PTM

It comes along every few months and each time, its effects seem to be growingly crippling. This is the fifth time I have encountered this syndrome (because technically the fourth time and fifth time were squashed into one). The syndrome I refer to is what I like to call Post-TwentyFour-Melancholy or just PTM for short. Some of you will doubtless be screaming, "Yeah? Well why isn't it called PTFM?!" The answer to that is dual-fold but fairly simple. First of all, it's my abbreviation and I'll make it the way I want and secondly, it's much catchier. Season six of Fox's amazing TV show 24 drew to a close for me last week after I marathoned all twenty four episodes in about two and a half days.

For the uninitiated, 24 is a television show starring Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, James Morrison among a smörgåsbord of ever-changing cast members (thanks to death and all that). Each season revolves around one day, with twenty four episodes that each depict one hour of the day. The whole thing is set in real-time, complete with snazzy editing, multi-screen action as well as a nifty little clock.

Aside from all that, the program itself depicts some crazy situations, all centred around Los Angeles, it must be mentioned and some remarkably cool lines and ways of getting around problematic situations. The twists and turns of every one of the six convoluted stories depicted so far, have been unpredictable and at times, shocking, creating some seriously rivetting television. Sure, a large amount of the stuff depicted therein is fairly improbable and implausible. The violence is doled out in extreme quantities and at times, to greatly exaggerated and grotesque levels. Plotholes are rife throughout the show and some idiots will take a certain sense of pride in pointing these out, no matter how obvious they may be, just to show how cool and non-conformist they are and perhaps in their feeble minds, even ABOVE 24 and its makers they are.

Right there is where the beauty of this show lies. In its sheer ability to entertain you, if you are willing to suspend disbelief or your own predilections, the series is unparalleled and unsurpassed and will probably be for a long long time to come.

That being said, it's obvious not everyone will be able to relate to the show. Hell, at times, even I can't relate to it. But to me it represents that immersion into a different reality and state of being that has been matched to this point only by Hideo Kojima's seminal game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Haruki Murakami's Kafka by the Shore. The point is, when something can immerse you in its essence so much as to debilitate you entirely, leaving you numb and walking around senseless, it ceases to be a film, game or a book anymore. It becomes incredibly hard to pinpoint just what it is that was powerful enough to leave you so depressed once it's gone.

The saddest part is that that feeling can never be replicated, no matter how many times you read, play or watch that which left you so numb. Not sure where I'm going with this, but yeah...