The following takes place between 7.30 and 8.15 pm - well if you use the fast forward on Sky+ you can watch an episode of 24 in about 45 minutes - and is my first chance to catch up with 24 since the news of its cancellation broke last week. The series is to end after the current run - Day 8 in 24 chronology - and probably not before time.
Three or four times a series the producers will kick in a game changing episode and this week's comes into that category with a major gun battle, a crisis at CPU, some internecine wrangling with the NSA, and a surprise reveal at the end which should change things quite a lot.
That apart there is no getting away from the fact that this series has been running on fumes and there have been one or two episodes where literally nothing happens. The main plot - about a load of nuclear rods - is somewhat less than urgent and Jack seems more concerned about mooning around after FBI agent Renee Walker than denying bad guys their constitutional rights. Also, whisper it, Jack Bauer - to quote Danny Glover - is getting too old for this sh*t. He is a grandad now and the whole series takes place in the one day delay to his plans to go to Los Angeles and look after his granddaughter. Also the subsidiary story involving Katee Sackhoff and Freddie Prinze Jr is just embarrassingly bad, although that may change.
The producers are promising a slam bang finale for this series and I hope they live up to their word. 24 has been a great show, it broke the mould for episodic drama, it reflected a disturbing climate in US politics, and Jack Bauer is one of the great TV heroes. Let's hope he gets to go out taking names and kicking butt and not babysitting a grandchild.
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2 comments:
A good substitute has appeared in the form of Human Target. Far less serial but just as action-packed.
I hear good things about it so I am looking forward to the start of its run on Sci Fi in a few weeks
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