New 24 Season

[CAHoya07]

May 18, 2009 23:36:41 GMT -5 quickplay said:

That. Finale. Was. Awful.

Yeah, pretty weak overall. There were some good scenes: the Tony and Jack final confrontation, the Renee and Jack conversation about being able to live with yourself. However, the rest was pretty predictable. I mean, who DIDN'T think that Jack would eventually get saved by Kim?

From what I've read, Season 8 next year will be the last TV season, followed by a 24 movie. This seems about right, since there are only so many more directions this show can go without recycling many of the old storylines that they've done already. Here's hoping the show goes out with a bang.

EDIT: Also, next season will apparently take place in New York City. Could be fun.

[whatmaroon]

Yup, pretty weak sauce overall. The part that really got my gander was the Amazing Burning Car. Watching the Mythbusters shoot the gas tank completely ruined any non-camp/meta use of car fires. I'll suspend disbelief for lots of things, like the commute times, but I do have my limits. Most of the philosophizing was boring, and the President's hubby was remarkably cool with assassination.

The only other season I've watched was 5, which really suffered from the writers making stuff up as they went along even if it didn't make any sense. There was much less of a feel of that this year, because the strike gave them the chance to figure out the whole season in advance, but they'll probably be back up to ad hoc'ing stuff next year.

[CAHoya07]

I started watching 24 with Season 4 on TV, then went back and got caught up on Seasons 1-3 on DVD, and then watched Seasons 5-7 on TV. I think Seasons 1-2 are by far the best seasons - they had a relatively simple plot, but had some great action and drama in terms of national/world crises as well as individual character story lines. While there have been some good seasons since (Season 5 would probably be #3 for me), I think often times they either recycle old story lines or try to do too much.

I think Season 7, in spite of an underwhelming finale, was good, and I'm interested to see how they do Season 8, if it is in fact the final season.

[mchoya]

*Spoilers for all seasons*

If I was running the show, here's how I would have wrapped up this season. If we cut to commercial when the President first finds out about her daughter's involvement, we have about 20 minutes left. After we come back from break, the President would give her very obvious decision to turn in her daughter (she did everything right re: her family vs. national welfare, so if she obstructed justice it would have represented a ridiculous character flaw). Then, we have the Walker breakdown with split screen cuts to Jack at the hospital as she uses increasingly Jack-like measures (breaking the key lock).

Finally, I would have placed the scene with the imam as the concluding one, silent clock and end Jack. Really, what more can they do with his character? He delivered his final thoughts to Renee and met with the imam to help forgive himself. Jack suddenly won't have more revelations. What else can he do?

Remember when no one was safe on 24? Teri, Chappelle, and Palmer were all meaningful characters. Yet, they were all killed off. If they killed Jack off, it would have been a throwback to that image. They've also spent a lot of time this year establishing Renee as a main character. They probably will be making the next season about her and the conspiracy. Jack's death could have been one last parting shot.

[FLHoya]

Here's the problem with the writing the past few seasons:

the show's called "24"...not "12...then 6...then...what the heck, we got 6 more of these to go?"

The plots are okay...until they fizzle out halfway through the season and the writers keep trying to peel more layers off the onion. All that's doing is making stuff stink like an onion.

[rosslynhoya]

May 20, 2009 22:17:42 GMT -5 FLHoya said:

Here's the problem with the writing the past few seasons:

The writers were unable or unwilling to make any meaningful curve of a story arc survive more than an hour. New threat discovered, new master villain identified CLIFFHANGER UNTIL NEXT WEEK! oh great we found the master villain, he's dead, oh wait, there's a new threat and a new master-er villain CLIFFHANGER UNTIL NEXT WEEK okay we found him and he's dead too now ... wash/rinse/repeat until May.

Each episode had about as much depth as a chapter of Da Vinci Code. In fact, it's so simplistic, Dave Barry fan has condensed the season (less the finale) down to 374 syllables.

The Haiku Guide to Season 7 of "24"

blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2009/05/i-2.html#comment-6a00d83451587d69e2011570923c2f970b

[CAHoya07]

May 20, 2009 21:29:49 GMT -5 mchoya said:

Remember when no one was safe on 24? Teri, Chappelle, and Palmer were all meaningful characters. Yet, they were all killed off. If they killed Jack off, it would have been a throwback to that image. They've also spent a lot of time this year establishing Renee as a main character. They probably will be making the next season about her and the conspiracy. Jack's death could have been one last parting shot.

I did think that someone meaningful was going to die in the season finale, Tony being the most likely candidate, but even Chloe. So in that sense, I agree. However, there was no way they were going to kill Jack off yet. No Jack Bauer, no 24, period.

EDIT: Agree with FL. Seasons 1-2 had great arcs throughout the whole season, which is why they remain my favorites.