The 24 9 p.m. – 10 p.m. live blog experiment

So since Amanda is out on the Social Media Week town, I’m going to try my hand at my own 24 live-blog. First, I have to dinner though. So I’ll pick up 24’s Golden Hour — when the real time matches 24 time — in a few minutes. Stay tuned.

Previously on the Renee Show…

I really hope the CTU Agent Starbuck storyline gets wrapped up or further developed this week. I’m so tired of it.

The following takes place between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m…. Yes. Yes, it does.

9:04 p.m.: Bubba is the worst CTU head. He’s clueless. How did these folks get jobs this year? It’s a bad economy; CTU applications should be way up.

9:06 p.m.: Breaking into a police locker to get your former boyfriend $120,000? Sounds like a great move for the future of your career, Starbuck.

9:09 p.m.: Watching Jack listen to Renee is not exactly the old Jack Bauer I had in mind before this season started.

9:10 p.m.: 12th and Market St.? Are we are in New York or somewhere else? Geography, people, geography!

9:11 p.m.: Lot of potential action at around 9:40. Starbuck’s going to meet her ex-con boyfriend, and Jack will be arriving to buy uranium from the Russians.

Commercial Musings: Who’s more desperate for movie work: Tracy Morgan or Bruce Willis?…

9:16 p.m.: Sark is going to perform a one-man bone marrow transplant. Let’s see it.

9:17 p.m.: Jack Bauer is probably the prime candidate for a iPad. Imagine not needing a laptop hooked up to a satellite internet feed while in the field. Secret agent extraction? There’s an app for that.

9:20 p.m.: I’m starting to suspect that 24 Season 9 will focus around Renee. She’s become a more intriguing character than Jack. Although, talking a shower in the lair of the guy who tried to rape you a few years ago — maybe not the best idea.

9:22 p.m.: So their plan is to meet with the “buyer,” kill him and kidnap Renee? For a bunch of Russian mobsters, that’s a plan more worth of CTU Head Bubba Hunch than the 24 baddies.

Commercial Musings #2: Since I’m sure you’re all wondering, this Rotisserie chicken from La Taqueria is really hitting the spot. The marinade is fantastic, and the meat’s really moist. Anyway….

9:26 p.m.: Clearly Madam President didn’t watch how President Slumdog Millionaire dealt with his game show contestants. Who’s surprised by these human rights violations?

9:29 p.m.: Arrest her! Arrest her! Arrest her! “It’s next on my list after robbing evidence holding cell. I’ll clear up your hard drive space after that.”

9:30 p.m.: Nerd fight! Chloe and the guy staring at her ass are totally going to get into it soon.

9:32 p.m.: Now would be a great time for the CTU swat team to arrested White Trash Boyfriend. He’s right outside the front door.

9:33 p.m.: Uh, oh. It’s Week 2 of 24: SVU. I really hope this ends OK for Renee.

9:37 p.m.: This is a very dark side of 24. Very dark.

9:39 p.m.: Great for the peace process — arresting the guy trying to placate the British ambassador to the U.N. President Slumdog is not winning any genius awards anytime soon.

9:41 p.m.: It would be quite a twist if the other country’s president were disposed of instead of the U.S. president. 24 goes through more U.S. presidents than CTU heads, it seems.

9:42 p.m.: I would have guessed that Sark was going to kill the doctor, not this other guy who somehow managed to find them amidst the doctors in New York. HIPAA violation!

9:44 p.m.: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! THOSE GLASSES!!!! WOW. Jack Bauer is the talented Mr. Ripley.

9:46 p.m.: So all you have to become German is don some thick-framed glasses. Good to know.

Commercial Musings #3: So..sick…of Howie Long’s cop hair. Enough.

9:53 p.m.: I hope Renee kills Vlad in the most painful possible way. She definitely has it in her.

9:55 p.m.: Jack Ripley better have a good trick up his sleeve….And it’s Freddie Prinze, Jr., the sharpshooter.

9:55 p.m.: Hey-o! We get a Jack Bauer “NOW!” just under the 10 p.m. wire. Everyone drink.

9:56 p.m.: Please do not end this hour with the Starbuck story. Please do not end this hour with the Starbuck story. Please do not end this hour with the Starbuck story.

9:59 p.m.: Yup. I didn’t expect Sark to get shot their either. Obvious “twist” ending. Anyone want to bet that Sark turns on Dad now?

10:00 p.m.: Short hour. Three minutes of “Previously on 24″ and three minutes before 10 p.m. That’s a wrap though. With Starbuck’s White Trash ex on the way to rob an evidence warehouse and Jack on his way to rescue Renee, next week should be an action-packed episode after two weeks of exposition.

Episode Recap
Dammit’s: 0
We’re running out of time: 0
NOW!: 1
Deaths: 6

Musings on The Shield’s Series Finale

If you’re a fan of The Shield and you haven’t watched the finale yet, what are you waiting for? stop reading now. There are some spoilers here. This is the post I wrote for The Shield Rap message board. The board’s moving hot and heavy so it’s getting buried.

I’m always intrigued about how the fans view the endings. I love how we can all come together to discuss it on message boards, but I think it also leads the fans to over-imagine how they would have done it.

Sure, we collectively may have wrapped things up better in our minds by answering more questions. But in the end, these series just have to end. They don’t have to answer everything; they don’t have to resolve every outstanding storyline. They end when their creators run out of story to tell. Sometimes, these shows don’t when to end. I think this one did.

I can see why people might not like it. In a way, the ending leaves things open ended, but it doesn’t leave it open-ended the way The Sopranos did. It leaves it open ended because, depending upon your view of justice, Vic didn’t get his. He’s alive. He’s got a job. He’s safe. In three years — the same amount of time it took to kill Terry, rob the Armenian mob, cover it up, deal with Antwon, track down Lem’s killer and dispense with Cruz Pezuela — he’ll be back on the streets. Considering all the sh*t he and Strike Team did, is that justice?

But the other side of that is the “major thing,” according to Shawn Ryan, that we learned last week, and that was Vic’s undying devotion to his family. It was never about the Strike Team or Lem or Ronnie or Shane. It was about family, and in the end, Vic’s family was gone. His gun was gone. He has to wear a suit and write reports, something he never could manage while working under Aceveda. So that’s his justice.

Does every detail about what happens next matter, I ask, in all seriousness? Ronnie won’t get offed in jail. He’ll find up in some solitary cell in protection with no life. Dutch will get Lloyd. Claudette will die. Aceveda will be the mayor. And Vic will be stuck knowing that what he did ruined everyone’s life including his. The road to justice is twisted indeed.