The second annoyance that I had with 24 this season was the story. It started out like something new – the modern-day African tribal wars where innocents are being murdered on a daily basis looked like it was going to be the basis of the new season. Then the story changed to domestic terrorism. The unifying theme, I guess, was that all terrorism is linked in one form or another.

Whatever.

A third, somewhat not-as-major annoyance with this season was the death of Bill Buchanan. In the grand scheme of things it was completely unnecessary. Poor writing.

It was fun, however, to watch Chloe O’Brian go head-to-head in random nerd-offs with Garofalo’s Janis Gold. That provided for some good television (or at least I thought so).

The whole kidnapping of Jack Bauer’s daughter, though – ehhh, I didn’t like how it played out on TV. Not sure why, but I just didn’t like it all that much. Sure, it was cool to see Bauer’s daughter bringing back some of her CTU training in the season finale, but it felt sort of crammed in there. The same goes for the Olivia Taylor storyline. Blech. Just boring television if you ask me. Well, the Olivia storyline wasn’t so much boring as it was repetitive. I mean how many times can a President’s daughter go through hell and high water to break the law and put her Mother’s administration in jeopardy in one 24 hour period, right?

I also have to comment on the Tony Almeida story which was only brought to full light in the last “hour” of the season. The idea that Tony was working all along to get a face-to-face meeting with the head of the underground crime syndicate which had caused so much havoc over the last few seasons just doesn’t hold up for this viewer. On top of that, having such a mediocre and convoluted plot for Tony’s character seemed, to me at least, to magnify the other holes in this season.

The season finale delivered on all of the fronts that 24 needs to deliver on, but when looking back at the entire season I can’t say that I’m overly pleased. Entertained? Sure, somewhat, I guess. If the next season carries on like this one did, I’ll be sure to save myself some time and stop watching midway through the show.

Fringe
This is the best new show of the season, bar none. The show is from J. J. Abrams (the guy who created Lost) and has a distinct “Lost” feel to it (more on that later). The use of John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop was a great casting decision. Noble plays the sometimes crazy, but always intelligent Dr. Bishop better than anyone else could. He has that unique range in his acting where he can be completely serious or an absolute nut job. Good casting.

What is less pleasing about the show is the interplay between Dr. Bishop and his son Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson. Peter Bishop is supposed to be this low-level playboy turned into entrepreneur turned into businessman or something. His character is supposed to have an air of arrogance about him and Jackson does a good job of bringing that out in his acting. But the writers have Peter constantly annoyed and aggravated at his father and it gets very old, very quick. In fact, I think it got old around the second or third episode.

Anna Torv is Agent Olivia Dunham, a member of the FBI who is charged with investigating events that may be part of “The Pattern.” Sound cryptic yet? Thank you, Mr. Abrams, for bringing some of your Lost thoughts over to Fringe! But that’s part of the problem with this show. And this is definitely an unfair statement, but knowing that J. J. Abrams is behind this show is scary because Abrams has a history of leaving shows and projects half finished. Case in point – Lost. As soon as he left Lost, it began to go downhill. I hope he sticks with Fringe because if he leaves, then this complex show might be doomed.

For now, though, I recommend checking out Fringe or at least DVR’ing it for future viewing. Oh, and BIG kudos go out to the FOX team for bringing us this show with limited commercial interruptions. As the show cuts to commercial, the viewers are told “Fringe will return in __ seconds.” The blank space is either 60 or 90. Imagine that – a great television show with limited commercial interruptions!

House
If Fringe is the best new show on television, the House has to be the best returning show on television. Since I started watching this show last year I’ve been hooked. It’s awesome! So far this season Dr. House, played by Hugh Laurie, has had to face his step father’s death and almost losing his best friend Dr. Wilson. The writers for this show are doing a great job of pushing along the basic storyline of Dr. House being a complete asshole to his co-workers and his patients, yet maintaining a certain air of super intelligence and coolness while doing so.

The latest episode saw “Thirteen” getting fired and rehired by House (and some explicit, yet enjoyable, scenes of Thirteen hooking up with another lady). The games that House plays with his employees and co-workers has been given a nice kick in the ass this season by the introduction of Lucas Douglas (played by Michael Weston) – a private investigator hired by House to spy on everyone.

Douglas does a good job of matching wits with House in the early episodes of this season. He and House become friends and Douglas becomes the doctor’s “on-call” personal investigator. The interaction between the two is fun to watch because it is written very much like a big brother/little brother relationship.

If you haven’t yet gotten hooked on House, then now would be a good time to start. This show is great!

Even more television reviews coming soon!