I finally finished up season six of 24. Compared to the previous seasons, this one was definitely a stinker, but I kind of “embraced the suck” and soldiered through to the end. I did like Powers Boothe as a villainous war-mongering veep, and the season had a few redeeming moments. Even though it’s not terribly good, it’s hard not to be impressed with how much it manages to juggle in the course of a long season; writing and producing this show must be a logistical nightmare. Kind of remarkable it has lasted so long with such a demanding formula.
I’ve since moved on to season seven of MI-5. I’m just a couple episodes in, but the season opener was great and very hard-hitting. On the whole, this is probably the best spy series of all time, for me. If there’s a series I’m really looking forward to re-watching down the road, it’s this one (and The Wire, of course).
I also caught a couple of impressive pilots, two more shows to fall behind on. The Elmore Leonard adaptation Justified, a modern-day western about a U.S. Marshal in Kentucky, opened pretty impressively, with Timothy Olyphant bringing his Deadwood intensity into the present day. It didn’t entirely hook me, but I found it very well done.
And Party Down, which boasts early creative direction from Paul Rudd and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, is a quick, snappy comedy of awkward situations, about a Hollywood catering company populated by frustrated creatives. A great, funny cast so far; I particularly like Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, and Jane Lynch in this. Really, I should be resisting new shows — there’s only so much time in the day! But I might have to check out a few more of these two.
