Not quite up to standards

I only have one prime-time network TV show that I watch weekly. Just one. "24" on Fox has me hooked since I rented the DVD of the first year -- or day -- a few years back and started going through them as fast as possible.

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is an agent for the Counter Terroist Unit (CTU) in Los Angeles and he routinely saved the world in a 24-hour period with one episode being an hour. It was great writing, great action, great plot twists. A crackling good yarn, you might say.

This year, with all the action in Washington, it's just moved a little slow. This is the first time I've had to wait weekly for the next hour, which is at 8 tonight. That may have something to do it it.

In Day Seven, CTU has been shelved by Congress, but that doesn't stop Bauer for leading the chase against the bad guys, which includes his former colleague-gone-bad, Tony Almeda. This is probably the least exciting of the seven years, but it's still not bad. It just had high standards to live up to.

For "24" fans, somehow Jack is going to off Tony. It's just a question of how and when.