24: Becoming a boring soap?

Has 24 jumped the shark?, It’s too soon to tell … The show got off to such a high-octane start the first four hours. But last night I found my mind wandering while it was on. I even paused the episode for a few minutes to rest my tired eyes. I mean, that never happens. Never.

A U.S. reviewer worries the show is going off the rails.

source : palmbeachpost.com – spoilers for non-US viewers

Never a dull boy

The sight is a familiar one for “24” fans: Counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) sits panting, handcuffed to a chair as he’s tortured by non-descript Middle-Eastern men. How will he get out of it this time? After a phone call prevents the leader from cutting off Jack’s fingers, only one guard is left. With a vicious plunge and menacing eyes, Bauer digs his teeth into the guard’s neck. The guard falls, and Jack spits out a chunk of flesh, blood dripping down his chin. So ends the first hour of Season 6 of Fox’s painfully addictive terrorism drama.

After five seasons and 136 deaths by Bauer’s hand alone … there are few ways to end a life that haven’t already been employed. At this point, Jack ranks somewhere between God and Mike Tyson on the list of people you don’t want to piss off. But the show hasn’t worn out its welcome: Season 5 of “24” was the strongest season ratings-wise …

… The show’s principal appeal — the sense that anything can happen, a precedent established with the murder of Jack’s wife by his closest colleague and ex-lover in the closing moments of the first season — remains intact …

… Season 6 is a story about Jack, a character study about coping with extreme sacrifices, … The choices he is forced to make, between friends and enemies, family and national security, are more poignant than ever. Although each season chronicles a single day, the writers never forsake insight for action; for example, they daringly ended the third season with a prolonged scene of Jack sobbing in his car. Sutherland shows he’s up for the challenge, as his performance in the premiere was his best to date.

From a thoughtful review of the first five hours.

Source : yaledailynews.com – plot details from the first six episodes

The Clock Strikes Again

EVERYWHERE on the set of 24 these days, things radiate with double meaning. There’s the CD box set inside Kiefer Sutherland’s trailer with the title – ‘Love/Death/Travel’ – that somehow encapsulates Jack Bauer’s very personal war on terror. There’s the anxious production assistant who keeps interrupting our interview with a chilling: “You’ve got 10 minutes… five minutes… two minutes.” Then there’s the show’s pet Yorkshire terrier, who’s yapping and sniffing and generally not letting anyone forget her name: Emmy.

Coming off its most popular, most critically acclaimed, most Emmy-honoured season yet, 24 ticks into ‘Day Six’ tonight on Sky with enormous expectations and more than a little tail-wagging ambiguity.

source : living.scotsman.com – series six spoilers

Confirmed: Movie Postponed

“What’s the deal with the 24 movie?
We were going to make it in the break this year, but it’s just too much to ask the writers to do. We are going to do it. It’s just a question of when.”

That’s Kiefer answering a question about the movie only last thursday at a party to promote the new series. So confirmation that the movie, which was due to start shooting this may in the three month hiatus period between series six and seven will defintely not go forward during that time. It would appear now that earliest the film could shoot is the hiatus period between series seven and eight (should the show get that far), for a release late 2008.

source :  nymag.com

One Nation, Under 24

“Can an everyman like Jack exist only in this decadent superpower?”

This is an article/review of the first four episodes, which I’m linking to for one reason, because while i’ve been buried under positive reviews of the first four episodes, I hadn’t read one bad one, until now. Troy Patterson of Slate.com seems from this review to be throughly unimpressed by the first four hours, along with the general premise of the show, as he asks if a character like Jack Bauer could exist in any other countries popular culture but America’s.

Contains heavy plot spoilers for the first four episodes, so don’t read if you don’t want to know what happens. Also don’t read if you can’t stand people ranting about why 24 isn’t as good as we all think it is.

source : slate.com