theMediaman.com

I just watched the 24 Season 5 “Prequel”. For the record, a “Prequel” is a story that happens before - but is released after - a particular episode. In this case, it’s really a “preview”, or actually, a commercial.

The ten minute video was only released on DVD (but can be downloaded here last month, as a teaser to last night’s two-hour premiere. Because it’s “Sponsored by Toyota”, both Jack and Chloe are driving Toyotas. The bad guys are driving BMWs, which is funny because the second half, it takes on a distinctive short-film-commercial feel that was first introduced through BMW’s “The Hire” series.

The only point made more clearly by this film than the fact that dangerous people know that Jack is still alive, is that a Toyota Avalon has much better handling than a BMW 3-series.

Last night’s premiere reinforced the point that “Good Guys Drive Toyotas”. This didn’t entirely conflict with the lesson over the last two years that “Good Guys Drive Fords”, because there were three principle Ford cars used last night. However, they were an Econoline E150, a second generation Taurus, and a first generation Taurus… The first two of which were used initially by the bad guys.

They were hardly comparable to the sleek, black Explorers used in the last two seasons, or the Mustang Jack used to escape with Ramon Salazar. Maybe they need a ZX2 for an upcoming episode… I’ve already proven that mine can look pretty damn good onscreen.