Jack Bauer: Defying Nukes and L.A. Traffic

Jack Bauer photo courtesy Fox Broadasting

If you’re a junkie of Fox’s hit show “24” like me, watching Los Angeles constantly get pummeled can get unnverving — especially if you’re from L.A. or you have a house there.

In case you weren’t among the 33 million viewers who caught the first four episodes, here’s a brief refresher: a conflicted and beaten down Jack Bauer is called upon by the President of the United States, now Wayne Palmer, the former President’s kid brother, to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country.  He does and escapes by biting into a terrorist’s jugular right before he’s supposed be killed. Good stuff.

What I love so much about “24” isn’t only that Jack seems to have superhuman powers but that most of the non-stop action takes place in L.A. (my hometown).  Season after season, L.A. is infiltrated with terrorists, arms smugglers and “evil doers” hell bent on wiping La La Land off the face of the planet. 

Since the show’s inception, there have been two nuclear devices set-off in and around L.A.  The first device exploded in Season 2, when Jack and special agent George Mason were flying on a suicide mission, trying desperately to fly as far outside of city as possible before diving the plane into the desert northeast of L.A. (sorry Palmdale / Lancaster).  Of course, Mason ends up taking one for the team and goes down with the plane as Jack parachutes to safety right before impact. 

The second nuke in the current season goes off at Old Mill Road in the suburb of Valencia (famous for Six Flags Magic Mountain).  Looks like someone at Fox tried to slip this one past us.  Old Mill Road doesn’t exist, however, it seems they combined the names of Mill Valley Road and Old Course Way (general area shown in link).  My in-laws happen to live on Via Oriol which is around the corner from where the nuke was detonated - well within the blast radius.  They wouldn’t have a felt a thing (evil laugh).

I could go on and on here but I’ll leave you with one thought that has been on my mind since that very first episode.  How does Jack seem to do all that he does in such little time in L.A.’s horrendous commuter traffic?  Perhaps, because he’s Jack, he just takes the shoulder.

Until Monday…