24: Season Six thread (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I agree. This season needs to end fast so we can start
with a clean slate next year.

By far, the worst seaspn ever for 24

 

[TravisR]

NERDY CORRECTION: Actually there's five but they're counting episodes 23 and 24 as one since they'll air together.

I've said it before but I think the problem this year has been that they'll have a good episode but follow it up with a lackluster episode and then a good one and another lackluster one. Other years, they'd have five good episodes and then slow down and then more good ones. It's like they can't get a steady flow of good episodes this year.

 

[mylan]

How many times can they say to "take Jack into custody, now!" before it becomes just simply unbelievable? At this point this plot device has become so tired its lost its shock value. We all know that Jack, Chloe, etc. will be back as soon as the next crisis reinstates them. We have become so disinterested that we did not watch last weeks episode until Saturday night. I too cannot wait until my Mondays are free again.

 

[Dave_Brown]

Geesh, it wasn't that bad. You want real pain, try coming down off a 24 high to have to sit through an episode of "The Bachelor" with your fiance. You want to talk about painful.

Two things; It's nice to see little Audrey Griswald in charge. And two, that ain't Audrey. It's obvious that she really was killed in China and to get to Jack, they took a Chinese woman, gave her plastic surgery to look like Audrey and taught her just enough English to say "Jack, please don't let them hurt me." And now she is freaking out because she can't say anything else.

 

[JayDerek]

This season is making the Cougar/Kim subplot in Season 2 look Emmy-award winning brilliant.

The first 4 hours of this show were SO well done...it's so sad to see it tank so fast.

~Jason

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> It's obvious that she really was killed in China and to get to Jack, they took a Chinese woman, gave her plastic surgery to look like Audrey and taught her just enough English to say "Jack, please don't let them hurt me."

Damn, why didn't I notice?

I was watching Conan last week with Kiefer Sutherland on. Conan was saying how everyone was raving about what a great season this is... then I finally realized it was a Conan episode from last fall.

I seem to remember the first 4 hours of this season WERE pretty good, then it seemed to go downhill fast... but still more watchable than most of the other stuff on TV.

I loved how the Chinese guy so easily walked out of the motel to his limo with all the gunfire all around him, like he was the Heroes cheerleader or something.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I don't know if that's "obvious" but it certainly crossed my mind. But then Ockham's Razor kicked in. But then "24 reality" kicked in. Heck, I have no idea what's going to happen.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

(Heston impersonation)

They cut her brain - you damn dirty apes!

 

[TravisR]

In my mind, it's bad ONLY when you compare it to other seasons of 24. If a show like Prison Break managed to be half as good as 24 has been this year, I'd be impressed that they pulled that off. However, 24 has been so damn good before that I hold it to a higher standard (although that may or may not be fair) than I would nearly any other show.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Wow, guess I'm easier to please than most as I'm still quite enjoying this season.

 

[Brent M]

It always cracks me up when people refer to the Kim/cougar thing as a "subplot". Like Travis said, it was one scene and it really wasn't that big of a deal IMHO. I really think it's time to let that one go.

As for this season, I agree that it's only disappointing when compared to other seasons of 24. The show has been 4 1/2 seasons of brilliance up to this point(half of season 3 was pretty weak, but still not as bad as this year) so it's a major letdown when the show doesn't deliver.

Having said that, I think there's some kind of evil virus in Hollywood that's infecting all the writers of my favorite TV shows. Not only has 24 been a letdown, but The Office, Entourage and The Sopranos(which has sucked for a while now) are all much less entertaining this year than they have been in the past. The only show that seems to be immune so far is The Shield which is every bit as good if not better than it has always been. The guys that write that show need to come inject some new life into 24 for next season and give it back that "edge" that it used to have.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Well, the Kim/Cougar "subplot" also followed the "subplot" when she found herself in the clutches of that Unabomber type (except that he was really, really cute)... which itself was considered pretty ridiculous until it was immediately outdone in that category.

This is a deeply stupid show, and has always been amusing for that very reason. Last night's episode was a therefore a great one. Jack completely undermines everything we know about him and sacrifices "national security" for some lost nookie. The Chinese come to California to make the exchange, bringing their hostage and a crack team of special forces with them (presumably all tucked deep inside the diplomatic pouch). Jack is then allowed to set the terms of the exchange, which include Audrey walking away and then Cheng turning to Jack and saying hopefully "now, about that macguffin, Mr. Bauer...". Heh. And why again couldn't Jack hit the detonator once the bullets started flying and before Cheng had escaped out the back door via a fleet of Hummers that clearly weren't towed in by the limousine?

And can anyone out there honestly say you didn't either bust a gut laughing or vomit just a little in your mouth when the show's resident Dick Cheney started macking on the resident Anne Coulter? UGH! I mean HA! No, back to ugh..

So, I guess the big intrigue for these latter episodes is not so much whether Audrey finds her way back into Jack's loving arms, but whether Doyle is Jack's doppelganger or his replacement... you know, in case Sutherland wants to move on to other roles in search of ever-elusive gravitas.

 

[Brent M]

Calling 24 "deeply stupid" is an insult to all of the show's fans IMHO. It has always required a certain suspension of disbelief(just like most action flicks), but that's a far cry from stupid. I think the problem is that some people take this show WAAAAAY too seriously and expect unreasonable results from it. I've always been able to just sit back and enjoy the ride rather than analyzing every single scene looking for something to complain about. Granted, that's been much more difficult this year as it is a very bad season for 24, but I still maintain hope that they can rebound from this and start with a clean slate for season 7.

 

[Ken Chan]

False equivalence is annoying. 24 is more stupid than most action flicks because of its structure. Stupid things have to happen over and over -- like clockwork! -- because there are 24 consecutive "real-time" one-hour episodes. And this is the sixth season, so very similar stupid stuff seems to have happened before.

That doesn't mean you can't enjoy the show, or that bright people can't enjoy stupid things (as long as they acknowledge those things are stupid).

 

[Brent M]

Whatever. You're entitled to your opinion as I'm entitled to mine and calling the show "stupid" is an insult IMHO. Move along.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I fall into the yes and no camp on that one. Yes, he did what you said, but I'm not so sure it undermines everything we know about him for two reasons:

1) He really believed he could do things without letting the Chinese get hold of the chip. Jack has taken risks like that before.

2) Even though it's a large risk, it's the very fact that Jack has lost so much personally that causes him to speak to the president as a representative of his country when he says, "You owe me."

 

[ScottH]

I don't know if I'd call the show "deeply stupid", but as a fan, I'd say that's not far off. And I'm certainly not offended by that comment.

 

[Rich Malloy]

If I'm insulting "all of the show's fans", then I'm insulting myself along with the rest of you (and, for the record, I don't mean to insult anyone, least of all me). Otherwise, I'm making the same point you are. Smacking our remotes down and indignantly proclaiming these last few episodes to be shark-jump material ignores all the sublimely ridiculous moments of seasons past.

I know I'm not the only one who chuckles everytime CTU reinforcements are "15 minutes away from your position", or when the most-wanted-terrorist-ever is intrusted to two beat cops from the local L.A.P.D. for transport, or when Jack is given authority to do basically anything he wants "in the service of national security" despite the fact that he rather routinely "goes rogue". Or, indeed, when a cougar menaces his comely daughter only just after she's escaped the clutches of the Tean Beat Unambomber. It's dumb, it's silly, it's utterly divorced from any reality that you or I know... and yet it's very engaging and charming and exciting and all the rest of the things that keep us watching even as we roll our eyes and smack our foreheads in disbelief.

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, Jack has never been willing to sacrifice himself for a loved one or a cause before. He planned on killing himself and taking the chip and Cheng with him. If his plan had worked, he'd have saved Audrey, stopped the chip from falling into enemy hands and killed the man who has been the bane of his existence for the last two years. That's perfectly in line with Jack's character.

As for it being stupid, it's not Shakespeare but it isn't supposed to be. It's exciting, not literature.

 

[MikeM]

Wow, that was a horrible episode.
You have perhaps the greatest plot-making line of all time ("Jack Bauer has gone rogue!") and you follow that up with a lame white house soap opera storyline with little face time for Jack at all. Talk about a let down.