Live-Blogging "The Path to 9/11" Sunday Night, Central Time

I'll be forgoing the Simpsons premier tonight to do something I haven't tried before - live-blogging.

Now, live-blogging a docudrama is probably dumb, but good practice for more important stuff and who knows maybe I'll contribute something useful, or learn how to type really fast. Obviously, I haven't seen the show yet. I'm not hoping for much even though I have enjoyed watching Clinton, Berger, et al, squirm.

6:58 - America's Funniest Video, nice segue
7:00 - I'm going to need commercial breaks
Long disclaimer - okay
Black and white opening, sad piano music - now I know how to feel.
Co-executive producer Thomas Kean. I think he'll have plausible deniability.
7:05 - more disclaimer, odd how it tries to get gravitas from the commission's own admission of it's limitations
7:07 - Shakey-cam!!!
7:08 - Legacy rescue for John O'Neill, "no one gets in the building without a sticker". Was he really at work at 7:15 am? I think I read he was out til 2:00 am the night before.

7:12 - Okay, down to business, 1993
Ramzi Yousef looks like Jim Caviezel - no I take that back.
7:15 - nice special effects on fuse lighting
7:18 - most movies do a poor job of showing the shock wave (and flesh displacement) of explosions, this one not too bad.
7:20 - good job showing inside of firefighter's mask
7:25 - CSI moment with the bomb squad, rapid VIN ID. Needless "tension", move on.
7:27 - Brief review of Kahane shooting, cool.
7:31 - A police procedural - with music!!, dull
7:33 - FBI guy beefing to John Miller, reporter, dull
7:36 - Muslim informant with a concience, looking for more money, saying I told you so
7:37 - Okay, we've established that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was a party boy
7:38 - so far the bad guys are for more interesting, a reaction that makes me check my reason for watching
7:40 - somebody tipped off the press - really??
7:44 - waayy too many close-ups. Come back Sergio Leone, all is forgiven
Not sure blogspot can handle all this posting
7:46 -"See if Janet Reno has any balls" - Waco reference - nice
7:47 - Ramzi Youself aka "Horseface", calls to mind the movie "Rockers" featuring a drummer named "Horsemouth"
7:49 - didn't know he tried to bomb Bhutto - hid out in the Phillipines? Wonder if he ever met McVeigh and Nichols?
7:56 - If I'm Beavis and Butthead I say "Ramzi Yousef is Cool!!"
7:58 - Phillipine police worry about warrants before opening laptops??
7:59 - good to see Donnie Wahlberg as "Kirk". He was great in Band of Brothers
8:00 - Stephen Root ("Dodgeball", Bill on King of the Hill) as Richard Clarke
8:02 - O'Neill, Hands on the neck "We don't lose this guy" - oy vey
8:09 - O'Neill in a restaurant, is this where the love interest comes in?
8:10 - Pakistan has flies, okay, I knew that, head covering for hottie
8:13 - This Yousef guy is really interesting. Sort of a Muslim Scarface
8:16 - Good tension right here. You sort of care about the informant Ishtiak
8:22 - Freeh wants Bill Gavin to arrest Yousef. This is the first indication of the Sec of State holding up the process of arresting someone important. Fictional?
8:23 - Freeh gives the go-ahead
8:25 - hate to admit it, but I'm completely involved at this point. Wonder if Ishtiak survives?
8:29 - I hope Ishtiak is a real character. His dialogue about innocents seems contrived.
8:32 - here comes the scene where Yousef reveals his lack of money for taking down the towers
OOOH disclaimer time, need a brownie and bathroom break
8:36 - jump to 98, UBL Fatwa
8:37 - Richard Clarke looks like Kenneth McMillan, the crazy guy from Twin Peaks. "Kirk" wonders why John Miller can find UBL but we can't
8:42 - Okay, Massoud of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan appears, meets "Kirk" "Mark" and "Alex" CIA
8:44 - Mary Jo White shows up. O'Neill actually did hang out at Elaines, as I remember it.
8:47 - good scene with CIA in Afghanistan, jump to Tenet, Amy Madigan as "Patricia", Cool
8:50 - "War is about killing the enemy and destroying their property" "How do you win a long and orderly war"
8:51 - "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
8:53 - Can't kill UBL on purpose, "Lets go"
8:54 - Sandy Berger doesn't have authority
8:55 - Money shot showing Bergers sweating the UBL grab. Does seem forced and fake.
8:56 - John Miller, journalist, comes off smarter than anyone else, of course
Did the State Department really ignore warnings about increasing security in Nairobi?
8:58 - Dude, "Kirk" is everywhere, here comes Nairobi bombing, cheesy explosion
9:01 - Big fictional scene with "Patricia". Like Madigan but she's got the worst lines.
9:04 - What's with the damn drums while they're arresting the guy in Nairobi?
9:06 - precursory chemicals? Isn't that precursor? Could be wrong
9:08 - al shifa aspirin plant missiling, John Miller in Khartoum at same time? Really? Wow.
9:09 - I guess I didn't need this show to remind me that Clinton was a fuck up
9:10 - Zawaharie says the "war has begun". I bet he would be pissed.
9:12 - Washington warned Pakistan that they were preparing to missile UBL, Northern Alliance in trouble, Taliban executing survivors. Seems believable
9:17 - Al Qaeda training camp, KSM proposes plan "the Planes Operation" catchy.
9:19 - Clinton is Satan, heh
9:20 - imagined conversations between KSM and Zwaharie - no one's bitching about that.
9:22 - Everyone gripes about Halliburton making money off the Iraq war but no one complains about all those Toyota trucks the Taliban use ; )
9:23 - Ressam at Canadian border, millenium plot, sharp-eyed US Customs agent, missed her name, should know it. Ammonium nitrate is not urea, dialog doesn't match bag label, weird scene.
9:30 - Arrests prior to New Years, As South Park says "we need a montage!!"
9:33 - Giuliani won't cancel Times Square celebrations, false tension here. Why does John O'Neill sound like Robert DeNiro? Way too much arty-farty camera work here. Give it a rest Oliver!
9:37 - John Miller "we dodged a bullet" gosh he's smart!
9:38 - now back to 9/11, in case you forgot, good close though, another disclaimer,
wait for it, wait for it...

Overall, B+.
Good action in foreign locales. Actor who plays Yousef should get a Grammy. Keitel not convincing.

I'm ashamed to admit I found the terrorist far more convincing than those trying to catch them, except "Kirk". CIA operatives on the ground come off very brave and competent. I don't doubt for a moment that they were and are. Thanks guys.

ABC is covering itself with a special Nightline until 10:00pm. Clarke gets more camera time. Yay.