TV Review: "24" Season 2
When it comes to sophomore anything, there is always that moment when you wonder if it was just a fluke the first time around. Maybe Keifer Sutherland was just having a good year, Dennis Haysbert is a bad actor, and the creators of “24” are already spent creatively.
It’s been on the air for six years already, and I’ve haven’t been living under a rock so I am aware “24” is a very successful television show. Of course by that definition, “Desperate Housewives” is still a good television show (if even by that definition not as good as it was in the first season). Still, for “24,” it seems to be a fairly simple thing to throw together a new season. Do what you did last season, but more of it. And that’s what “24” did.
Instead of trying to protect some measly senator running for President, Jack Bauer is running around trying to stop terrorists with a nuclear bomb. David Palmer, instead of running for President, is now the President and gets to grapple with this unfolding crisis while dealing with a palace coup.
If there is something I have enjoyed so far with “24” is the dichotomy between the non-violent and violent spheres of the show. As a general guide you are fairly safe assuming that President Palmer isn’t going to pull out a handgun and shoot anyone while he is dealing with backroom politics. Jack Bauer on the other hand is probably going to be committing violence and violating civil rights everywhere.
This dichotomy is of course necessary because “24” can’t just put President Palmer down for a nap while Jack implements his decisions, so Dennis Haysbert is kept hopping. It also means Jack Bauer gets to track down terrorists while Palmer gets to deal with backroom politics which are interesting in their own right. Yet the challenge of needing to keep all these characters on the move to keep them in play completely breaks down with Elisha Cuthbert and her character Kim Bauer.
Season two of “24” should have arguably been a better season than season one. The characters are established and well grounded, the world “24” is set in has been shaped and outlined and the very concept of “24” has been proven, The one decision that prevented season two from surpassing season one was the decision to continue under the impression that Kim Bauer was a major and necessary character to “24.”
But in fact Kim Bauer is so superfluous to “24’s” plot requirements, that she almost has her own television show within “24.” Plot wise it seems she is in a contest to see how many felonies she can be involved in without actually being charged with anything, all so she can be in place to be weepy for phone calls from Jack (which were very good actually). The disconnect between Kim Bauer and the rest of show is such that every one of her scenes just brings the show to a crashing halt, as we watch and wait for it to end, knowing no harm will befall Kim and much harm will befall those around her. Season two also keeps up with the theme that being Kim adjacent is an invitation for death, dismemberment, and imprisonment.
Acting wise the best scene chewing comes from Xander Berkeley who gets what every actor wants, but almost an entire season of it. Here he could teach Leonard Nimoy a thing or two. Berkeley’s character, George Mason, has proved to be kind of corrupt but not an out and out bad guy (stealing money=corrupt, but it’s not like he’s selling state secrets), who really turns it around in season two barking orders getting people killed over the right reasons.
A returning favourite of mine was Sarah Clarke as Nina Meyers. I just love the way they shoot her, always at an angle, never with natural light. A stark-looking woman made even more so, she gets some great scenes with some great lines.
For Jack Bauer season two sees him back in the action after the events of season one and, because it’s “24,” it never lets up. There is no such thing as an impossible mission or an easy mission on “24,” just hard enough. But by the end of the show I was personally finding the lengths the writers were going to to make things harder for Jack Bauer a little tiresome. You can only employ a plot device so many times when it requires seemingly smart people to act like idiots.
All told, season two should have been better than season one, but someone insisted on including Elisha Cuthbert, and therefore Kim Bauer and her idiotic plot. For me this didn’t kill the show, but I’m docking marks for the unnecessary tangents that were Elisha Cuthbert’s scenes.
8.5/10.