The Lady Vendar and I have embarked upon 24 (finally). We charged through season 1, and while it wasn’t the best thing we’ve ever seen on TV, it hooked us enough to keep watching, and we’re a few episodes in to season 2 (and it’s already much better).

When watching a whole series, I’ve gotten into the habit (addiction?) of following the series along over at Television Without Pity. If you haven’t been there, and if you enjoy TV, I strongly recommend going there. The recappers vary in quality and consistency, but so far the 24 recaps have been pure gold.

(I’m intentionally not linking to specific episode or show recaps, as pretty much everything on TWOP contains spoilers. I’m getting good at clicking through to a show and then either unfocusing my eyes or hyperfocusing on the “choose a season” dropdown (ignoring the spoiler-ridden episode summaries), then scrolling through another page of spoiler-ridden summaries while holding my hand over the screen to prevent accidental reading, until I’ve found the episodes I’ve seen. It’s quite something. Anyway.)

As an example of what makes TWOP great, here’s a very mildly spoiler-y excerpt from the recap for Season 2, Episode 4. Recappers tend to assign nicknames to most characters in a show; sometimes the nicknames come from forum members, sometimes the recappers pick them, but generally they’re funny:

[…] Although I think it would be really great if they dispensed with the super-serious minimalist opening and tacked on an old-school credits sequence with all these action shots strung together while the theme plays: an orchestral pop instrumental layered with modern “wa-wa” guitar sequences. There’d be this cheesy announcer going, “Starring, Kiefer Sutherland…as Jack!” and you’d see Kiefer whirling around in an office chair to face the camera and give it the Kiefer-sex-glance and a thumbs-up as a twenty-something assistant in a short skirt hands him a latte. “And Elisha Cuthbert as Kim…” and you’d see Elisha bending to pick her cell phone up off the floor. She answers it and smiles. “And Special Guest Star Penny Johnson Jerald as Sherry Palmer…” Lady Mac [ed: aka Lady MacPalmer, aka Pres. Palmer’s wife] puts her hand on her hip and gives the camera a sassy wink. “And Sara Gilbert as Paula…” and Paula spills coffee on herself all Brenda Morganstern-style, sighs, and gives the camera a good-natured smile. Then there’d be this cheesy theme song sung by Tom Jones or Shirley Bassey, and the lyrics would have nothing to do with the plotline. “You’ve got twenty-hours to prove your-self / Twenty-four hours to show them who you aaaaaaahhhhhhh!” while all these shots are shown of Jack running, Spawn [ed: aka Spawn Of Kiefer, aka Kim] running while braless, guns being drawn, cars going off the road, Palmer doing something presidential, and the whole CTU gang having some after-work drinks and toasting Soul Patch [ed: aka Tony Almeda]. And there’d be all these psychedelic graphics everywhere and a big mushroom cloud finale shot. “…Twenty-four hours to show them you’re a staaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” Oh God, they’ve got to do this.

If you do become a TWOP reader, be warned that it will take much of your time and when you finish one recap you’ll want to read just one more… then just one more after that… Kind of like those Entenmann’s chocoloate frosted donuts. Man those things are good.