TV review: 24
Lost wasn't the only thing ending this week. 24 reached it's finale episode, after 8 long seasons. And unlike Lost, which strung it's viewers along for 6 seasons only to answer absolutely none of the mysteries it set up in favor of a cop out emotional final shot stuffed with religious allegory, 24 decided to go out with a brief tribute to it's hero, leaving him alive but drifting in the wind. It ended exactly as it should have ended, and it was an extremely satisfying finale. But it was not an easy road getting there.
24 started off as a high concept show, with a hell of a gimmick. Each episode was one hour in a day in the life of its lead character Jack Bauer, as he tried to stop terrorists, bombs, assassinations and other assorted catastrophe's. The first season debuted with only moderate ratings. Fox, in a rare move, kept the show on for it's full season, which ended with one of the greatest final shots in television history, that of Jack Bauer, after a day of absolute hell, cradling the body of his dead wife. It was a scene you NEVER expected, and at that time, was almost unheard of in network television. It proved the show had balls of steel and would gladly kill off anybody. That final shot is what made the show brilliant, and gave it the hugely positive word of mouth that helped save the show. That word of mouth translated to huge DVD sales of the first season, which convinced Fox to renew it for a second season. The second season debuted to huge ratings, and those ratings helped up all the way though the creative zenith of the show that was season 5, for which the show and actor Kiefer Sutherland won Emmy's for.
Then came season 6. After season 5, there appeared to be nowhere to go but up. The set up was there, the possibilities were endless, and instead, the writers fell back to a nonsensical storyline, lazy writing, and bland cliche's you could see coming a mile away. it was a season so bad, it skewered the shows' ratings, legitimacy, fan base, and popularity. It was a truly terrible season, which even managed to make its always exciting lead character, Jack Bauer, look bored with himself.
The show returned with season 7, which would have been decent enough, if not for the ungodly decision to bring back a character who died 2 seasons before. That stupidity managed to derail the entire season, because it played out as idiotically as you expected, with the zombie character turning from bad to good to bad to good to bad again. It was a season of no importance, and can pretty much be skipped entirely.
At this time rumblings started coming that the show's upcoming 8th season, would be it's last. And lord knows it was time. The show was not stale for 2 seasons and seemed to have nothing left to say. Anyone who need further convincing needed only to look at season 8. The season started off almost completely unwatchable. Every single cliche from the show's past made its way into the first half of the season. There were crazy Arab terrorists, nuclear weapons on the loose, a mole within CTU, a idiot CTU boss who didn't listen to the obvious, torture, a CTU attack, etc. Not only that, it became obvious the writers no longer knew how to stretch the hours, so they kept putting Jack in completely ridiculous situations. It got so bad, I almost stopped watching entirely. I was ONE bad moment away from turning it off entirely.
Then a miracle happened! Fox finally announced the season would be the show's last. And the writers, having suspected it might be, went with their series finale plans. And ONE key episode later, in which a surprisingly exciting hour came to an unexpectedly shocking and tragic end, saved the show. From that episode on, the season managed to turn itself around. It managed to become GOOD again. I never saw it coming. I NEVER expected this terrible season to be able to turn itself around the way it did. But it managed it. This season improved, and the final 4 episodes managed to be the series best shows seen since the 5th season, with Jack Bauer finally cut loose and taking everyone down. The finale tonight managed to perfectly wrap up everything that came about this season, and give a completely satisfying close to the show, with a brilliant final shot that leaves the door open for the planned movie Fox has in the works. Even if there was no movie, the ending just works. 24 just proved tonight that even with a shitty season, a proper ending can be managed. This is something LOST failed miserable at.
So thus end 24. No more weekly adventures for Jack Bauer. But I do await the movie with something I didn't have before, and didn't expect to have when this season started: Anticipation. That accomplishment, is proof that he finale did it's job, and did it well. An unbalanced show managed to pull it off wen it counted. I couldn't be more pleased with that. See you again soon Jack!
24 started off as a high concept show, with a hell of a gimmick. Each episode was one hour in a day in the life of its lead character Jack Bauer, as he tried to stop terrorists, bombs, assassinations and other assorted catastrophe's. The first season debuted with only moderate ratings. Fox, in a rare move, kept the show on for it's full season, which ended with one of the greatest final shots in television history, that of Jack Bauer, after a day of absolute hell, cradling the body of his dead wife. It was a scene you NEVER expected, and at that time, was almost unheard of in network television. It proved the show had balls of steel and would gladly kill off anybody. That final shot is what made the show brilliant, and gave it the hugely positive word of mouth that helped save the show. That word of mouth translated to huge DVD sales of the first season, which convinced Fox to renew it for a second season. The second season debuted to huge ratings, and those ratings helped up all the way though the creative zenith of the show that was season 5, for which the show and actor Kiefer Sutherland won Emmy's for.
Then came season 6. After season 5, there appeared to be nowhere to go but up. The set up was there, the possibilities were endless, and instead, the writers fell back to a nonsensical storyline, lazy writing, and bland cliche's you could see coming a mile away. it was a season so bad, it skewered the shows' ratings, legitimacy, fan base, and popularity. It was a truly terrible season, which even managed to make its always exciting lead character, Jack Bauer, look bored with himself.
The show returned with season 7, which would have been decent enough, if not for the ungodly decision to bring back a character who died 2 seasons before. That stupidity managed to derail the entire season, because it played out as idiotically as you expected, with the zombie character turning from bad to good to bad to good to bad again. It was a season of no importance, and can pretty much be skipped entirely.
At this time rumblings started coming that the show's upcoming 8th season, would be it's last. And lord knows it was time. The show was not stale for 2 seasons and seemed to have nothing left to say. Anyone who need further convincing needed only to look at season 8. The season started off almost completely unwatchable. Every single cliche from the show's past made its way into the first half of the season. There were crazy Arab terrorists, nuclear weapons on the loose, a mole within CTU, a idiot CTU boss who didn't listen to the obvious, torture, a CTU attack, etc. Not only that, it became obvious the writers no longer knew how to stretch the hours, so they kept putting Jack in completely ridiculous situations. It got so bad, I almost stopped watching entirely. I was ONE bad moment away from turning it off entirely.
Then a miracle happened! Fox finally announced the season would be the show's last. And the writers, having suspected it might be, went with their series finale plans. And ONE key episode later, in which a surprisingly exciting hour came to an unexpectedly shocking and tragic end, saved the show. From that episode on, the season managed to turn itself around. It managed to become GOOD again. I never saw it coming. I NEVER expected this terrible season to be able to turn itself around the way it did. But it managed it. This season improved, and the final 4 episodes managed to be the series best shows seen since the 5th season, with Jack Bauer finally cut loose and taking everyone down. The finale tonight managed to perfectly wrap up everything that came about this season, and give a completely satisfying close to the show, with a brilliant final shot that leaves the door open for the planned movie Fox has in the works. Even if there was no movie, the ending just works. 24 just proved tonight that even with a shitty season, a proper ending can be managed. This is something LOST failed miserable at.
So thus end 24. No more weekly adventures for Jack Bauer. But I do await the movie with something I didn't have before, and didn't expect to have when this season started: Anticipation. That accomplishment, is proof that he finale did it's job, and did it well. An unbalanced show managed to pull it off wen it counted. I couldn't be more pleased with that. See you again soon Jack!