24 - Season 5 ongoing thread (2 Viewers)

Never too early to get a 24 thread started:

Warning: Link contains some spoilers (not many though)... Sean Astin joins 24 cast.

I wonder if he'll play Jack Bauer's gardener?

Excellent. I have already started feeling 24 Deprived. Great news

Now I know who's in the cast, you've ruined the season for me! Just kiddin'

I can't wait to see Jack Bauer back in action!

Now that I have HD, I'm really looking forward to next season! (assuming it broadcasts in HD?)

Yep, it does.

Interesting that the article doesn't say anything about Astin's character.

Glad to see that Edgar & Chloe are back. I love those 2 together.

He's a mysterious guy named "Mr. Smith" who claims to talk to God and... Oh, wait... wrong show.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I have seen the actual packaging for 24 Season 4 and there is a small circle on the set that reads "Watch the 4-Hour season premiere of the fifth season of 24." Talk about a huge opening for a season of a television series.

WOW 4 hrs thats great. I can't wait atleast it'll fill the void of no Prison Break till March.

They did this last season as well. They will run two episodes on a Sunday and then another two on Monday. Then one episode a week without any hiatus until the end of the Season in May. Much better than how they used to do it when they started the season in fall and fans would be subjected to periods of hiatus through the season that lasted for weeks.

Is Kim Bauer back? As much as I dont really liker role in the show, I love to look at her.

Cant wait for the start of the next season.

Can't wait for this. After season 4 ended I watched seasons 2 and 3 on DVD, and have been waiting for this show to come back, thought it kind of gets sillier each season.

I agree but they have to top themselves every year so they need to have more and more threats. I recently re-watched the first season and found it 'funny' that the episodes were much slower (not bad but slower) than they are now. The first season is still my favorite, with Season Four close behind, but the show is different now. If they did stories with the same pace as the first year, the entire thread would be complaints about how slow the season is.

If that's a bow to the Lost thread, I'd have to say at least one difference is each season of "24" is self-contained and has a beginning, middle, and end. If you know you're going to get from beginning to end in 24 episodes, it doesn't become a question of how fast you'll get there (you know... 24 episodes), but of how much detail they will show along the way.

You may be right, though. I never have any clue what others will complain about. Personally, I'd accept the pace of Season 1 just fine. I like a little reality in my fantasy.

I watched Season 1 on DVD and didn't pay attention to any structural things. I remember saying at the time that at a certain point, it was like watching a different show. That's when I was told it was initially only 13 episodes, and then they had to kinda extend it when it got picked up. I thought the Amnesia, etc. was all a bit much, even though I overall thought the show rocked.

I'm looking forward to the 4-hour season kick-off. I expect it to have some eyerolling moments, but overall keep me entertained.

No, it's not a knock against the Lost thread but it could be applied there as well.

What I meant was that, while the pace of Season One worked great for that year, if they tried to go back to a pace that 'slow' it would seem like they were just standing still the entire season. Essentially, Season One had the plot against Palmer, Jack's family being kidnapped and then finding and stopping the Drazens. Season Four had

spoilers for anyone who is waiting for the S4 DVDs:
the Secretary Of Defense being kidnapped and saved, nuclear power plant meltdowns, the EMP detonation, the President being shot down, the nukes being hijacked by Marwan, the raid on the Chinese embassy, thwarting the nuke, and the 'death' of Jack Bauer.
They've set the bar very high for themselves and now they need to top themselves every year. I'm not saying that one is better or worse than the other, the show is just different from when it first started. A big difference is in the size and amount of threats that they have to set up each year.

Like every show, people tend complain more about it when it's on. Then the farther away they get from it, they generally remember more of the good than the bad.

Just to clarify, I'm not trying to knock the show. I've loved every season of 24 (even the black sheep Season Three- which is great once it gets moving) and can't wait for more Jack in January!

No matter how far-fetched the show gets it's still better than 99.9% of the CRAP that is normally on television these days. I can't wait for Season 5 to start!

A part of me is wondering when TV (or movies for that matter) started having to "top" themselves? To me, different can be as enjoyable without always being bigger. I understand you don't want the audience to feel like they've seen it all before, because that could lead to disinterest and tuning out. Still, I think if people like the characters, they will follow the characters through life regardless of whether the surrounding situations are always bigger and more elaborate. It seems to be particularly potent in the action arena. A comedy show is allowed to be different without being bigger of funnier every year. Has every year of the Simpsons been better than the previous? How about E.R.?

I thought the number of threats last year was unreasonable for a 24 hour period. I'm hoping they can find a way to interest us for 24 hours without having to through 20 different increasingly implausible threats at us to retain our attention and appreciation.

You hit it dead on. That's exactly what I like the most about 24 is the characters. All the cool stuff going on around them is great but what interests me the most is the actors and the characters they've created. I want to see more of Jack, Tony, Michelle, Chloe, and even the newer characters like Curtis, Buchannan and Edgar. Heck, I don't even mind Kim.

I read an interview with executive producer Howard Gordon where he said that the audience responded pretty favorably to the numerous threats in S4 so they were going to go in that same direction for this year. The thing that held all the multiple threats together, for me, was having one villain primarily behind the whole plot. Unlike Season Two or Three where early on it was "This is the bad guy" and then later it was "And this the really bad guy behind that first bad guy."

24 is "not great but never boring" as one of my friends put it. Season one was really something special, though. The only season I'd watch again.

One of the things I liked about the first season was that Jack was in a position of vulnerability for the bulk of the season. He wasn't the superhero kind of guy he was in the later seasons.

I thought season 3 (I think it was season 3) would go back to him being imperfect with:

Jack's drug addition

...but they forgot that character trait soon into the season.

I'm still looking forward to this next season. If I've enjoyed the other four seasons, it would take a lot for me not to care about what happens in this one!

Regarding Sean Astin, I saw a little blurb on a TV show last week showing that he will be the new boss at CTU.
At least that's what they implied.