24: Day 3 - 10/28/03 - Hour 1 (1 Viewer)

[WillG]

Flashbacks would violate the "real-time" aspect of the show.

Ahh..we forget. Remember the closing minute if Season 1. There was a flashback there

 

[Thomas H G]

I bet those past events will be used against Jack in some way. Then we will either hear about or even get to see (I hope for the later) what happened during his undercover period.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

They have the most bizarre computer system. I don't see how anyone ever gets any work done. Michelle had to write her access code on a slip of paper so that Kim could do something; that's just nuts

This show has some of the worst computer gibberish. Oooh, they put all the data pertaining to Salazar on volume 1, how handy. All this directory talk that is still so vague, then people always "sending" something to someone's workstation. A lot of it doesn't make sense. That guy was so proud of "his" system, yet other users such as Kim, who obviously can't have much time in there, have permissions to remove his access? If he's the main sysadmin, as he seemed to be claiming, that wouldn't be happening. Even though he was going against Michelle's orders, Kim should be out of a job for violating the system security.

OK, so it's not really that important to the show, but still they use this stuff to heighten the drama at times, and it's just not believable. Plus the Kim aspect, three years from nanny to sysadmin with access to computer systems with top secret data, I just can't accept it. If they really felt the need to keep her in there they just should have made her a low-level clerk. That'd be more believable.

 

[Jim DiJoseph]

Everyone...it's the first show...and it's three years later!

There is plenty that can happen in the span of three years, but let's put this whole Kim "thing" to rest before it drags us up and down the same alley over and over again...

Kim did not exhibit any serious tech skills last night. She found a blatant security oversight (a lack of permissions pertaining to ownership) and showed up the head geek (before anyone gets offended, I'm one of those geeks too ). Her presence at CTU is also easily explained - her father! Are you kidding me? Jack saved the President in the first season and the entire city of L.A. in the second! Methinks he could find a way to get a job for his underqualified daughter. This also explains why her presence was resented by the lead tech.

Anyway, great episode - looking forward to 23 more!!!

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Methinks he could find a way to get a job for his underqualified daughter.

Fine make her the office girl or a receptionist, don't let her run wild on the computer systems, that's just stupid. If their sysadmins are that incompetent, then the terrorists don't have much to worry about because it'll be way to easy for them to track everything CTU does and plant false info in their databases.

 

[Will_B]

"Nobody believes it, but we planned less for Year Two than we did for Year One, and we've planned less for Year Three than for Year Two," Robert Cochran says. "Either we're getting good at flying by the seat of our pants or worse at planning things out."

--Robert Cochran, Exec Producer of 24


This may be why season two didn't complete a circle, and why some characters just seemed to pop in and pop out without any thought.

The reporter comments "By not mapping the entire season, producers also have exhausted major plot points, such as last year's nuclear explosion, earlier than planned...But 24's structure offers flexibility as well as restriction. With each season bringing a new story, characters can be added, dropped or brought back for surprise appearances."

The article says they've only figured the first 6 episodes of this season and they'll make the rest up later.

Doesn't bode well at all.

Read the whole article at:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...tinuity_x.htm.

and don't worry, there's no spoilers (except for past seasons).

 

[Matt Goddard]

Last night's premiere was certainly different from last year's but I thought it was immensely enjoyable nonetheless. 24 is still the best show on television.

If they really felt the need to keep her in there they just should have made her a low-level clerk. That'd be more believable.

I realize this is a complaint some viewers have and it seems that it is shared by her coworkers. Wasn't Kim told last night that everyone else earned their jobs but she got hers because of her daddy? As long as the plausability of Kim's working at CTU is questioned by the show itself, why should the audience get worked up over it? We're at home watching the TV, not a Senate investigating committee. Is it too much to give the writers a sliver of literary license and freedom? I'm willing to give the show a bit of slack to make things flow better.

BTW, I think Kim looked just fine last night - except when she was with Chase - and I liked the haircut.

As for tying up old plot points, I think it goes beyond the laws of physics for a 24-hour, real-time television show to conclude every single plot point within 24 hours. THAT would make the show horribly unrealistic. Don't worry, though, I'm sure the mountain lion got what was coming to him.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Wasn't Kim told last night that everyone else earned their jobs but she got hers because of her daddy?

But she was told that by a guy that hates Chloe for no real reason. Michelle actually had her doing real work, so she doesn't have a problem with Kim being there in that capacity.

My main problem with Kim is that in season 2 she had nothing to do with the plot except to add more stress to Jack. She's stupid, her story was stupid, and I'd say almost all the fans hated her. So why do they keep bringing her back? It's a well known fact Kim is hated, yet they just couldn't wrap up her story last year, they dragged it out until the end. I like just about everything else about the show, even the dropped story lines and characters, but Kim is just a nuissance. It does appear that she is merely there for eye-candy, and IMHO she doesn't succeed much in that area and it cheapens the show. Who cares if she's got a contract, she hurts the show and will more likely drive away viewers than bring them in.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Then don't even get me started on the whole Kim issues working at CTU now. She goes from being one of the dumbest to having the brain cells of someone with at least a Masters degree in computer science, give me a break!!!

Maybe she had a crayon removed from her brain.

 

[Will_B]

Doh!

 

[Brett Jason]

if you navigate to the 24 site at www.fox.com you can check out the backgrounds of the main characters. Kim's says she has an associates degree in Computer Science, and that she is a Level 1 analyst. I think the degree and the fact that her dad saved the free world was enough to get her the job.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

OK, so Kim's taken a handful of intro to programming courses and a couple of Calculus courses and she's an expert sysadmin/analyst? Right. It'd be a little more believable if she'd done MIS or CIS, not CS.

A computer scientist working for an agency like this will be working on encryption technology (with most likely a PhD) or some of the programs they use for some of the other background work. They're not going to be running searches on databases, or "refreshing" hard drives, or checking IDs. That's not why you have computer scientists. Granted some people with computer science degrees end up in more of an administration role, or at smaller organizations wear many hats, such as sysadmin and DB admin, but not at a place like that, not unless they had converted over to admin work in their career and had significant experience in that area. They'd have specialists doing the specialists jobs. And just because her dad saved the President, etc., doesn't mean they're going to give her an important job with signficant access to their systems.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I really like the actor who plays Salazar. He plays a good bad guy.

Yes, he's the Latin Phil Hartman.


I'm amazed how many people "know" that was heroin in the syringe. That's not the only thing that can be injected. I thought Jack had become a diabetic.


There's no point in even discussing the computer stuff. TV writers don't generally have technical backgrounds, nor does most of the audience. Notice how most computers in movies or TV are Macs, even though in real life there aren't that many in use? The writers have even said they make up the technical stuff (not just computer stuff) as they go along; they don't even check to see if something is technically possible. This is a fictional show, not a documentary. You might as well watch Star Trek & complain about faster-than-light travel being impossible.

Plus I got the idea that Kim was just using a computer, not programming it. I didn't hear anyone describe her as any type of scientist.

 

[Matt Stone]

lus I got the idea that Kim was just using a computer, not programming it. I didn't hear anyone describe her as any type of scientist.

Well if the website says she has a degree in Computer Science, than that would make her a Computer Scientist. (Note the words in BOLD).

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Flashbacks would violate the "real-time" aspect of the show.

But FLASHBACK is related to 24, via Keifer Sutherland and Dennis Hopper!

 

[Patrick Sun]

You can have a programming job with a computer science degree, not a big stretch to make that leap.

 

[Carlos Mendoza]

I'm amazed how many people "know" that was heroin in the syringe. That's not the only thing that can be injected. I thought Jack had become a diabetic.

I wondered about that, so I checked the website synopsis.
It's Heroin.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I'm amazed how many people "know" that was heroin in the syringe. That's not the only thing that can be injected. I thought Jack had become a diabetic.

Jack's behavior was not that of a diabetic suffering from a lack of insulin. Also, there were numerous references (by Chase and Salazar) to "what you had to do" to remain undercover with drug dealers for an extended period of time.

M.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

You can have a programming job with a computer science degree

That's what most computer scientists do. But that's not what they were doing. Programming is writing programs using a computer language. It's not running a search, or opening ports, or running computers in general. In my school we learned how to use the computers just to the extent of writing and compiling our programs. We learned the theory of how computers operate at a low level, but we didn't learn much about operating computers. It's two completely different fields.

 

[Dave_Brown]

OK, so Kim's taken a handful of intro to programming courses and a couple of Calculus courses and she's an expert sysadmin/analyst? Right. It'd be a little more believable if she'd done MIS or CIS, not CS.

Dude, you gotta lighten up. No where does it say she is an "expert" at anything.
And as far as your tirade about needing a PhD to work at an organization like that, you really don't have much of a clue, do you? I graduated HS and went straight into the military. After 16 months of training, with no college involved, I had my background check completed and was working on highly classified computer systems within the Department of Defense. So if she got an associates and a background check completed in 3 years, I have no doubt that would be able to make her a Level 1 analyst.

Staying with the vein of who worked there before her, I doubt that Paula (the girl killed in season 2) and Jamie (the mole who killed herself in season 1) had any more advanced education than what we are expected to believe Kim has. I would be surprised if Michelle, Tony or even those other two neurotic sys admins have much more than a 4 year degree, if that.