Getting MINIed.

So I totally got MINIed the other day. I was on my way to work, cruising on a three-lane highway in the center lane and I noticed a silver Cooper S just behind me on left. It eventually caught up to me and we more or less were driving together for a little while.

A couple minutes later, I caught a glimpse of a yellow Cooper with a checkerboard roof in my rearview. He was hauling up the lane on my right. As he was gunning it, I had this notion that he may have spotted us and wanted to catch up. Sure enough, I was right.

The yellow Cooper caught up to us and all of the sudden there were three MINIs—right in a line. I got a nod from the guy on the right and, as if I were brainwashed by the MINI brigade or something, I gave a nod to the dude on the left. (Man, I’m such a dork.)

As we were all lined up there in a row, not letting a soul pass, naturally our speed began to increase. I’ll admit, it was actually kinda fun. What’s interesting is this; I’m coming off of a fairly rare car. And now driving a car where obviously I can meet up with several versions of it on a single commute to work—yet I still feel very much like an individual in it.

On the way home today I spotted my own MINIing moment. I saw a brand new grey Cooper S ahead of me and I saw a blue Cooper behind me. I caught up to the new Cooper S and took my position. Then we waited for the blue Cooper to catch up to us. We waited and waited. But that 3rd MINI never clued in! Oh well, I guess you need have gotten MINIed to know how to give a good MINIing.

Within The Hour.

Remember back at the beginning of the year when I named 24 as my Number 1 show of 2006. I can honestly say that it was. Every episode was cleverly written, action-packed, and wrapped with a big fat jaw-dropper of an ending. It was like a roller coaster ride except the entire ride felt like that moment when you just begin going downhill and start screaming. It was awesome.

Now if that endorsement for some reason enticed anyone out there to start watching this season of 24, I give you my utmost apologies. This season has royally sucked. It’s been a disaster. I’m talkin’ worse than the season when Kim got stuck in a bear trap, stalked by a cougar, and trapped in a psycho’s bomb shelter all within a 20 minute time span. Seriously, this season has literally been worse than that.

I usually tout myself as a viewer who can typically do a pretty good job of suspending my disbelief. But for some reason, I can’t this time around. Here’s what I think is wrong: too much crap is happening to random people, well maybe not more than previous seasons but the intensity of the crap is too extreme. Nearly every member of CTU and the White House staff has been beat up, tortured, shot, and/or drilled. Yes, drilled. Then within one episode, they’re up and at ‘em again—way more so than previous seasons.

Here’s the thing, I DON’T CARE. If the person who’s getting beat up, tortured, shot, and/or drilled isn’t Jack or at least someone very important to Jack, then seriously, I DON’T CARE.

And it’s pretty obvious that this season’s writing has been left to the interns. I swear if I hear the phrase “Within the hour” one more time, I will refuse to watch next season. Yeah, we get it, the show’s in real time, you don’t have to constantly remind us that something is going to happen sometime during the course of an hour long episode—that’s why we are watching.

Bottom line, 24 is about one thing and one thing only: Jack Freaking Bauer. That’s why we watch and that’s what made last season so successful, it was all about him. There have been some eps this season where he’s gotten 5 mins of screen time tops, which is a joke. Honestly, the only redeeming thing about this season has been the introduction of Brother Schroder’s character, Mike Doyle. And seriously, is it just me or is he still sporting the Silver Spoons hair cut?