Did 24 jump the shark?
Is it just me? Or has 24 gone too far this season?
By the end of episode 4 we saw a nuclear bomb explode on the outskirts of LA. It was a stunning moment of drama for Jack Bauer.
But since then the show has barely been able to sustain that plot move.
Last year's 24 was a ripper. The cast fitted like jigsaw pieces, the twists and turns kept us on the edge of our seats, and unsurprisingly it won the Best Drama Emmy.
But this year, it feels like the writers went too far.
Given the show is 24 hours in a single day, we're supposed to believe that this explosion on American soil happened only a matter of hours ago. Yet most of the characters are concerned about far less trivial matters: power games, family vendettas and office politics. When I think back to the real world tragedy of two planes crashing into a building, the world was shell-shocked.
Yet in 24 people seem to go about their daily business. Where are the traffic jams, the looting, the hysteria? Why aren't the communications affected? Why haven't any of the characters been too numbed to continue on with their work? Where is the sense of mourning and dread?
No. The problem with 24 has always been that the dramatic turning points of each episode are equivalent to those in any other high-grade series drama -but in those the characters chart such arcs over the course of weeks, and as a result we "buy" it more. But in 24 we are expected to check our brain at the door and hold on for a white-knuckle ride. Jack Bauer never eats, sleeps, drinks or goes to the toilet. Traffic is never a problem in racing from A to B. In fact all his colleagues seem to think nothing of working a 24 hour shift when the world edges on the brink of destruction. If they are so professional, why doesn't someone insist on taking a break for fear their judgement may become impaired from sheer exhaustion?
Instead 24 barrels on with its usual ingredients: high stakes action, explosions, heists, kidnappings, loved ones in peril, telephone calls, Chloe as a one-woman IT braniac, presidents undermined, car conversations and moles in CTU. It's all ripping stuff.
But blowing up half of LA was a big call. If producers couldn't sustain it with big budget scenes of crowd hysteria, and characters who react to it (for at least the rest of the day/series)., then maybe they shouldn't have gone their in the first place.
What do you think?
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