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24: Update {season 3 SPOILERS}

Recoil

Recoil

Regular
OK I have noticed a considerable lack of posts regarding episodes of 24 this season. The last 2 seasons, every time an episode aired, you could count on commentary here on this site. I can only assume people have lost interest this season, and I suppose I am in that category. I do watch every episode, but I find Im not as into it this year. Why is that? Well, here is where I am with 24 so far:

1) The Threat

Deadly Virus. Ok Season 1 it was a personal attack against Jack Bauer and you didn't know which way the show was gonna go next. It was a new type of show and had us all at the edge of our seats. Season 2 had to out-do this with a bigger meaner threat, and a Nuclear Bomb was just the thing. I really liked Season 2, as much as Season 1, and was totally into it. As far as threats go, a Deadly Virus --- Biological Warfare --- I suppose was a logical choice. Theat is OK in my books.

2) The Stage.

What hurts this threat, is it is all taking place in BFE Mexico. Its in a freakin desert. I guess at the start of the season, when we were thinking the virus was on our home soil it was more intense. At least for me. Ever since this has moved to Mexico it just hasn't been as gripping to me yet.

3) The Characters.

Hector is a pussy. Never liked him. Ramon Salazar, now he is one of the better characters IMO. Far better than the evil villan of Season 2. He is almost up there with Dennis Hopper in Season 1. Nina coming back...still feels forced just like it did last season. If they are gonna keep brining her back, why not have one ENTIRE Season deal with her and this mystery group she works with. Now THAT would be good. Enough of these mini-cameo appearances.

4) The extra added "drama"

Season 1 was real successful because it really didn't have any of this. EVERYTHING had to do with the story. Season 2 was pretty much the same way with the 1 exception --- Kim. First you have her nutso abusive father of the kid she baby sat, who killed his wife so she had to take the baby to save it. Then she runs away a few hours later because they find the body and blame her. So she runs away and finds this psycho in the cabin and his Mountain Lion pet. That part was damn weak. Kim was added fluff except for her phone conversation with her dad when she thought he was gonna die. That was good stuff. Everything else in Season 2 was all part of the tightly knit story so it worked. Such is not the case this season. Lets look at the added "BS drama" to this season in a bit more detail.

* The President's doctor girlfriend's ex-husband. Seemed like a big deal at first, but really did have nothing to do with the REAL story of this season. It was fluff, and was also made more fluffy because of how quickly this thread disappeared. Her conflict with the Pres's brother seemed soap-operaish as well.

* The President's current issue with one of his former supporters which involves his brother knockin boots with the dudes old lady. OK! More soap opera stuff? Jeez... Can you say "excuse to bring Sherry Palmer back because she is the one everyone loves to hate"?

* Kim at CTU. OK as far as a career move I suppose this does track. She killed a guy last season, and knows her dad's line of work and how it cost her mother her life by being a part of his life. I can see her getting drawn towards it naturally. I can also see her starting off as a technician. But having a romance with Jack's partner? Yep, more soap operaish stuff.

* THE F*#KING BABY AT CTU. PLEASE. When will it stop?!? Lets add more cess to this season. OK, so a neurotic employee brings her kid to work at a place like that. Lame. She hides the kid under the desk. Even more lame. Boss man finds out, she argues to keep it there, and bossman tells KIM to BABY SIT IT! Lamer still. Now: WAIT A SECOND! CONTRAVERSY! Lets see if I can get this all straight: "Its not her kid but her boyfriends kid whose ex-wife has custody but her boyfriend is beating the kid so he kidnapped it to keep it safe but he cant watch it so Cloey has to watch it, but there really is no record of it at child services so is all that stuff made up and is she just nutty to nab some kid from some stranger or is everything really OK with the kid golly gee whiz one seems to know what is going on with this kid but GOD NO dont cause a problem and bring it up cause she has to FOCUS ON HER JOB AT ALL COSTS because no one else can do it but her she is unstable crazy style and you cant set her off" *whew* *takes breath*

GOD. Take a good show and toss CRAP like that into the middle of it. WHY? Does it really add anything?

Really, this season would be OK, not as good as the first two, but it would be really decent I think, if not for those few points and ALL THE SOAP OPERA CRAP they keep piling on. I really seriously started groaning with all the baby drama this week, and last week I laughed till I started crying when they told KIM to baby sit the damn kid. Some of the stuff in this season is just too awful to ignore and is really taking away from the intensity of the rest of the story.

I will follow this season to the end, but I suppose this sums up why I haven't been actively posting about the show like before. Its just, really off this season IMO. Anyone else agree?
 
Re: 24: Update

Totally irrelevant to the subject you raise, but we are about to get S3 of 24 her in the UK starting 12 February. Unlike S1 and S2 this is going to be shown on Sky One rather than on the BBC.

According to an official statement by the BBC, one of the major stumbling blocks in the contract negotiation was that Fox insisted that the BBC couldn't broadcast it until 2005.

Given the sheer stupidity of that contract condition considering the web speculation that the show normally generates, it could only have been intended to ensure that Sky (also owned by Rupert Murdoch of course) got first dibs on it.

Cynical, me ... ?

:mad:
 
Re: 24: Update

I totally see all the drama you're referring to. The biggest yawn I've had in the show all season is the stupid baby thing. I haven't found the whole Palmer/Millikan thing as boring as you have but I guess they gotta have something. My only thought to the whole President Palmer/Doctor romance is that there might be more to it by the end of the season, or else it was all, as you put it, pointless.

At first I didn't think I was going to like the whole Mexico setting for the show, but that changed pretty quickly. I've found the Bauer/Salazar storyline to be superb and it leaves me anticipating the following week's episode even more. Now that the Salazars are dead, we get this other guy as the villian for the remainder of the season.

You're right about Nina's reappearance being forced. Just what the hell are the chances that she would be in on this deal with the virus? I'm hoping they'll end up killing her off just so we don't have to deal with another forced reappeearance of her next season.

Just what the hell happened to Chappelle and Gael in last night's episode? Gael was huge into this infiltration of the Salazars and he just disappears? Chappelle is there from division and he's not going to participate in this huge effort to secure the virus?

My take on the baby: The baby is really Mandy's and the father is the dude we saw last season on the boat scheming with her. The baby is a way for him to infilitrate CTU via Cloe and kill Michelle, setting up some major issues for Tony next season.

Oh yeah, Mason's twin brother Henry is going to appear to take revenge for his brother's untimely death due to plutonium and the nuclear bomb. How soap operish would that be? :D
 
Re: 24: Update

SPOILER WARNINGS...

I suppose I pretty much agree with you, except I think I enjoy the Palmer bit a little more than most. Machiavellianist drama usually manages to interest me. I'm also hoping they will connect this to Palmer's blackmailing "backers" in season 1, but I doubt it.

I don't mind the setting of the Bauer story line. It actually makes it a little more personal, the interplay between Ramon and Jack in particular. I really liked watching Ramone's character and was bummed when he got blowed up.

The baby thing is to this season what Jack's wife losing her memory was in season 1: a big "what the fuck?" and "I don't care!" As of this point, it's only serving to make us way of Chloe's well being, like the loss of signal bit at the end.
The CTU stuff is the consistently boring dreck of the show, while the Bauer stuff, as usual, is the consistently good stuff.

The last episode was damn good, best one in a while. I'm interested to see where Virus-salesman is going and what he's up to.
 
I'm about to give up trying to follow 24, but my reason is much simpler.

Every season so far I have personally, for one reason or another missed taping a few eps on Tuesday (I have regular, consistent conflict on Tuesday evenings and am virtually never home then). In the first 2 seasons this wasn't a problem. I could watch or tape the encore showing on F/X later in the week.

I don't know what idiot decided not to have the encore showings this season, but it makes it harder to keep up with the story. That, in turn, is going to cause some heretofore loyal viewers to stop trying. Right now I am two episodes behind, and don't have them on tape, and I'm really thinking that I'm just going to give it up for the rest of S3.

Heck, if it weren't for the encore showings I would never have seen the beginning of S1. I never would have gotten hooked, and wouldn't have ever started taping it on Tuesdays.
 
I'm not sure if they actually show them every week but I've seen encore showings of 24 on Sundays sevaral times after football.
 
My question is this:

Why is Palmer et al even on the show?

At least in the first two seasons he had something to do with the plot, but I thought 24 was supposed to be an hour in Jack Bauer's life, not snippets of West Wing.

They've gone from suspense to soap. They bring back Nina again. They bring back Sherry AGAIN. I'm seriously beginning to doubt that the show will return next year.

I've already tuned out.

:eek:
 
I'm seriously beginning to doubt that the show will return next year.
Click to expand...

I think it will. I read the interview with Kiefer in the February issue of Playboy and he seems to think that it's important for the cast to continue to change, such as killing characters off, himself included. He points to shows such as Law & Order and their longevity is in large part due to the constant casting changes. Things may be different in the future. One cool twist could see Palmer losing his re-election and maybe shifting focus from that character altogether. There are many different things that could happen and I look forward to 24's future.
 
I'm not sure if they actually show them every week but I've seen encore showings of 24 on Sundays sevaral times after football.
Click to expand...

This season? I've done full searches of TVGuide.com in 2 or 3 different weeks this season and come up with nothing but the main Tuesday night showing.
 
Yeah, I actually saw about three episodes a second time around on Fox. They may have played them as fillers though, if a football game ended earlier than expected.
 
Yeah, that's possible. Of course, those kind of showings are tough to progam your VCR for.

Those may also depend on the market (or at least time zone) in which you are watching. I live in the Eastern Time Zone. After the late games they pretty much go directly into their regular Sunday evening schedule. I suppose they *might* show it in the late afternoon if they only had an early game that day.

It is also possible that it was a time shift that only applied to your market. That probably would only come up if the local Fox affiliate carries the local broadcasts of your area's NBA or NHL team. Network shows that get pre-empted for live local sporting events tend to show up in odd places on the schedule later in the week.
 
Yo, last night's ep was killer.

24 continues to be delivering the best and worst in TV entertainment (not that I can compare it to anything, since it's the only show I watch...)

Best:

Jack ninja-punching Nina out of the woods when she had a gun on Chase. Boo-ya, bitch!

Sherry inducing a heart-attack. Man, that was funny. And then her explaining the situation to the wife- I was just waiting for her to slip in that bit about how she "was never here." CYA, baby.

The hokey computer stuff was fun, though I always laugh when they try to make computer viruses dramatic. I was really cracking up when Nina was dictating the phone number and was too suspicious that she had the memorised if it was just some way to contact a guy she didn't talk to anymore.

And who knew Chloe was some computer genius? In the beginning of the season she seemed like a glorified secretary.

The bad:
The freakin' baby. Who gives a shit? With the threat of mass death, anyone's gonna care about Kim's soap opera?

Sherry is still great to watch, especially last night.
 
Yea,

I liked the Sherry Palmer stuff. Liked a lot of the episode, but the baby deal was too overdone. I thought it was gonna be Jack's baby for a second.

The deal with Jack falling for Nina's code was a bit over the top. Its like "ok so she knows of this guy but has this mad secret code on how to contact him TOTALLY COMMITTED to memory" Right.

They are also stretching a bit, the "real time" aspects of the show. I swear thy went from Bauer being in the jungle away from everthing to him being on an airstrip with a C-130 waiting in...what? 10 minutes? I thought he was a lot farther out than that. Plus he managed to do all that and land in LA in the hour period of the show. Well I guess TV drama logic has to tie in here somewhere...
 
Dude, the real time thing left the Land of Plausible at least a year ago.


Am I a political dork because I was curious about Palmer's health care bill that Miliken's trying to stop? I wonder what's in it.
Yes, I'm a dork.
 
As a sidebar thought, I can't believe I just called someone a dork. That word has never even sounded like an insult to me. I think its more insulting to me for actually using the word dork than calling someone else a dork.
 
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