This is 24's 'Razor'; their version of BSG's tide-us-over-until-the-new-sea son movie. I don't think it'll be real-time, rather along the lines of a more traditional plot. Here's hoping it works, since we need all hands on deck against the plague that is reality TV. I'ma watch it.

"Because I'm not under contract, everyone's been asking. I had a wonderful experience. I did take a job, doing the Disney movie When in Rome with Josh Duhamel, so I'll be in New York and Rome for 12 weeks. But (Heroes producers) said they'd wait to shoot my scenes. They've been so good to me, so I think we'll be a happy family again."

"*Had* a wonderful experience"; sounds like past tense to me. There isn't a sense of urgency in getting her back to the set. If the movie does take that long, she won't report to Heroes until June at the earliest. So either she gets there, films her scenes and that'll be it with an explanation along the lines of "we explored Elle's character as far as we could go, and we wish Kristen well in her future endeavors.", or Elle's in the main mix of season 3 to her eyeballs.

Carry on with more Jack Sack discussion, then.

Season 3 did get off to a shaky start - and, until season 6, the episode immediately after Jack getting to Mexico (where Chase joins him) is the dullest episode ever of 24. Nothing happens. They sit around and wait for an hour. But once They get Nina on a plane and back to CTU it all kicks off and has 12 hours of 24. Nina's interrogation by ex-lover Tony and her needle-jacking; Jack's revenge - "No you don't"; absolutely everything to do with the hotel, especially bad-ass Michelle having to shoot the guy trying to escape, the bomb going off in Gael's face; Tony and Michelle's goodbye on the phone; Saunders being an awesome villain; the helicopter attack on that office building; Chapelle being killed - still 24's finest hour (literally), the moment itself is just gut wrenching; Tony going bad to get Michelle back!; the episode where Tony and Jack do get Michelle back and the gunfight that ensues, followed by two F-18's flying in out of nowhere to blow up a helicoptor (the best action moment in 24 history); "When your daughter is infected I'm ging to make you watch her die"; Chase having his arm chopped off; Jack's emotional meltdown; Tony being taken away for treason. Plus it had Palmer's downfall, the introduction of Chloe (oh, you all love her now); the Salazars; Sylar as "wowman-hating" CTU tech Adam; Sherri meeting her end; Tony Todd as a detective; a helicoptor chase over LA...

Season 4 was nowhere near as good, although it set up a hell of a lot of good stuff for season 5 to use. Curtis, Heller (he was great in his own way and his return in season 5 was awesome); Buchannan; Audrey (rubbish in this season but good in season 5; and Jack's emotional connection to her provided a personal backbone for season 5: Logan, Mike and Walt Cummings, the Chinese plot that was ruined in season 6 but added an exciting boost to the end of this season and was a great starting point - and end point - of season 5... Plus the first few hours moved fast; Jack's one-man raid on the bunker holding the Hellers; Driscoll (I liked her, despite the schizo daughter); Tony's return (seriously still one of the best bits of 24 ever, go and rewatch it, listen to the music, the way he's revealed, "Jack?" "Tony?", still awesome) and his hilarious new lifestyle watching football and drinking beer out of his Cubs mug with his slut girlfriend hogging the phone); "Actually I'm currently unemployed"; Curtis breaking out of captivity; Marianne Taylor being blown up; Edgar trying to stop the nuclear meltdowns; the music (it's really, really good this season); Chloe blowing bad guys away; the saga of the Araz family - Behrooz clubbing his cousin to death with a spade, Navi beng pretty badass until it's clear he's Marwan's bitch, Dina being a great femme fatale in a show full of them; the blowing up of Air Force One that we all saw coming but the previews advertised as THE MOST SHOCKING EPISODE EVER and had to show it three times in a week to make sure you didn'tmiss it; the triumphant return of Nina; Michelle not caving in like Tony did; Curtis punching Mandy in the face; Palmer helping Logan and setting up his own demise; Cummings and Logan 'not' planning Jack's death. Still, Marwan was absolute rubbish and his plan-after=plan-after-plan brought the season down.

Season 5 was incredible from the get-go - the opening episode is still the best opener ever for the show. Palmer getting shot (with Sherri being the last word spoken to him, which is more painful than being shot in the neck); Michelle being blown up almost straight afterwards; Chloe on the run; Jack fidning Palmer's killer within the hour and shooting him without mercy; the airpost seige - "I'm in a flank two position!"; Sean Astin's character - completely annoying but entertaining with it; Jack turning up at the presidential retreat and threatening to cut Walt's eye out; Aaron being badass then ("Do something!" "I am doing something, sir!") and for the whole season; Logan having Walt killed; Yellow Tie Man being killed without build-up or regret by Julian Sands; Julian Sands in general who is brilliant in the whole season; the attack on the Russian President's limo - Aaron blowing that flame-thrower guy up!; Logan praying with Mike after sending his wife to her potential death to protect himself; Henderson trying to blow Jack up and Jack turning up at his house and shooting his wife in the kneecaps; the devestating attack on CTU - not just Edgar's death, the whole thing; the episode spent in lockdown with Sean Astin dying, Jack and Kim confronting each other (a harsh moment for the show, no happy reconciliation, just rejection and a good reason for it) and then the "come on, you know they meant to do it, it wasn't meant to be misleading" death of Tony!; Desmond from Lost as Theo Staller in The Case of the Exploding Memory Card; Julian Sands' attack on the gas plant ("I'm going to release an inert substance into your pipeline" - say what?); Jack torturing Audrey - tense and emotional; the whole gas plant going boom and Jack's hero shot running away!; the reveal of Logan!; the introduction of Hayes and that creepy dick she brought with her; CTU being folded into Homeland Security resulting in Buchanan, Chloe and Audrey teaming up; Logan's near suicide; Heller fucking it all up and confronting Logan only to be defeated by a phonceall at the last second; Wayne Palmer being a badass with Aaron; Aaron being tortured but saved by gun-toting Mrs Logan; Jack steering a passenger jet from the luggage deck before landing it on a stretch of highway; Logan ordering the plane to be shot down; the Bluetooth Group; the submarine confrontation with Julian Sands and Jack's final confrontation with Henderson; Mrs Logan distracting Logan with the shortest sex ever; Jack's confronttion with Logan ("Right here! Right now! You are going to face justice!"); Marth winning - and Mike and hers smirks at Logan; the final goodbye to logan; the final twist with Jack being taken by the Chinese. And the performances in the season - everyone at their absolute best, especially Sands, Weller, Itzen, Matha (sorry, it's late, I can't remember names) and Sutherland.

Season 1 had all good moments, listing them wold take too long. Season 6 had.. ell, it had tha moment where Jack mule-kicked a suicide bomber out of a train before he blew up, that was pretty cool I guess. (Apologies for all typing errors, it's pretty late here in the UK)

And, if they actually let him EAT or Piss, well, they use up 5% of the time right there (in case the story sucks as much as Season 6, and they need to include some filler and at least ONE element of realism)

I love 24, and hope they have reamed and re-tooled S6.

all together now: Dammit!!

He says Dammit a lot, and finally pulls an empty water bottle outta the Jack Sack, relieves himself right in the damn car, cuz he IS Jack Effin Bauer!

DANHK DUHNK DANHK DUHNK...

that will do for 2 hours....

24 is responsible for some of the single most exciting, exhausting, breathtaking hour-long episodes in history. Can you imagine a full 2 hours of that, without distracting and stupid side-stories and soap opera crap?

Bring it ON.