24 was a brilliant, successful experiment, but its format has no shelf life. It’s time for Jack Bauer to retire, eat a hearty meal, drop a deuce and enjoy some tiddlywinks, or whatever the hell he does in his free time.
Article questioning if the show has run it’s course, and while you can’t argue with some of the symptoms the reviewer describes the show as currently having, I wouldn’t agree with his conclusion. I’ve seen the show come back from the brink before.
source : gazette.uwo.ca
I saw that article… interesting. Some comments but sorry if I use wrong words – I’m not english writer!
And this is the point: the 24 h’s writers, maybe producers, maybe Fox. They construct very interesting storylines and characters from S1 to S5. They came with an upgrade until S5 that I point as the best. There were a story and now S6 is a de-construction, a sad de-construction, some kind of sadism of the writers (?).
As character Jack Bauer’s story, I will stop 24 H at S5 when Jack at the end encounter Audrey. The following scene (phone call and Jack’s Chinese depletion) is out. On Season 5 we have a great Jack (great Kiefer Sutherland), hard “soldier” but human, emotional, sweet (eg. with Derek, with Audrey, with Chloe, with Kim, with Tony, with the kid at shopping center…). We have a very interesting Audrey (trusting Jack all time, emotional, active at CTU, helping Jack with skills and friendship). We have a very amazing Chloe, balance between field scenes and CTU scenes, solid and interesting Bill and Karen characters and so on.
Now on Season 6 all characters are in a grey, shadow zone, silent, undefined, and death and sacrificied… This is sadism with us, the watchers. Fox is saying us: “You watch the show? Do you like the story and characters? You are troll, we can joke you and remain getting your money bombing what you like, the story, any character, sense and all. Foolish watchers on S6!!”
Psychotic Fox.
Meh!
Yet another article written condemning a once massively popular show to the network axe, simply because they are having an off season and ratings have dipped a little. Getting bored of moaning about Lost? Have a go at 24!
I think that the mistake many of these writers make is that because they are employed to write an article that will be read by the masses they are therefore somehow speaking for the masses. Not the case. This guy might think that Jack has had his day but I, and many others world over, do not agree. Yeah, this year is a little less thrilling than previous seasons but it’s still great television.
It would be fantastic if our own opinions actually did effect world thinking. If my opinions shaped the world then rubbish like The OC would be cancelled immediately…
Wait a second… 😉
Seriously, these articles are written to fill space in entertainment sections and to allow the writer to vent and get paid for it. Nothing more.
Nothing wrong with the writer airing his opinion. Just like you have.
But yeah, I agree with you, like I said in my comments above, I’ve seen the show come back from the brink before, many times in fact.
I DO not agree…
I think the writer has the right to express himself, but I agree with what “broken soul” says about just being a filler for a magazine…I think season 6, may not be S5, but it has been entertaining…I for one feel good about the show, and if the writers are doing what they are doing, It’s for a REASON…remember 24 has always had surprises and shifts that we don’t expect…look at the audrey thing…so i think all this that has happened it may be stuff that needs to be said to set up what’s gonna happen next…as not-so-action-packed as it was, I think it will pay off at the end with unexpected twists…OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH!!!!
Oh, and, BTW, I DO NOT, by any means, thinks that Jack needs to retire…I think we should understand that he’ been TORTURED for almost 2 years…he’s not the old Jack right now…but he WILL BE.
LONG LIVE JACK BAUER AND 24!!!!
Yes, Season 6 is turning out to be the weakest season of 24 so far.
What seems very strange to my wife and I is how this season is almost a rehash/rewrite of the Season Two script.
We have the Tony/Michelle – Milo/Nadia romance side story.
We have the President’s authority being usurped by a “wacko” VP with an agenda to launch war as quickly as possible (this is EXACTLY like season 2)
This whole “the VP is always plotting against the President” story is getting worn out, it’s basically been used three times already……………………. Oh wait, I forgot the similarity this Season to the season where the the President’s plane is shot down and a weakly Logan has to take over for an injured/killed President.
Hmmmm…… Air Force One blows up…… President dies…. miserable wimp of a VP assumes power.
This season, an explosion injures the President and a miserable wimp of a VP with an agenda to undermine the President (just like in Season 2) takes over.
Sidenote: Is it just us or is Powers Booth’s acting stiff and overdone ?
Now we are going to have a week or 2 of Wayne Palmer having to defend his abilities to serve as President against the VP and the Cabinet.
(just like his brother had to).
Please……..
1) No more “moles” in CTU…….. the place is like a damn spaghetti strainer with all the holes they have.
Seems like every season has moles.
2) No more VP trying to undermine President.
3) Since when does high-security organizations allow cell phones and personal outside lines ?
They did not allow that in the 80s when I was involved with Reagan’s “Star Wars Defense” program.
What is really odd is this Season does not even feel like 24.
It feels like a show trying to imitate 24.
Maybe all the writers and directors have changed (we need to pay more attention to the credits)………. but something is definately OFF BASE this year.
This becomes much more evident if in recent months you have re-watched Seasons 1-5 on DVD like we have.
After a good first 4 hours, this Season 6 has gotten stuck in a mud hole and can’t seem to get out of it.
For the first time in all our years of watching the show, my wife went to bed before the show was over and told me to “tell me about the episode in the morning”.
She then stated….. “If the old spark doesn’t return quickly, this is one Season I dont’ care for us to buy on DVD in the future”.
In all honesty I don’t think it is because we have grown too “accustomed” to the show and thus lost interest.
With so much other CRAP on TV, we WANT to like 24 and not be unhappy with it, but this whole Season seems like they took various “best of” plots and storylines from the first 5 seasons and mixed them together.
Not everything has to be chasing bombs…….. heck. you can wipe out more folks by biotox-poisoning municipal water supplies in large cities.
How about roving assassination teams killing off major political leaders…… etc…etc…
How about
There is still a lot of new angles and surprises that could be used without being so repetitive and predictable after only 5 full seasons.
IF they go forward with Season 7 and don’t kill Jack off this year like some have predicted will happen so Keifer can move onto full time Producer duties, then I imagine there will be some major strategy sessions at the studio to re-evaluate what went wrong this year and work to inject some fresh energy for a next season.
I’ve absolutely no problem with others having a different opinion to me on any subject, hardy24. And of course the are free to express it.
What always annoys me however is where a personal opinion starts to be about what is best for everyone else. If the writer had said something along the lines that he was bored with 24 and that he wouldn’t be watching anymore then fair enough. He is free to enjoy and watch whatever he wants.
However, he is saying something more akin to the idea that because he is fed up with the show and so it should end. Had it’s day. Jack should retire. Full stop. That is the kind of opinion that does get on my nerves, especially on a show that clearly still has a large fanbase.
That said, to address Mike Spitzer’s comment above, what I do believe is that they absolutely need to shake the format up a little in future seasons. As I said in my first post, this season won’t be at the top of my list of Jack’s bad days but that doesn’t mean that the show needs to end. I’ll only believe that when Kiefer decides to quit because I’d really hate to see 24 do an X-Files and continue for the sake of continuing once the main character has gone.
Don’t make the same mistake twice, Fox. 😉
i think the first four episodes of 24 were really good. The nuclear bomb went off and I thought this was like the beginning of a great season. Unfortunately the whole arab extrmist story began to fade out and Jacks family and oh no the russians came back again. The story begins to feature more and more emotional scenes at CPU and with Jack. 24 IS NOT A SOAP OPERA, WE DONT CARE ABOUT WHO LIKES WHO AND WHO DOESNT!
What really anoyed me was killing off Asad. Why include him in the first half a dozen episodes just to get rig of him? I would have liked to seen the plot carry on as it started with the arab terrorists then perhaps some kind of peace agreement could have been reached at the end between Asad and Palmer.