The Act is Up, Err, Down.

If you watched this week's episode of 24, then you witnessed one of this season's worst acted hours.

Here's some reasons why:

• "I wasn't prepared to have all this thrust upon me so suddenly." God forbid something happen to a President and YOU have to step in Mr. VICE President. That IS what you signed up for, right?
• "Do we take that literally? That he'll set off the warhead before dawn?"
  "We have to look at the worst case scenario. What time is sunrise on the East Coast?"
  "7:02. Less than two hours from now."
  Actually, you have to look at ALL scenarios... and yes, you should take him literally.
• "Mr. Lee expected suspicion to fall on him. He says there's been a mistake, he has no connections to terrorists."
  WHAT? Either this guy is a huge paranoid freak or, hmmm, he's guilty. This goes right along with last week's "I have nothing to hide" quote. Great writing.
• "I'm calling for Tony Almeda. Who's this?"
  "This is Michelle Dessler, a colleague of his. May I ask who's calling?"
  "The woman who he happens to be living with. Is he there?"
  Give the girl a break about being rude, she was looking for Tony allllll day. How about trying his cell phone next time? Besides, it's 2:30 am, and just how did you get a direct line to someone inside CTU?
• "I hope I'm not some kind of psychopath." Too late, Chloe.
• "Mr. President, we've just seen a tape recorded by Habib Marwan. On it, he says, quote, 'we'll be waking up to a different world.' We can't be sure what that means, but it may indicate that the warhead will be detonated before dawn on the East Coast."
  He's got a freakin' nuke! What else could it meam!?!
• "For them that's moving pretty fast. For us, that's not moving fast enough."
  "*sigh, What do we do?"
  I don't know for sure... but you're the damn government, I'd stop slouching on a couch all Charlie Brown-like. Thirty minutes ago you were all about knowing what to do in getting Palmer in there. Did you just become stupid when he walked in the door?

Jack's Secret Mission Position:

• More satellite zaniness... real-time infrared imaging... inside a building... with multiple stories... and the ability to color-code bad guys (Chinese, who were red, how coy) and good guys. But, you still can't track a damn nuclear weapon in some of America's smallest mountains on its way to "Jefferson City, Iowa," can you?
• If no one at CTU is supposed to know about what Jack is doing, then why is Tony yelling everything to Jack? It's dead silent in CTU, one might think to be a little more quiet on such a secret mission.
• Why in the hell were the Chinese soldiers shooting at Jack? Oh, that's right, if they "accidentally" shoot Lee, this gets even more interesting.
• Stop being pissed at Tony and Jack. Haven't you noticed for the past three years that it's Jack's way or America explodes?
• I've figured out how the time-warp of Los Angeles works. If the camera is in the car with them, it takes forever. When the camera is somewhere else, they can teleport.
• Jack, his lungs are filling up with fluid, don't give him CPR, you're just going to break his ribs. Wait! That's a great idea! Break a rib and puncture the lung to allow the fluid to drain out. You ARE a genius!

Tidbits:

• This is how the communication chain works at CTU. Doctors who need to get a hold of Jack call his cell phone. Directors of CTU, or whatever the hell he is, must track him down wherever he is in the building.
• Good continuity from last season where Palmer is still wearing that weird bracelet thing. Though, they never told us what it does for him.
• I'm not quite sure I'm believing the "messed up tape" deal. First off, the camera didn't bust while the tape was filming, they recovered the tape by itself. Secondly, an explosion is either going to blow the whole damn thing up OR blast in in half. This tape they had was in one piece. Third, the explosion would've had to have been able gotten inside the tape to do that kind of damage to the film... and if the explosion would've gotten inside the film, I think it would be one giant clump of tape goo by now. So, what you watched was an After Effects filter and some keen editing. And if they only recovered SOME of the recording... what in the hell was on that tape? We saw everything Marwan said when he recorded it. My bet, porn.
• Homeland Security still uses fax machines to communicate with CTU. Why?