24: The Longest Dead Series Discussion of Our Lives – Season Two

“DOING IT ALL FOR THE NUKE-IE”

24 is a groundbreaking and important television series. Beyond the thrills, kills, twists and tragedies is a show that reached a new level of serialized storytelling and set the bar for action and suspense on network television. Lasting for 8 full seasons–192 Episodes plus a TV movie–24 is one of the longest-running shows of the past 15 years. Others, like Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Smallville, all three CSIs and three of four Law & Orders, may have run longer, but the argument can be made that none of those shows are equally as worthy of contributing to the debatably labeled and vaguely-defined “Third Golden Age of Television Drama” that began with The Sopranos in 1999 and is now fading with the end of Breaking Bad and the impending finale of Mad Men. Perhaps 24 doesn’t quite reach the dramatic heights of those shows, or others like The Wire and Deadwood, or even The Shield, Lost or Battlestar Galactica, but it was always a strong awards and ratings contender and it was just so addicting and fun to watch.

Please join us—Patches, Zach, Jeff and MegaMix—as we take a look back at this series, discussing one season every month until the premiere of the new 12-episode miniseries 24: Live Another Day in May 2014.

This month’s discussion is focused on Season 2 of 24, which premiered in October of 2002.

It contains SPOILERS for the entire series of 24 and strong language. Parental discretion is advised.

Gravity

Let me begin by saying, if you haven’t seen Gravity, you should just go out and see it. If you have the opportunity to see it in IMAX 3-D, take it. If not, see it on the biggest screen you can. THEN come back and read this.

SPOILERS ABOUND!

I thought about subtitling this post “Murphy’s Law in Space.” That’s really kind of what this movie is.

Washington, NC: Homeland Visits Raleigh for its Third Season Premiere

The third season of Showtime’s award-winning series Homeland premiered on September 29. I sat down to watch the episode with Beth and about 15 minutes in I was struck by a strange sense of familiarity. No, it wasn’t the infamous Claire Danes “Cry Face” or the comforting bushiness of Saul “The Bear” Berenson’s beard. Instead, it was the scenery. For a show set in Washington, DC, one would expect the landmarks to be at least somewhat familiar. However, the monuments and locations I was seeing were not DC related. Homeland had decided to come to Raleigh.

It may not be common knowledge, but Homeland films on location in and around Charlotte, NC, which is a suitable (and less busy) stand-in for Washington, DC and the surrounding area. For the premiere, it appears the crew opted to let North Carolina’s capital stand in for the nation’s.

Since I work in downtown Raleigh, I decided to investigate the locations used by the series (I think they probably shot this episode while I was away for the summer). Below are my attempts to match up some shots from the show with the real-life sites. Obviously, this is probably way more exciting for me than it is for any of you, especially if you have never been to Raleigh, or if you have had another TV series or movie filmed in your town. This was fun, though, so back off! There are no major SPOILERS for the episode, but there are some screen shots and vague descriptions from the episode below.