I just stayed up to watch the season finale of 24 and to say I was underwhelmed is to understate it. The producers of 24 have done their best to prove that season 5 was their best by following it with two of their worst – just for the sake of comparison. That it took 2 years to come up with this contrived mess is even sadder.
Who ever it was who had the bright idea to bring Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) back for the season end should be fired – what did she ever bring to the show other than unintended humor and erect nipples? And the hypocrisy of Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) – to put his daughter above the safety of the country when just a few hours earlier he was telling the President to sacrifice her daughter in very much the same situation.
In the end the biggest problem that 24 has is that they continue to tell the same story – can our heros continue to follow their ethics and their oaths under all levels of personal duress. What if Americans are held hostage? What if it’s your daughter? Etc, etc, blah, blah.
Does anyone out there still have faith – or have you given up?
I haven’t watched “24” since the first season. Not sure why, because I *did* dig that first round. Sometimes, when networks change the date/time of a show, I miss it, and then the whole thread unravels for me. (Yes, that’s lame, but it’s true.)
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I can’t even remember what night 24 started on – I actually didn’t start watching season 1 until I caught up in a Entertainment Weekly midseason synopsis. I’ve never actually seen the first half of that season.
Regardless – 24 was top notch until the last two seasons. The beauty of the format though is that if it sucks one season, it can come back gold the next. Which means I watch next season – but it’s slowly slipping into guilty pleasure area.
It started on Tuesdays, I believe.
That aside, I was always a bit confused by the paradox of Jack Bauer: a man purported to be willing to sacrifice any and everything for his county, but from the start (season 1) the fulcrum of his misadventures was his inability to sacrifice his own family members.
I know that may seem harsh, but the way he was painted as a do-whatever-it-takes operative, I was never quite sold on it because of that inconsistency. That said, I watched it clear through to the last minute — like an addict almost.
It hasn’t been great television for a while now, but given the state of tv in general, there were countless worse shows I could have wasted my attention on (i.e. – most reality tv).
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