Can we put the Kim Bauer/mountain lion jokes to rest now?
Since Jack’s daughter was briefly pursued by a big cat in Season 2, the incident has become a touchstone for critics who want to illustrate silly moments in “24.” That sequence never really bothered me. There are indeed mountain lions in the hills around Los Angeles; they were there first and we built a city around them.
And as we all know from our own lives, when we’re having a bad day — as the “24” characters always do — life will keep piling on until we’re beaten down. Kim escaped from a deranged employer and got lost in the mountains, so it makes sense that she’d promptly be stalked by a mountain lion. It fits with the “What could possibly go wrong next?” theory of how the world works.
But even if the mountain lion subplot was the most egregious thing you’ve ever seen on TV, at least the writers in Season 2 were creative. In the writers’ room, I bet the phrase “What can we have happen next?” was thrown around a lot.
Now — in Season 7 — you’d more likely hear “What old cliché can we recycle?” And that’s why today’s “24” is much worse than the mountain lion era.
This season — which mercifully ends on Monday — has found Jack and Co. chasing down a canister of a deadly toxin created by terrorists. They chased after deadly canisters in at least two other seasons, maybe more.
Jack is teamed up with a quasi-attractive new agent who becomes a quasi-love interest. Off the top of my head, I know they did this in at least three previous seasons.
There was a mole within the FBI. Didn’t see that coming. Oh wait, I did. In every single season.
Chloe is grumpy, and she’s the only one who knows how computers work in a room filled with people hired for their computer expertise. I’ll give them a pass on this cliché, because how can you not like Chloe? She’s any geek’s dream girl.
Also, I’ll grant a free pass on Tony being evil. It’s not remotely believable, and it goes completely against the character that had been established (also, it goes against the fact of Tony being dead). But at least it’s gutsy. One day a writer was brave enough to say “What if Tony was evil?” They needed to follow that up with an explanation of why he is evil, but at least they were thinking a little bit outside the box.
The box, whether L.A.’s CTU HQ or D.C.’s FBI HQ, is the biggest problem with “24.” Season 1 was strong, and in a way it’s a shame that Kiefer Sutherland was so great as Jack Bauer, because ever since that first season, the showrunners have been terrified to mess with the winning formula they stumbled across (Jack, CTU, torture, yelling, etc.).
It didn’t have to be this way. Even within the constraints of a 24-hour clock — no, because of the constraints of the clock — good (and varied) stories could have been told. They didn’t have to be about Jack (David Duchovny was briefly discussed as a new lead). But even if you insist on keeping Jack, the stories didn’t all have to be about his fight against government bureaucracy and actual bad guys.
Perhaps we viewers are partly to blame. If we had praised the mountain lion story line, maybe “24” would’ve gone off in daring new directions instead of continually telling an old story that you can set your watch by.
I doubt there are many “24” defenders left, but if you’re out there, you’re welcome to post a comment.
(The two-hour “24” season finale starts at 7 p.m. Central Monday on Fox. It can also be seen the next day at Hulu’s “24” page.)
Comments
What did everyone think of the season finale? I thought it was quite good. Every time I expected “24” to do the usual, annoying thing, they delivered a pleasant surprise.
Didn’t you assume that when Kim was chasing the bad guy through the hallways she’d end up getting kidnapped and held hostage again? Instead, she tracked him down and acquired an important laptop computer from him.
When the scripting is a bit better — as it was in the final two hours — you can see that “24” hires good actors. The president (Cherry Jones) and first gentleman (Colm Feore) have a powerful exchange when debating family vs. duty. Carlos Bernard (Tony) is great when yelling “You killed my son!” Kiefer Sutherland (Jack) is good in his deathbed scene.
All that having been said, my criticisms of “24” will unfortunately still apply going into next season. Will Patton’s character, basically the evil mastermind of everything that’s happened in all seven seasons (but also sloppy enough to not see Tony’s revenge motive), is being set up as a future villain. (If anyone wants to make a case that Renee actually killed Wilson in that interview room, you’re welcome to do so, but I think you’re wrong.)
And Jack will be back at it, as tired and worn-down as ever, much like this show that refuses to reinvent itself. I hope I’m wrong, because when “24” is willing to go against the formula a bit — as it did with Kim being a hero — it can be quite satisfying.# Posted By John Hansen | 5/20/09 11:04 AM
I could comment for days on 24 as I like this show about as much as you liked Buffy in your day. However, I am at work so my comments will be brief.
You are right on all counts regarding the cliches and recycled plots, and you are right about the good acting (in most cases). I said the same thing about Tony yelling ‘you killed my son’. However, with all that said, I anxiously wait for 24 every monday night. The show has great cliff hangers most weeks, and is genuinly intersting enough to keep me wanting more. Do I make fun of it mid-show? Of course, but that is not to say I don’t like it.
What will future 24 bring? I see two options:
1) Jack is miraculously healed by experimental treatment from Kim while he is unconscious. He is someone asked to help again (does he ever get paid for all of this work he does off the books?) and he persues villans as usual.
2) (This is how I would do it) 24 rips off the plot of ‘The Bone Collector’ (The Denzel Washington/Angelina Jolie movie from ’99). Jack is confined to a bed or somehow kept out of the field while the newly hardened Renee is the on site field agent. She is now forced to do many things that she is not comfortable doing, but Jack is able to talk her through it. Providing some very emotional dialouge between the two. While they look for Allen, they need help from the Palmer’s (Wayne or David, either will do as long as there is an appearance) and from ex-president Noah. Oh, and then Renee will be a mole. (j/k)
Although 24 is unbelievable, it has not yet hit the heights of lost. Aside from them never eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, and making it accross L.A. in rush hour in a matter of minutes. I’m actually ok to accept most of the plot holes.
I will wait for another 7 months… anticipating next season to see if ‘Jack is Back’ once again.# Posted By Shaune | 5/22/09 12:27 PM
We can make two definite assumptions from the end of Season 7: One, Renee did not kill Wilson, and two, Jack’s life will be saved. If the opposite cases were true, they would’ve showed it on screen.
Also, David Palmer is dead. If they bring him back to life, I am done with “24.” If dead people are constantly coming back to life, how can we feel that there are any stakes?
If Kiefer Sutherland wants a diminished role (ala David Duchovny after Season 7 of “The X-Files”) your Lincoln Rimes rip-off idea is an intriguing compromise. But if he’s back full-time, I want to see Jack being Jack (I just want him to be Jack in different situations than what we’ve already seen).
I don’t know if I want to see Renee being Jack, because it’d still be the same old “24,” just with a new character. And I don’t like Renee that much; she seems kind of weak (yeah, I know that’s the point).
I’d like to see them blow this thing up and have a day where the words “CTU,” “FBI,” “mole,” “torture,” “interrogation,” “de-briefing,” “assassination attempt,” “conspiracy,” “terrorist” and “exfiltration” (which isn’t even a word) aren’t even mentioned, and the action is set someplace other than a big American city. Yeah, I know, I’ll keep dreaming.
By the way, Jack doesn’t get paid for his off-the-books work. That is part of why he’s a hero. He can’t turn it off. Hopefully, he’ll get repaid by having a government that doesn’t get in his way anymore.# Posted By John Hansen | 5/22/09 1:51 PMBringing David Palmer back would be one of the only re-incarnations I would accept. He was a very likeable character and given the governments ability to cover up just about anything it is fairly believable that he has been living in witness protection etc. for years.
Also, when is Kim Bauer finally going to hit new lows and become the stripper we have all dreamt about for 7 seasons? :)I don’t know how you expect not to hear any of those words or see those plots on a show that was built around them. Would you rather have a season in which Jack has the day off and the ’24’ is actually him just hanging out? Turn it into a drama or a family comedy?
Again, no matter what 24 does, I am going to be a fan. I don’t know what it is but the show has me hooked.# Posted By Shaune | 5/22/09 3:45 PM
Another reason to keep David Palmer dead is that Wilson (the leader of the vast conspiracy) killed him. We need to hate Wilson; the fact that he had one of “24’s” best characters killed is a good reason.
I thought it was awesome when Kim was a hero in the season finale. I hope Kim continues to be involved in the show and is portrayed positively. She used to work at CTU, and we know she didn’t get that job because her dad worked there (he wanted her far away from CTU). That’s fine if Kim’s a stripper (we all know how bad the economy is), but just make her an intelligent, dignified stripper.
Actually, you are revising history to say that “24” was “built around” those clichés. It was built around unassuming government agent Jack Bauer and his family — all of whom had a bad day. The narrowing of the framework (and the pushing of what we now see as clichés) started with the second season and it got more extreme with each subsequent season. There were little flashes where they changed the game — I remember Jack was hiding out in Mexico for a couple hours once — but before long, it was back to the formula.
Another thing I liked about the early days was that “24” respected the clock and used it to heighten the drama. Now they cram a month’s worth of drama into one day. Somehow the writers got the idea that we’d be bored if they didn’t keep stretching reality. But I actually was more engrossed by the first day when Kim was kidnapped and the plan to assassinate Palmer was slowly unfolding. I don’t want to see Jack snoozing in a hammock for half the day, of course, but if he did that for a half-hour, I wouldn’t complain.# Posted By John Hansen | 5/22/09 4:13 PM