Competent men make me hot

[gwyn]

I have this long-standing kink for competent men (and women, one reason I love Mace in Strange Days, Ripley, and Sarah Connor so much) -- nothing endears a character to me more than competency. Even if they make the wrong decisions, they are capable and dauntless in the pursuit of getting things done. They know how to improvise. They know their tools, their weapons. They know their shit. Jack Bauer of 24 is turning out to be my World's Most Competent Man hero -- I never much liked Kiefer Sutherland before 24 came on, but right away I recognized Jack Bauer as a defining Competent Man kinkfest. I loved that he shot an unarmed guy in the end of first season because it was the expedient thing to do and also revenge; I loved that second season opened with him shooting an actual handcuffed suspect, killing him daid, right there in the interrogation room, and then asking for a hacksaw so he could cut the guy's head off. Because they needed the head. Jack does not fuck around.

So I loved Monday night's episode with him just being all "fuck your missile strikes, I'm going in to save my girlfriend and my boss." Go, Jack. And he and the defense secretary were so great together! Competency to the max! They had their maneuvers down perfectly, right down to the back-to-back sneak down the hallway -- no untoward surprises for them. They were just a fantastic team together, both of them knew their weapons and how to handle them, knew hand signals and how to use them... yeah, baby. Plus, Jack is hot in a flak vest. 24 lost my interest last year, but I'm loving this season, especially because Jack is just so amazingly competent once again. (And Arnold Vosloo's coming up soon, so they better get this party started, whoo-hoo!) I need a competent Jack Bauer don't fuck with me icon sort of like this Mal icon that boniblithe made. Because he is just... so... cool.

Kiefer's ability with a gun reminds me of something that makes me crazy about The Fast and the Furious -- every time I see Brian pointing that gun at Dom, I want to yank it out of his hand, bitch-slap him, and then pistol whip him with the damn gun he doesn't know how to hold. Whoever let Paul Walker decide to hold that gun in such a pussy way, and so bizarrely (no cop would ever hold a gun like that; hell, no normal person would, either), should also be bitch-slapped. The next vid I wanted to make for F&F would involve a lot of the gun scenes, so I'm dreading having to look at that idiotic stance for long periods of time. Brian, you're pretty, but you're an idiot.

Comments

[cy-girl.livejournal.com]

I guess I have a competant girl kink because I love Chloe. She's so unapologetically competent and smart that she doesn't have to bother with social graces. I hope she comes back into the story line.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I miss her too -- she made me laugh all the time. She says the stuff no one else will say, and she whines so well.

And what is up with the security at CTU? Every year they have a mole or someone with nefarious purposes. Don't they have security checks? Hell, I had to go through a huge background check just to work at Microsoft!

[cy-girl.livejournal.com]

My husband pointed out that the "mole at CTU" thing has been done to death. It was a bit too predictible that Sherry Jr. who might as well wear a sign saying 'eeevilllll' would be the inside bad guy.

[cranberryink.livejournal.com]

I think my competency kink is an offshoot of my smart kink. I love nothing more than someone who really knows their shit, whatever it may be.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

So, you're saying that this season of 24 has competent writers.

(Because boy oh boy oh boy did last season piss me the fuck off. Like, to the point I couldn't be bothered to watch or record.)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Well... I think they're doing a good job for a couple of reasons -- and I'm pretty familiar with Surnow and Cochran and Loceff's issues from my years as an LFN fan. They frequently got me to the point on LFN where I wanted to kill them, then they'd write some killer ep and pull me back. I think one of the things that both ALias and 24 got right this year is that they waited until they had the whole story broken before they began, and they waited until Jan. to start, so that there wouldn't be these long desperate gaps where they'd throw anything in becuase they had no idea what to do.

They jettisoned a lot of character, brought in some good new ones, and gave Jack a really meaty situation. They're still recycling a lot of bits from LFN and even some of the actors, but they're better about recycling that awful mid season drag that they often would get.

There are still long scenes of stupidity and the mole thing has been overkilled (because we have another one!), but I think this year is kicking ass so far and even the stupid stuff is moving much quicker. Stupid stuff that doesn't linger is a lot easier to swallow. Monday night's ep rocked.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Ooo, this reminds me of something I saw this morning. See my LJ.

I hope you don't mind that I have to get right on board with this kink. I never really thought before about competency as an appealing trait, but once you pointed out how nice it can be, I was sold.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I have this long-standing kink for competent men

Me too! It's part of why I like Jack (Lost not 24) so much.