"24" sure opened up with quite a bang. Spoilers ahead! If you haven't seen the first four hours, then the rest of this post needs to be read later on. You have been warned! When Palmer was killed, that had me floored. Then went Dessler and maybe Tony. It takes guts for a show to kill off some of the key characters of the show -- especially Palmer. The action in the first four hours were quite exciting and most of it made sense. I am happy about how they got Jack pulled back from where the show ended last year. It was no stretch of the imagination on how Jack got pulled back into the life that he doesn't want to live. That doesn't mean that there were some flaws that the producers continue to carry on from the show's inception. There was enough excitement to overrule any kind of bad writing decisions. But still after four years, you figure that the producers and writers have their minds tuned to what is good and what is not.. Something that I must ask the show producers and writers: Stop with the YASTs (Yet Another Stupid Teen) storylines! Last year was great because Kim Bauer (YAST) was not in the show. This year, they seem to have forgotten that YAST character suck and have introduced the Derek character -- and he is just as, or maybe even more stupid than Kim. It is so obvious that the writers are using YASTs as cheap plotpoints and melodrama building characters -- and nothing else. It not only cheapens the feel of the show, but also causes for the audience to fall out of their suspension of disbelief. And frankly it insults our intelligence when the show writers uses these YAST characters. I hope that we have seen the last of Derek, but I fear that we haven't. Other than that, I think the show is headed off to a fantastic fifth season. I hope that they end the show on a high note, since it is getting a little long in tooth. Five, maybe six seasons is probably going to be the lifespan of a show like this, I hope the producers realize this.