10 posts tagged “24”

Nadia returns home after the day's work and crawls into bed. We only see one side of the bed and she says aloud that she can't believe all that's happened today and she wonders if she has the strength to carry on. She begins to cry and we see an arm reach out to comfort her and as Nadia turns the camera pans back and reveals ...

Kim Bauer.

The two kiss and the screen fades to black.

In somber fashion. With Jack letting go of Audrey, contemplating his fate as he stares down at a possible watery grave and receives a silent clock. A silent clock for who? The Jack Bauer we once knew?

Maybe.

Perhaps when Day 7 begins we'll find Jack in an even darker place, having given up on the last remnant of his soul (as represented by Audrey) and without any hope left in himself or the world around him. Perhaps that is what we'll find.

Along with Baby Chloe.

So Day 6 ends, a slight upgrade from Day 5 but nowhere near the level of greatness attained by the first four days. "24" remains a solid show, an enjoyable hour of television each week. But it does not appear to be operating at peak potency any longer. Perhaps that will change in Day 7. Perhaps the rumored renovation of the show's format will result in something stronger than we've seen the past two seasons. Perhaps an even darker Jack Bauer will serve as a catalyst to return the show to past levels of performance.

Perhaps.

But for now, all we have is the world breathing another sigh of relief thanks to the efforts of Jack Bauer. And a lone figure who has lost everything that meant anything to him and faces a future totally alone and without purpose. Marching to the beat of his own drummer and to the tune of a silent clock.

I'd rank the seasons thus far as follows:

1a. Day 4
1b. Day 2
3. Day 3
4. Day 1

5. Day 6

6. Day 5

Days 4 and 2 are neck-and-neck for me. I thought they were the strongest and most gripping of the seasons to date. And Day 2 has, in my opinion, the best season finale with the best kick-ass Jack episode. I liked Day 3 even if it shifted gears rather dramatically midway through. Day 1 was solid but the whole Teri/Amnesia subplot sunk it from being a sensational season to a good one. I've talked about my reasons for considering Day 5 to be the weakest. I think this season has been quite a bit better but nowhere near the level of the first four seasons.

As I've said before I think the producers made a mistake in Day 5 killing off every one of Jack's allies from Day 1. Removing Palmer left a gaping hole in the show that has yet to be filled and I liked Tony and Michelle quite a bit as well (Michelle for obvious reasons). I don't think any of Jack's current allies compare to those three and the show has been weakened by their departures. So while I enjoyed last season and thought it was fun, I didn't think it was as strong as the first four.

The Day 1 finale with Teri dying remains by far the single most dramatic moment in this show's history and the most powerful moment any season finale has produced. But I think the Day 2 finale with Jack engaged in serious combat was the most kick-ass finale thus far and the one I enjoyed the most.

Is a pretty blah episode.

Milo pretending to be the head of CTU turned out to be a pretty bad idea.

Jack only has three hours left until this day is over. It's time for him to start getting angry.

All that needs to be said is after seeing Jack lay waste to the terrorists and putting an end to the nuclear threat, Silver Spoons looked around and muttered. "Damn Jack."

Nuff said.

Oh and did I mention ...

Jack Bauer vs. China.

BOUT DAMN TIME!

Plenty of twists and turns though I'm still waiting for Jack to find out Josh is his son. I mean c'mon that HAS to be his kid.

Again, not liking the Palmer May Die angle. I'd like to see a President hang around on this show again and I like DB Woodside as an actor so I'm hoping he sticks.

Not buying Nadia as the mole. Milo's a possibility but it would be nice if once CTU wasn't breached and there really wasn't a mole. After all this is a government agency; it'd be nice if they acted like one just once in awhile.

I still miss Tony and Michelle.

I miss Kim too while we're at it.

And am I the only one who hopes Jack kicks the living shit out of Ricky Schroeder? And when did he start going by "Ricky" again? What is he, 45? Ricky? Jesus, grow the hell up you little punk. If nothing else, having Jack kick the shit out of him would be a nice reward for those of us who tuned out "NYPD Blue" when "Ricky" arrived.

So Jack has vowed to find Audrey's killers. Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the country of China is responsible for this one. That means it's Jack versus a billion Chinese. Sounds like a major mismatch in Jack's favor. Maybe they should round up some Egyptians or something to help even the odds a bit.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Audrey wasn't really dead.

Some random thoughts:

A special two-hour "24" tonight. More Jack for the buck.

Jack gets to actually kill somebody tonight as opposed to only thinking he killed somebody. This is good for him. He needs to actually start killing people again. He needs to keep smoothing as much karma as he can.

First hour is devoted to finding Morris before he can help Fayed arm the remaining nukes and a possible overthrow of President Palmer Redux. Morris is saved but not before he arms the nukes and AllyMcBealBoy is drawn into the plan to overthrow PPR by Chad Lowe.

I keep watching Chad Lowe and the only thing I can think is: Hilary Swank was actually married to this guy?

Jack disarms a nuke. Whew that was a close one. I thought he was a goner for sure this time. We actually see Jack shake. Great work by the writers to throw us off by trying to show us that Jack is really human after all. Bullshit. He was just psyching out the nuke. And it worked too. Jack didn't really disarm the nuke. The nuke cowered in fear and stopped ticking because it knew better than to fuck with Jack Bauer.     

Back in Washington PPR is meeting with the former Islamic terrorist who now wants world peace. To the surprise of ... well ... no one, this isn't a big hit with PPR's cabinet.

Sidenote: What is it about the Palmer brothers that leads people to want to get rid of them as President? First David was removed in Day 2 and now Wayne's treading on dangerous water in Day 6. And people just let President BumbleFuck go on about his business in Day 5 without a care in the world. Go figure.

So far Powers Boothe has been given one acting tip: Look pissed. Props to Powers.

Fayed gets away and places a call about the remaining nukes to ... TONY ALMEDA!

OK, just kidding. But seriously, wouldn't that be cool? Tony just completely freaked out over Michelle's death and the fact he was killed by RoboCop and flipped to the other side. Talk about your big reveals. That would be the reveal to end all reveals on this show. Speaking of Tony, he's the second-toughest guy on this show so it wouldn't surprise me at all if he really wasn't dead. There's Jack, then Tony and then Aaron Pierce. Those are three tough mofos.

It still pisses me off that Tony didn't get a silent clock when he died. Fucking Edgar got one but Tony didn't? That is just so wrong.

Oh well, back to Day 6.

Hour 9 has more Bauer Family Intrigue which is the stuff I'm really getting into so far this season. PapaBauer sure is one bad ass. First he kills his son and then he kidnaps his grandson and tells his daughter-in-law to lead Jack into a trap with the intent of killing him. That plan is foiled - of course, c'mon Jack can't be killed that easy. But he didn't seem the least-bit bothered about blowing his cover. He either hasn't paid much attention to his son's activities the past few years or he just doesn't care. I'm guessing it's the latter. I think we can see why Jack is ... well ... Jack.

Jack's sister--in-law was thinking about him when he was in China. Does this mean she still cares about him or was this her subtle way of saying she was thinking about Jack being held in chains and that was turning her on?

I think this chick is kinda freaky. I'm diggin her.

Speaking of her kid, find a picture of the young actor who was cast as Josh and find a picture of Elisha Cuthbert. Now hold them up side-by-side. Then tell me the casting director doesn't deserve a bonus this season.

Nope, no "family" resemblance there at all. Nope.

Buchanan wants to cover up the fact Jack killed his brother. Jack doesn't take the pussy's way out. He mans up and tells Buchanan to let the report stand as is. I could be wrong but I have to think the authorities are going to end up being OK with Jack killing the person directly responsible for the assassination of a President - especially if Jack puts an end to today's crisis.

Turns out there's a Russian bad guy who's really the one manipulating Fayed into attacking the U.S. There's another country for the "24" writers to piss off this season.

Next week - Jack finds out his father knows a thing or two about talking pigs. Oh, and he tried to kill Jack too.

That'll do, Jack. That'll do. 

Some random thoughts:

The Bauers sure are one fucked up family.

Jack tortures his Brother Blue Tooth. His brother pretends to crack by admitting he was the one who planned the assassination of President Palmer and the murders of Tony and Michelle. Jack goes absolutely ape shit only to be pulled from the brink of killing his brother by the sight of his father.

So what happens then?

DaddyBauer offs Brother Blue Tooth because he knows too much about their involvement with the nuclear bomb and he can't risk BTS cracking under more pressure.

Did I mention this is one fucked up family?

Oh and Morris is the guy the bad guys are going to force to arm the other nuclear bombs. Karen Hayes is still a punk but President Palmer Redux isn't (much to the chagrin of AllyMcBealyBoy and Powers Boothe); Nadia is still smoking hot and I'm almost not missing Michelle as much. And Regina King still hasn't had done much of anything in terms of storyline importance or relevance.

But who cares? This one was all about the Fucked Up Bauers. Try singing along with that as a theme song.

This series has been at its best when Jack has had a direct personal connection with the events he becomes a part of. Whether it's his wife, daughter or girlfriend when Jack has been forced to put his own humanity on the line, that's when the show rises to great heights. And as he pushed his brother closer and closer to death, we could see his soul being torn apart further. The dynamic of watching him both torture and comfort his brother showed the two sides of his personality fighting with one another - the internal dynamic was brought forth literally. You think Kiefer Sutherland doesn't have a firm grasp on this character? He gets Jack in ways no other actor ever could. That was standout acting work and that was easily the strongest and most powerful scene of the season.

But he's really overdue in terms of kills. It's time for Jack to ratchet up the body count. Will PapaBauer be on his hit list?

Some random thoughts:

Jack torturing his brother is nothing short of cool. Talk about your fucked up sibling rivalries. Of course, if Jack knew that his brother was part of Palmer's assassination and his own exile to China, he'd probably start removing body parts. Slowly.

And seriously how cool would that be?

Nadia the new CTU chick is smokin hot. Almost makes me forget that Michelle's no longer on the show. Almost.

Milo's trying to work it too. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of him giving her his access code. That can't end well.

I'm digging Wayne Palmer as the President. He's not his brother - who could be? - but he's certainly better than that chicken-shit, yellow-belly Logan who couldn't get his head out of his ass. What a spineless, sniveling little son of a bitch. Now as long as Wayne doesn't get played by the dude from "Ally McBeal" everything will be fine.

Speaking of which, Karen Hayes folded like a chump. 

OK, so there's someone in the President's cabinet that we all want to run over with a bus. That's par for the course. But we still haven't found the mole at CTU. There's ALWAYS a mole at CTU. That's one of my favorite things about this show - the President's cabinet and the Counter Terrorist Unit are constantly being infiltrated by the bad guys. Don't these people do background checks? How tough would it be for someone to tell Ally McBealBoy, "I'm sorry but you were in Ghostbusters 2. Ghostbusters 2 for cryin out loud. The one where Ernie Hudson actually had a decent-sized role. You can't seriously think there's any way in hell we're going to let you anywhere near the President."

Hey look, it's Chad Lowe.

I'm not sure when Jack did his sister-in-law but if he left her for Teri he really traded down. I'm pretty sure sister-in-law wouldn't get amnesia anytime soon.

You ever get the feeling Jack just lets people kidnap him because he needs a challenge? I'm pretty sure he could've  taken out Graem and his henchmen with his little finger but it's like that would be too easy and he'd get bored so he needs a little incentive to make him work harder. That's one of the things that makes Jack ... well ... Jack. He never lets himself get soft.

The only storyline not working is Walid and Palmer's sister. Hopefully something meaningful comes from that. Otherwise it's been pretty pointless so far.

I finally got around to watching Season 4 of "24" which means I've now seen every season of this terrific show. Unfortunately, I didn't start watching right from the start but the DVD sets helped me catch up quickly - it also meant I didn't get a lot of sleep since I had to see what was going to happen next. :)

So now that I've seen the first five seasons and am enjoying the start to Season 6 here's my ranking of the first five seasons in order of preference:

Jack Bauer

1. Season 2 (I liked the continuing development of Jack and Palmer's characters and the mid-season diversion into Palmer's impeachment was a nice compelling touch. Plus it featured a kick-ass finale with Jack near death saving Sherry Palmer's life).

2. Season 4 (Very close call with Season 2. I thought this season had the tightest storyline. The  returns of Tony and Michelle were integrated nicely into CTU and the finale with Jack's "death" in order to fool the Chinese was well done).

3. Season 3 (Another great season. I liked the addition of Chase and the personal dynamic with Jack, Chase and Kim worked well. And you to have to like how Jack could kick his heroin habit in about an hour or two).

4. Season 1 (A good debut season but marred by the silly Teri amnesia storyline. Her death in the season finale, though, was shocking and set the stage for one of the series' most prominent themes - the destruction of Jack's soul).

5. Season 5 (A decent season but not up to the level of the first four. Killing off all of the beloved characters from the first four seasons robbed the season of an emotional context for Jack so all that remained was Jack which is pretty damn good but not as good as the first four seasons).