Suddenly, 21 Disjointed Hours Make Sense...

[Mike2GuysTalking]

Something I just saw on the Dave Barry Blog: 24 Section grabbed my attention that really does do a great deal to tell us what's going on with this season, the 6th for the hit Fox show, "24". It's truly shocking.

Read on and be sure to put YOUR thoughts here in regard to what YOU think of this kind/type of creation process.

"May 08, 2007
Source: The Dave Barry Blog
NOW THEY TELL US

"Another reason to never watch "24" again: In what has to be the most careless slip of the tongue in recent memory (or a cavalier announcement of how stupid television really is), one of the executive producers of "24" told the industry magazine TV Week that the show hadn't mapped out its story lines in two seasons.

Uh, what? You're running a complex serial drama -- albeit one that often makes no sense (which certainly makes sense now) -- and you're admitting that nobody knows where the story is going? Unbelievable. And yet, not. This kind of disdain for the viewer, which came back to bite "24" in the butt this year as viewers revolted and ratings dropped, should not be forgiven. All promises of fixing the format next year should fall on deaf ears. The producers have admitted that they're not flying the plane and that they don't know where it's going, which is a dereliction of duty. Someone at Fox should be fired for not keeping better watch on one of the network's most popular shows."

[Moose]

Ok I agree this year has had some spots/sections that aren't in sync...it could be just a TV hype .....but in the end TONIGHT Jack will be on TOP! Getting his father, the Chinese, Saving Josh, Working to save the Day as Jack does...that's why we watch the whole season...to see how it all comes together! Because Bauer Rules!

[scors50]

OK, I haven’t really posted at all, but now that it’s all said and done, here goes:

I did not like this season at all. I felt that, after a really great S5, the writers got lazy, sloppy and took the audience for granted. There are SOOOO many aspects of this, I could write a term paper, but I’ll focus on just a few, if you’ll allow me.

First of all, the CTU/LA thing has run its course—it’s gotten stale and I really hope they change venues for next season. The constant elevation of threat has become ridiculous. It was as though, this season, they used several plot devices fro previous seasons, tried to up the ante on each and failed—miserably. In S5, Henderson is like Jack’s father, and is a really great villain because he can get right inside of Jack’s head. So, why not up the ante and get Jack’s REAL father this season. Sorry, didn’t work for me. In S2 we had a nuke ALMOST explode on US soil—so this season, let’s have it REALLY happen. But, then let’s forget about it for most of the season as everyone is still out in the streets and there’s no problem with shifting winds and fallout. Just dumb. We had a romance in CTU with Tony and Michelle. Hell, fans seem to have liked that so much, let’s have multiple soap opera triangles going on at once—Morris/Chloe and Milo, Milo/Nadia and Doyle, Jack with Marilyn, Jack with Audrey and, hell, for the old folks demographic (like myself) let’s throw in Bill and Karen—and, of course, the Presidential sex scandal. Ugh—enough.

OK, all of that is just noise, but annoying noise. Now, some major issues of sloppy writing and plot Attention Deficit Disorder:

1) Just what the hell WAS the steep price the USA paid to get Jack back? How do you start with that and NEVER revisit it.
2) We have a major internal plot involving the attempted murder of the president. Just who was behind that?? Reed and his crony?? Who orchestrated that? The president is nearly killed and we get NOTHING about who was behind it? That’s just sloppy.
3) We have an ex-president of the US stabbed by the first lady and NO resolution? WTF was that? Why even bring back three great S5 characters, with Charles, Martha and Aaron just to denigrate the three with a completely useless plot development. Oh—and yet another triangle (gack!!)
4) OK—bad enough we have these throwaway characters every season who breeze in to resolve a dangling plotline, and then drop off the face of the earth. But this season was just amazing. We had an entire Division investigative team take over the Central Conference room and then just disappear for the entire finale. We get the massive a-hole Ben Cramm introduced to add even more conflict and then… and then…where’d he go ?/ I mean the sudden “Milo brother” was bad enough, as was the Psychiatrist who was treating Audrey—as was the guy from the justice department as was….ahh, what the hell.

Finally (I promise) as much as some fan are praising this “oh, so original” finale, I have always believed that ambiguity is just an excuse to cover up the inability to make sense of your own plot—assuming you even have one. What the writers did was, I felt, one last slap in the face. One last assumption that 24 fans are so loyal, we’ll accept any crap they shovel us and make believe its ice cream. They HAD NO ENDING, and left things so ridiculously wide open so they can go in ANY narrative direction they want next year and it will work, because thy have made it clear, at least to me, that next year will be very different, and all that has gone before will remain unresolved forever. They punted—they played it safe and backed out with a deep breath and a “whew—glad we got out of that” The one thing that always attracted me to 24 was its refusal to play it safe—they proved that with the gutsiest finale EVER in TV history with S1. This cop out was just a final indicator of how far we have fallen.

I really hope these writers, who can be brilliant, get the message from the massive ratings bleed the show suffered and the critical “un-acclaim” they got slapped with. I really hope they reinvent the entire show and get back to the intimate, suspenseful and personal drama of S1. I really hope the days of CTU satellites, PDAs, WMD threats, Super-patriot “I’ll sacrifice anything” Jack and disappearing plotlines and characters are over and done for once and for all. If we get 2 or 3 eps of Jack in a different scenario and, suddenly, we’re back to LA, CTU and Jack reinstated to save the world from yet another uber-terrorist, inside the government plot, I will DVR only for the first time since i started wathing back during S1, minute 1. Sad--just sad.

[Mike2GuysTalking]

Thanks for taking the time to post here! We got your input as well and are really excited about providing as much of the feedback that we've gotten for the finale as possible!

Enjoy your stay here at the TwentyFourForum, and be sure to tell us what you think of the last 24th hour review we've just posted.

Take care and our thanks again for your input!

[AR]

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