DEADLIER THAN THE MALE and 24: SEASON 1

The current season of 24 is the first season my wife and I have watched. When the show started, we thought that the premise of a "real time" television action/drama was ingenious. Our lives were very busy, and we had no DVR at the time, so we missed half the first season. We then saw a commercial where Jack's daughter is attacked by a mountain lion and our suspension of disbelief was lost before our viewership began.

Years later, under the continual barrage of recommendations by our friends, we capitulated and started watching the current season.

We like it -- as unrealistic as it is -- very much. We also think they should rename the show to Jack's Very Bad, Horrible, Awful, Day. We also don't like having to wait seven days to see what happens next. We can be thankful for the fact that we haven't seen any of the other season, because now we have some content to view between our weekly updates of Jack's current horrible day.

Naturally, we began our filler viewing with Season One and we're about halfway through the season. I was amazed at how much effort the villains of the first season took just to make sure they could get a shot off at a Presidential Candidate. I thought no one would go through so much effort. But then I saw a post on a blog I regularly read (Lee Goldberg's fine A Writer's Life) entitled "There Have Got to be Easier Ways to Kill a Guy..." which bore surprising similarities to the first episode of 24. Watch the clip and I'll discuss the similarities below.

Now that you've watched the opening to Deadlier than the Male think back to the first episode of 24 -- Day One.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN 24 SEASON ONE

We have a woman who seduces a man on an airplane in order to get his special key card. She then leaves the plane using an explosive device on the airplane's exit door (and another explosive on board for good measure), which causes explosive decompression allowing her to escape as her other bomb blows up the plane. Mind you, this was all to get a key card that would allow an assassin, who has had extensive plastic surgery in order to make him look like the now dead journalist, to enter a location where he could eventually shoot a Presidential candidate. This doesn't even get the gun in his hands, a side of the plot that adds several layers of planning to what is already a convoluted assassination attempt.

END OF SPOILER ALERT

Apparently, the creators of 24 don't agree with Mr. Goldberg. Apparently, they believe there are far more complicated ways to kill a guy.