I noted that in the final scene, Jack all but said goodbye forever to Needle Nose. Perhaps he’ll be able to pick up with Marilyn and Josh…

The high point, as usual, was reading the reviews each Tuesday. I will miss those, but I’ll probably read one or two during the “off season” to keep in practice…

Thanks for your efforts the whole season! I read your dispatches (and your blog) every Tuesday with much anticipation and eagerness. I look forward to reading here next season.

As this was only my second season watching the show, I do not have the full history of six seasons for evaluation. Admittedly, I am a bit stubborn to admit that this season was not up to par. Last year was better. I still thought Season Six was great.

Differing with you and many others, I do not believe that the show “jumped the shark” this year. I agree that the nuke explosion is hard to top and quite over the top — but not over the top of a shark Perhaps, exploding the nuke in sparsely inhabited California or Nevada desert area (as the Veep wanted to do in the Middle-East), as a preliminary attack to show Fayed’s capabilities, might have served the show better. The business-as-usual atmosphere in LA in the hours after a nuke explosion 20 miles away seemed odd. Maybe I am too picky.

I thought Powers Boothe was perfect as VP Daniels. I certainly hope he is back next season as President. Perhaps a plot with a military coup in the face of the nuke and new terrorist threats has Jack back to work with Daniels to restore our democracy.

Thanks again!

Rick your 24 threads are always good to read afterwards.

I’m thinking next season will start off 9 months later,,,Chloe will be having problems and Jack will show up to deliver the baby!!

One thing that I wonder about,,did President Logan die? I guess they left that one hanging too.

All in all, a so-so season, probably tied with 3 for the weakest.

By the way, has anyone else seen _Sleeper Cell_ on Showtime? I first saw it over Christmas, and at the time I thought it was just a mini-series but it was in fact the *second* season of it. I just finished watching the first on DVD, and it was also pretty strong. It has a lot of the elements that first hooked us on _24_: tight timelines, opting for suspecse and tension over explosions (but not lacking in the latter either), and interesting personal subplots. Granted, it has some requesite invocation of Coleridge’s “willing suspension of disbelief”: For example, the cell hijacks a big rig and has the driver place bogus calls to the dispatcher when any trucking line worth its salt nowadays (especially hauling dangerous gases post-9/11) tracks its rigs via GPS (the white ellipsoid blobs seen attached to the cabs), but for the sake of timelines it is fine. Most interesting is that it is from the perspective of a main character who infiltrates the cell and has mixed passions involved –probably more motivated by the desire to root out terrorists who defile his faith, Islam, than by loyalty to America. The politics in it are also subdued, as it looks more at the personal level (How much does Darwyn sympathize with the cell members? Is his ambivalence toward the American Dream –as a Black Muslim ex-con– an irrevocable weakness? How much does he hunger for a “normal” life like Jack Bauer?); indeed, only brief scenes take place in Washington, and no silliness from the past couple of years of _24_ has arisen on that front.

Interestingly, due to the structure and perspective of the show, more of the main characters are in fact terrorists than terrorist hunters. It is also a shorter, _Sopranos_-length season which keeps things tight. I am glad I watched it on DVD, because like _24_ each episode made me hungry for the next.

Others may disagree about comparability with _24_, but I offer it as a suggestion if you have not seen it yet and want to get a substitute now that the Day 6 is over!

Still, could be that many senior CTU folks have military experience (i think that was true of the guy who flew the atom bomb into the desert several years ago).

I knew Chloe was pregnant the instant Morris came into her sickroom the second time. Maybe it’s a chick thing.

I will miss your Tuesday morning updates. Can’t you just keep going by making stuff up about what escapades Jack is up to in hours 25, 26, 27, etc?

I predict next season Jack and the gang will be more rogue, i.e. special contractors hired by the government to do things the government can’t legally do. Kind of like the Impossible Mission Force without the glamor of Barbara Bain. And Chloe no doubt will be paying alot of overtime daycare costs.

Anyway, good job Rick! I look forward to next season!