24 Season 1

According to Wiki, 24 is “an American conspiracy thriller television series”. But it is much more than that. It is not merely a television series; it became a way of life for 24 episodes a year over the last nine years (nine years, eight seasons, thanks writer’s strike!). Whole years of TV viewing were based around the broadcast schedule of 24. Things would be put aside. Life was placed on hold. Friends told to fuck off. Phones taken off the hook. Nothing was allowed to prevent the experience – until now. After nine years of the most enjoyable TV of my life, 24 has come to an end. In reality, it was the only thing that could stop it. Now it is all over.

There are so many things about 24 that will remain with me; the characters, events and stories. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to mention some memorable characters from 24 you may need to be prepared to pull the trigger. Every character served a purpose, had intentions and emotions.

24 Season 2

President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) was a character of such strength that at times he nearly stole the show. His character was so honourable and respectable despite the evils he was forced to face. Haysbert played him with a strength of character, will and honour that would lead me to vote for him without a second’s thought.

As Palmer became president and presided in that capacity for the first few seasons, he was always a constant. Whilst the shit hit the fan and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland’s best work) and his Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) buddies had to save the day, Palmer remained a constant. Whilst he was not always solid in his conviction, he always made the right decisions; the right calls were made when he was put in a fucking horrible position. Some of Jack’s CTU buddies would change from season to season. The amount of people running the CTU offices changed a lot, but a few stand out.

24 Season 3

George Mason (Xander Berkley) started off as an annoying weasel-y boss that kept the book in between Jack and saving the world. It was great to see such a by-the-book guy transformed into a national (international?) hero. Following on from Mason were many other people stepping into the director of CTU chair. Some died, some were fired and all had to deal with JACK FUCKING BAUER.

Another guy that had a similar start but redemption was swift and rewarding was Bill Buchanan (James Morrison). Whereas Mason had a slow burning redemption path, Bill rode the way to redeeming his officialdom attitude with a clever mix of protocols and presence. Another hero for us all. And who could forget Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower from Transformers – cut the hard lines!!!). He would take a bullet for the president – regardless of who it was – and then put that bullet in his gun and shoot himself again just to make sure it didn’t hit the main man.

24 Season 4

CTU was full of interesting characters. Some were tought bastards (never as much as Jack) such as Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), Curtis Manning, Chase Edmunds and Cole Ortiz. The only one of those I just mentioned that was coo was Tony, but more on him later. Its kinda funny because Jack actually kills Curtis and cuts Chase’s hand off. From memory Chase was putting one in Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert SCHWING!), Jack’s big-breasted blonde daughter. The fact that she ended up at CTU was hilarious and Chase chose the wrong hairy cave to explore cause Jack was not happy! Speaking of girls, Jack certainly had his share after season one. Moving on from the tragic death of his wife, Jack managed to get his end into quite a few birds. The most recent couple of seasons he had been getting the leg over Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) an FBI agent with big cans, freckles, a huge forehead (we are soul mates!) and red hair. Still give her one I reckons.

24 Season 5

24 had some strong female characters as well, such as the aforementiond Renee. Kim ended up being a bit stronger. President Taylor was a strong woman however she didn’t have the strength of character of David Palmer. The most important female character in the whole show was Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Chloe, much like the other secondary characters, almost stole the show from Jack. Chloe would have to be the second main star. She started off on Jack’s bad side, however she ended up becoming the most important person in Jack’s life on so many occasions.

Chloe had an attitude that was just hilarious. She was never content with being told what to do when she knew that the ‘boss’ was being a dickhead and this invariably meant she was doing things for Jack on the down-low. The amount of times Jack had to call Chloe and say “Chloe its Jack. I need you to upload that to my PDA. But there is a mole in CTU” would be huge. So awesome.

24 Season 6

And Chloe would make us all laugh when she looked disgruntled and upset with the goings on. She would always stick up for Jack, the point where she would often be “put in holding” and grilled by her superiors. She did the right thing by Jack, which was the right thing for the world. I mentioned Tony Almeida before and need to explain why this guy was also awesome. Tony was one of Jack’s fellow CTU agents and the shit he has been through is incredibly similar to Jack. He has lost love ones, hated America, blamed himself but always, always, was with Jack. In a later season he was painted as the bad guy but eventually it became the Jack and Tony show. It was great because we could never accept that Tony would turn on the USA, CTU, Jack and the ‘right’ thing to do. Tony, like Chloe, would often be forced to choose between the CTU way, the wrong way and finally the Jack way. Inevitably, he chose the Jack way, as he should.

24 Season 7

Jack Bauer. Jack. Agent Bauer. Call him what you will, but know that if he has to, he will torture you for information. I have seen Jack torture so many people that it became a way of life. Jack has tortured terrorists, double agents and women. Jack has killed thousands of people. Jack has killed his superiors when he had to, his fellow CTU agents when called upon and many goons. Jack did what he had to do to get the job done. His single focus to protect the USA and the President never faltered. Sure, he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, but instead of bitching about it, he just chucked some more ammo in his satchel bag (so awesome) and headed off into the chaos. I have never seen a dude go through that many different phones and PDAs either. That isn’t a really fair summation of him though, because as the seasons progressed, Jack seemed to become more and more detached from this single vision and the impact all of these days had on him eventually took their toll.

24 Season 8

24 had anything and everything bad happen. Nuclear bombs went off. Planes were crashed. Viruses were released. People were assassinated. Shit hit the fan. And it did not matter what Jack was doing at the time, but he would be kicked into action. Whilst he may have had concerns about saving the world again and again, he always managed to fit right back in. He was the man and the one people should have listened to, which makes me think, if people did what he said when he said it, the show would have been over in only a few hours. NOW! I need the codes NOW! I need the location of the terrorist NOW! Give me the access key NOW! Where are the hostages NOW! So much Jack needed and wanted NOW! that it almost became one long frustrating day for him that would never end. But I mentioned before that the show has ended. It seems to have ended on it’s own terms, which is ideal. Events no longer occur in real time, and that is really sad.

The show was exceptional, enjoyable, engrossing, exciting and energetic. But I think the thing that will remain with me the longest was the shared experience I had whilst watching the show. To be able to share the above emotions with my friends and family have given these memories an unbreakable and impregnable hold on my mind. I will miss Jack, yes. I will miss the adventure. But what I will miss the most is dedicating a weekend to watch it in large chunks with those closest to me and sharing that. And those experiences have all been thanks to what has been the longest days in Jack Bauer’s life.

A lot has happened in the world of Metallica since they graced our shores back in 2004. They have appeared on The Simpsons. They have toured for the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets, playing the entire album start to finish. They have released a new album to critical acclaim and widespread positivity. They have done escape tours, US tours and European tours. But they have not come to Australia. Over the years it had hinted at a possible tour of Australia, but nothing was ever set in stone or taken too seriously until an official announcement. This official announcement was made towards the end of April this year. It was greeted with shock, excitement, emotion and a steely resolve that this would be a tour I would never forget.

After the memorable success of our previous adventure in 2004, taking in 3 Big Day Outs and three arena shows, the Tango to my Cash, Sam, and I decided that we indeed had to do it again and then some. It was easy for us to commit to doing every Metallica show on the next tour. We even got as deluded to say we would goto New Zealand and Japan. But those ideas changed when the realities of life appeared. So we focussed on what we could do. What we were going to do. What was our fate.

The announcement of a tour to Australia was read and double-read to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I scoured each bit of information. They were to start the tour on October 18 in Brisbane and end on November 18 in Melbourne. All up there were eight shows were announced over the month long period. It didn’t take a genius to gather the four horseman of awesome would announce extra gigs. Me and Sam debated wether it would be more in each city or only the east coast. Regardless, I took a day off work and sat myself down in front of my computer on the morning of 04 May. I had printed out and stuck on the wall the MetClub presale codes that Sam and I were given. I had everything organised. And I was waiting until the noon release of the presale access.

By about 12:05 I had purchased eight tickets for the first show in Melbourne. And within that 5 minutes, problems had already started to appear. The main issues were with Ticketek not quite understanding exactly the process for a MetClub presale. I have to say that the efforts of the MetClub staff over in the USA whilst this was going on were the only things keeping me from having a stroke. So there I was after all this waiting and waiting, and I only had the eight tickets. What happened next was a chain-smoking ordeal of the highest order. I sat. I refreshed. I waited. I cursed. I hoped. I prayed. And then it happened – Ticketek pulled its greedy fat finger out of its fat arse.

By three o’clock that afternoon I had secured tickets to every single show Metallica had announced. I was going to be seeing them in Brisbane then Perth and back across to Sydney, over to Adelaide and then back home in Melbourne. It had happened after all of these years. Six long fucking years. Which reminds me of what James said in ‘04 when I got to meet him. He promised us it would not be another six years, but unfortunately it was. But who gives a fuck about dwelling on that? I HAD TICKETS TO EVERY SINGLE FUCKING METALLICA SHOW IN AUSTRALIA. Well, so I thought.

As we predicted (woohoo), Metallica announced further shows (fuck yeah!) in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I was at work when this happened. Unfortunately Ticketek had fucked up AGAIN and was now demanding VISA cards. So I had to go home. Once home I got the next batch of tickets. YES! I was going to see Metallica 8 times! EVERY SHOW! Again, so I thought. A few days later a third show was added to the east coast and extra ones for Perth and Adelaide! Like competitors in the Amazing Race, Sam and I were faced with a road block – a choice between two tasks, each with their own pros and cons. Did we go to all of the newly announced shows? You know that reality thing I mentioned earlier? Well it came back and reminded us that it was simply not going to be affordable. So we ended up getting tickets to the third shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Oh and I forgot to mention that my little bro is coming with us to all Sydney and Melbourne shows.

So as of right now I have purchased nearly $5000 worth of tickets – not all mine, mind you. I ‘only’ bought ten for myself. Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane x 2, Sydney x 3 and Melbourne x 3. And it feels awesome. I wrote up some memories from the 2004 trip – it was a week and a half in the life of a Metallica fan. This year, its going to be close to a month of madness in the life of a Metallica fan.

And I would not have it any other fucking way. No life ’till leather!