Yet, by posting a substantive comment instead, you had succeeded in keeping your dignity…ies.

@ToddVDW Does every other internet TV critic think this perceived "groupthink" is a problem? Because, if so, that's a problem.

"[Romulan] ales all around!"

I don't know, I would imagine that, in most cases, writing a review of something you hate would be significantly easier than writing one for something you like.

You are obviously far better read about this stuff than I, so I sincerely apologize if my arguments are rudimentary. But it seems like this research is based on an assumption that, if it were possible to completely duplicate my brain in an instant, then "I" would subsequently exist in two places at once.

Well, but the difference is that at some point the machine is likely to give away what's happening or, even if not, I could just look at the code and understand why it does every single thing that it does. No human in my experience has ever betrayed to me that he/she might not be sentient. *insert lame joke about…

@HI Right. I mean, we don't even have a workable definition of "sentient". I can't prove or even explain how anyone else is or can be sentient beyond knowing that I, myself, am. I can only describe what the APPEARANCE of sentience looks like. I mean, I could write a computer program that's just a near-infinite…

Well, right. Hence the "not particularly plausible" part.

@chico *sigh* Yes. But so was

Interesting, pho. The only time I wasn't watching 24 at the aired pace was one year (I think it was S5, maybe? It was whichever one coincided with S3 of Lost), when I didn't watch TV at all for six weeks, so I don't have much comparison the other way.

@epo Morpheus mentions that the machines are running off the heat generated by the human body, which is at least sensical, if not particularly plausible.

@epo I find that 24 suffers greatly when watched at DVD marathon pace. The inter-episode time cheats especially are glaring, and a lot of the tension is greatly mitigated.

@Horse The machines DO let the rebels go, but not only do THEY not accept the Matrix, but they, for some reason, see it as their sacred duty to get everyone ELSE out of the matrix and fight off the robots. The rebels view their relationship with the robots as slavery and subjugation, rather than the symbiotic…

@Trekinosis The other problem I experienced was the raised eyebrows I got when mentioning that I enjoy the show by the lefties who only knew about it from the conservative pundits endlessly singing its praises. The fact that it was pretty immediately co-opted by the punditry as soon as it gained widespread exposure…

Reviewers reviewing their own reviews
I really dug the review of your own past reviews, Zack. Sometimes, it is just as interesting to read a reviewer's analysis of their own process as it is to read the product itself.

I've long defended my enjoyment of 24 as not being in conflict with my sense of morality as applied to reality (which precludes pretty much any sort of torture). I find Jack Bauer to be such a compelling tragic character and the immediacy of the threats he faces to be so ridiculously extreme that I can sympathize…

I don't understand the review…
…and I won't respond to it.

So what you're saying, Epo, is that the line must be drawn… here? Can it be drawn any further?

It seems to me that going to all the trouble to remove my inconsistently-maintained full beard (that arose initially due to sheer laziness) merely to avoid distasteful labels would make those labels more accurate.

Yeah, and the fact that she doesn't flip out about "her babies" is a miracle for this era of TV.