moon & sun & whisky

We’ve all seen the scene a million times: The impenetrable headquarters. The computerized security system with a fleet of guards watching a dozen screens. And then something happens. Maybe all the screens go out for a couple of seconds. Or maybe it’s just a weird glitch in the feed. We the audience know that someone has just hacked in and completely subverted the entire system. But the crack security leader looks at the monitors, grunts, and says “Well, it’s fixed itself.” And now the intruders — good guys or bad, depending on the movie — are free to romp through the site, while the monitors show empty hallways.

But on the first hour of 24 this season, there’s a scene in an air control tower where several of the controllers see a strange glitch in the system. The glitch itself is finished in a second or two — but one of the controllers actually calls his boss over to check it out. And when he can’t figure it out, he calls the FAA, who calls the FBI. Everyone along the line takes the situation seriously, and within minutes they discover a major security breach.

Now, given that this is the first hour of the new season, that discovery isn’t going to help the good guys a whole lot. But the simple fact that everyone in the scene acts responsibly and professionally and doesn’t ignore the “well, it’s fixed itself” security breach is enough to keep me watching gratefully through the rest of the season. I have no doubt that things will get absurd eventually — the show’s franchise essentially requires that – but I’m so happy to see Howard Gordon and his squadron of fellow EPs skip over this one hideous cliche, I’m willing to forgive almost anything.

Now if only they do a scene where Jack Bauer sets out to climb through an air vent and discovers it’s really only three inches wide…