Alright, we're down to the season finale tonight! Someone down at ABC though needs to get fired for deciding to air the series finale to Alias directly opposite 24! For a serialized drama, I think Fox got it right by airing the entire season on the same night of the week nonstop with no repeats or preemptions. People I know who tried following Alias got frustrated by the repeats and schedule changes. I sort of followed Alias during the first season, but the narrative really got messed up when they decided to skip forward in the timeline.

Anyway, back to 24, the last few weeks have been quite interesting though a bit uneven at times (that whole plot thread with the recording and Miles somehow erasing it after Chloe had the device hooked up to her computer for at least five minutes comes dangerously close to a jump the shark moment).

I love how they've now setup the First Lady as one of many potential protagonists with an axe to grind with Prez Logan (or as Agent Pierce so eloquently spouted in perhaps the best moment of the season when he called President Logan, "Charles"!). And they've now got a lot of others on board as well, and everything leads up to the 7am departure of former President Palmer's funeral casket.

Just think of how many potential presidential assassins we now have on board -- Jack, Agent Pierce, Mike Novick, Martha Logan, Secretary Heller (if he manages to climb out of his hospital bed), Audrey Heller, and my personal dark horse for a surprise reappearance tonight, Wayne Palmer.

And I have a feeling that the identity of that mysterious group pulling Logan's strings will also hold some surprises -- like what if it turns out that this Graham character is in fact the Attorney General?

Despite some stumbles down the stretch, this has probably been the best season of 24 overall from end-to-end since Day Two. For one thing, the plot threads focusing on the White House have been far more interesting this season than any of the previous four. Having Logan as a shadowy character that could not be counted on to do the right thing, and then ultimately revealed as the villian was a brilliant decision. And I think Gregory Itzin absolutely should get an Emmy nomination for his role as Logan. As illogical as that plot twist with Logan could have been, Itzin made the character and that entire spectrum from spineless buffoon to duplicitous mastermind plausible.

In a way, Senator/President Palmer was an overly idealized character. You KNEW that he was a good guy, and you knew that he would always have Jack's back. But, that also made him less interesting and more predictable (constrast that with his ex-wife Sherry, who was a much murkier character). I read an article that described David Palmer as the president we wish we had, and Charles Logan as the nightmare president that we hope we never see.