hiatus from 24 (read: one day). Season 5 will be in the dvd player in mere hours, I have no doubt.

I also rented 30 Rock and am just about through with Disc 1. This show is hilarious! I love it and can’t say enough good things about it. I saw a few of the episodes during the season, but mostly out of context. Watching it straight through has given me a much better appreciation for the show and how funny it is. I love Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan. That combination couldn’t get much funnier. I know people love Alec Baldwin, but I have never been such a big fan. I know he’s a good actor and can be funny and all that, but I felt like I’ve never really gotten what all the fuss is about. I think this show has opened my eyes a bit. Not that I’m going to go back through his repertoire of films, but this role is perfect for him and he plays it so well. I watched the episode last night where he’s supposed to be in one of the sketches as a GE executive and his assistant plays back the tape of him trying to film the GE in company ad. So funny. I love how the tape of his bloopers just goes on and on. Normally on a show it would play for like 10-15 seconds, and I swear this goes on for about 2 minutes or so. Please re-watch this if you have the DVDs, also re-watch in the second episode when they have to re-shoot the promos for the newly re-titled TGS with Tracy Jordan. The show has such a great cast and the writing is so sharp and witty. I love how it doesn’t underestimate the intelligence of its audience. I also loved how when it won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series Tina Fey thanked the, “dozens and dozens of viewers.”

I also re-watched last 6 episodes of last season’s Grey’s Anatomy. I kind of lost touch and missed a few episodes last season, so when I did actually watch the season finale it didn’t make much sense. Now I sort of get it. It will be interesting to see where that show goes this next season. I’m kind of off and on with it, but I’m always interested and a supporter of Shonda Rhimes, T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl.

In all of this television madness, I have neglected Weeds – funny how the title kind of alludes to neglect as weeds sprout up in places that are neglected – that’s a stretch and off-topic. Anyway, I am too embarrassed to admit after all my excitement of the new season starting that I have only watched the series premiere! I know, I know. I will catch up. I have to, especially since Mary-Kate Olsen is on this season! I have watched the promo with her and she looks amazing. This is one of the best cast additions since Janeane Garofalo joined 24. Head to head, it would be hard to choose which takes the cake for best addition.

I have yet to check out Extras and The Wire, two television series that I have been meaning to rent but haven’t gotten around to yet. I’ve heard really good things about both of them. I watched some of Friday Night Lights during the season and it seemed pretty good. I’ll put that in my queue too.

And I haven’t even mentioned that new season premieres are just around the corner! The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, 30 Rock all start next Thursday night – and one hour episodes for the first four episodes of The Office (I think…I know the premiere is one hour). Plus, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new series and Private Practice, the Grey’s offshoot…might be good, might be bad. I also want to check out Gossip Girl, Josh Schwartz’s new series on the CW, just to see what it’s all about. And this is just all I can think of off the top of my head…I’m sure there’s more out there.

It’s a small screen revolution!

1. I’ve been using a new toothpaste and it’s awesome! It is Crest Natural Expressions Mint + Green Tea Extract.

2. Finished 24 Season 4. We’re on record pace. Season 5 is on its way. There is no stopping the 24 train. After catching up to the current season I plan to start again at Season 1 Disc 1 and keep a running tally of how many times the phrases “Dammit!” and “I understand” are uttered. What is it with “I understand”? I guess when you reach a certain level of government and power “yeah”, “sure”, “right”, and “got it” just don’t cut it. You don’t want to get your words minced when you are the defenders of the nation’s security.

Less than 18 hours to go. 3 episodes left. Obstacles: checking out school camera equipment, packing, shopping, eating, sleeping, correcting papers, reading the paper.

We’ve got 8 episodes left to finish Season 3. I leave for Wisconsin on Friday. Jamie and Erin leave for Minnesota on Saturday. Will we make it? The countdown begins. Cue dramatic clock ticking sound effects…

I wish I could get your gravelly voice out of my head. Erase the image of your unnaturally tan face and hair coiffed just so from my mind.

How is 24 so addicting? I just finished Season 1 Disc 2. My days feel like an accumulation of aimless hours spent waiting until the time that I can justifiably watch the next disc. I’m thanking Blockbuster for their convoluted policy of their online system which allows you to return a movie you got in the mail in-store, allowing you to pick up another dvd right then and there (great), but not allowing you to return that in-store movie for another in-store movie. In my opinion, you should be able to have 3 movies out at any given time, regardless of whether you got them in store or through the mail. Despite this minor frustration, it ends up being healthier for myself (and my siblings who seem to be addicted as I am) by restricting us (those who don’t want to pay) thus far to only 1 dvd of 24 per day.

My qualm with being so taken with this series, besides the fact that I can’t decide if it’s really good or not — and I don’t think I really care if it is good or not — it’s fast paced, it keeps you guessing, it gets your heart racing (especially with the suspenseful score and ticking clock – literally and aurally), it leaves you wanting more and keeps you enough in the dark to want to keep watching to find out what’s going to happen — anyway, back to my point in this epic and grammatically incorrect sentence (note: where are the options of footnotes when I want them? can you tell I’m reading DFW?) is that not only are there obvious moral issues of torture, human and civil rights being broken left and right and not following the due process of the law (especially in this age of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, etc…and I haven’t even gotten to the real torture scenes yet…I’m in the domestic age of the show) but also the co-creator Joel Surnow is what he himself refers to as a, “right-wing nut job.”

I read an article awhile back in the L.A. Times about a show he was developing for Fox News, titled, The Half Hour News Hour. It’s kind of like a Conservative version of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. I haven’t heard about it since then, but I’m not in the habit of watching Fox News either. Anyway, I came out of that article not being too fond of Surnow (despite the fact that he hails from Michigan). I had forgotten about his proud Conservative status until Laura reminded me yesterday. It is hard now at times not to view the show through that Conservative lens and it’s fairly easy to see things that would fit that worldview. Does this perhaps explain why North Hollywood is depicted as being one of the seediest places on Earth? However, I’ve tried to be objective, and there are things that could be seen as having a liberal slant. I’ve decided to try and not let this information ruin my enjoyment of the show. It does bring up an interesting point and/or minor moral issue. Should I really be supporting something that is made by someone I really, truly disagree with and whose politics may be infusing the show with the same laissez faire attitude towards human rights that some other hard-headed Republicans exhibit (e.g. those in the White House right now)? A show that, according to a very interesting New Yorker article, may actually be influencing those in real positions of power, such as those in the military, to use these same tactics of torture on suspects?

On the flipside, there are a number of very liberal people on the show as writers, directors and actors. So maybe it is more reflective of our country’s political attitudes than most shows. Or there is the argument that it is just entertainment; a show for thrills, for fun. It’s hard to argue that people would take it very seriously, especially given the outlandishness of the plots and drama (this guy’s day is really filled with that much excitement and serious life-threatening danger to himself, his family, and everyone he is close to? how would he not have a heart attack by hour 3?)…then again, George Bush is our President and he likely took his stance, attitude and some of his one liners from all those John Wayne movies he watched as a kid.

The real question is: Do I even have a choice to stop watching 24? Or rather, the will?