TVSquad

Does watching Jack Bauer try to outwit and outgun terrorists bent on destroying the United States with nuclear weapons stress you out? Do you feel your heart start to race when 24 has one of its trademark torture scenes?

A 35-year-old fan of 24 agreed to allow himself to be hooked up to a heart rate monitor in a hospital while he watched 24 to find out just how stressful viewing an episode of the counter-terrorism drama really is, a Fox TV affiliate reported.

Unfortunately for the folks at Fox -- who likely would've loved to have found the guy's heart pound wildly during a tense Jack Bauer scene -- "his heart rate and blood pressure barely budged," according to MyFox Austin. I wonder if he was watching one of the recent, lackluster 24 episodes. If he'd been watching the amazing first four hours of this season, however, I'll bet they'd have different results.

(S02E04) This episode focuses on Tom, a 37-year-old salesman from New Jersey who has problems managing the stresses in his life. He's got a high-pressure job, he's divorced with a 7-year-old daughter, and his girlfriend Misti seems to be somewhat of a controlling type of person.

Tom decides to try out some New Age healing practices over the next 30 days in order to reduce his stress and hopefully improve his outlook on life. Misti is skeptical because she thinks that Tom will be supplanting his Christianity for "black magick" and other practices. Tom then meets with a life coach who will help map out a strategy for the next 30 days and to open his conciousness, which means attending and participating in a number of New Age rituals.

I really want to like this show, but Dennis Haysbert and Co. are making that as hard as possibly can be. I honestly can't decide which episode I liked less: last week's series premiere or this one.

I think I'm going to lean in last week's favor because I had trouble keeping my eyes open for last night's episode. I kept catching myself as I started to nod off. I'm fine with that because I'm certain that the four of five minutes that I missed due to my temporary narcolepsy had nothing of importance in them.

Actually, I'm re-evaluating that last sentence. I'm not fine with it. If I'm going to doze off for a few minutes during a show, I don't want to wake up and feel all right about it. I want to wake up and feel worried that I've just missed the best two minutes in television history. This show doesn't give me that sensation.