'24' Day Six Debrief

To those who have not yet seen the finale of 24, this post contains spoilers.


Something struck me as I collected my thoughts before beginning this post... I don't even know the majority of characters' names from this season of 24!?! Talk about not caring anymore...

I started watching 24 in its fourth season (the one with the teenager Behrooz, who remains my favorite minor character of all time on the show). During the summer hiatus that year, I got Season One on DVD, and was fairly disturbed by it. I think that had I originally watched the series when it premiered, I would not have continued watching it, it was simply way too dark for me. However, since I didn't find Day Four as disturbing, I tuned in again to watch season five (the one with the shady President and his crazy wife). While I felt the story line was OK - enough to hold my attention - I didn't think the show deserved all of the praised being heaped upon it from the media that year.

This year we were delivered Day Six, which first revolved around a nuclear threat against the U.S. (with a nuclear bomb actually going off early in the season), but then switched gears to be about Russian bad guys, Chinese bad guys and Jack's dad all fighting for control of a chip that held the key to Russia's defense systems. Or at least I think that's what it was about - everything got to be so convoluted that I stopped paying close attention and was reading magazines most of the time and just glancing up at the screen whenever Kiefer was on. And I completely missed two hours near the end of the season because I just didn't have the patience to catch up with everything (or figured that it wouldn't be hard to figure out what was going on without the benefit of having watched those two hours).

I don't really want to dissect the season finale because it was THAT lame. Instead, I will offer my opinions on the season overall:

- Overall, very poor casting choices were made this season: 1) I could never get past the fact that the Presidential Advisor (I *think* his name was Tom on the show... Tom Lennox or something...) was that kooky guy from Ally McBeal. I kept expecting him to run into the restroom and break into a Barry White song while doing a silly dance. 2) The Vice President was so obviously supposed to be Cheney that it almost became comical. And creepy, since he was having an affair with that blond chick who was half his age. Every time he was on screen, it seemed like a Saturday Night Live skit. 3) Jack's dad being the Guy from 'Babe' and Six Feet Under was acceptable at first, but as he mentally unraveled near the end of the season and became all obsessed with getting his grandson to China, I kept thinking he was the character from Six Feet Under again, lapsing into alternate realities. 4) Jack's sister-in-law/obvious-ex-flame was THE WORST. She has one of those weird faces that definitely isn't ugly, but isn't exactly pretty, either. She's forgettable, and combined with the fact that she was almost always in hysterics yelling about "her son," it didn't seem believable that she was someone who Jack would've ever fallen for in the past. 5) Her son, who I think I remember being named Josh (not sure), was NOT a good actor. His floppy blond hair heightened the vibe of slackerishness I got from him. He could have EASILY taken out his Grandpa but yet he just went along with everything, stopping to whine once in a while. Annoying! 6) Wayne Palmer was a horrible actor as well. I realize that they were pretty much locked in to casting him if the plan was to have David's brother now be in the Oval Office, but you would've thought the actor would've taken some classes on "how to act convincingly like a President or at least not like a totally wimpy, conflicted guy unable to make decisions" in between seasons.

- Bad moves: Killing Curtis and killing Milo. Neither was necessary to move the plot along, and doing so only served to make viewers mad. The ultimate unfortunate decision was killing off Edgar last season, but I won't go there as I don't want to drudge up old feelings of extreme bitterness.

- What was up with the Bizarre Love Triangle between Milo, Ricky Schroeder and Nadia? When you remember that the entire season is supposed to transpire in one DAY, it's pretty laughable to think that so many conflicting emotions flew between and amongst those three, especially when Ricky didn't show up until well into the day. And then after Milo died and his brother came to get the body or whatever he was doing in the finale, did anyone else get the sense that he was "making eyes" at Nadia or vice versa? It just all seemed very wrong.

- The two hours I skipped were the hours when they rescued Audrey, so I have no idea what happened to her, or for that matter, how in the hell her father is still alive. All I know is that I'm SURE that scene at the end where Jack goes in to tell her that he is a bastard and can't help take care of her despite his promise to do so was NOT meant to be funny, but it was to me, because I kept expecting her expression to change or her to be like, "BOO!" and scare the crap out of Jack or something. Alas, she didn't wake up, and the season ended with a whimper. At least they didn't kill off Chloe or Morris! By the way, I didn't realize that they were even married until the finale!?!? For some reason I thought they were ex-spouses. Am I proving my lack of attention paid to this season yet?

Which brings us to the one thing I was surprised about - it was something that didn't happen. I was positive since the kid Josh was introduced that he would turn out to be Jack's son. I WAS POSITIVE. But, it didn't happen - at least not yet. I hope it doesn't - I really don't want to see that kid or his mom back on the show ever again.

Does that mean I'm going to watch the show again in 2008? Yeah, it does. I love Jack too much. As long as he's on, I'll probably watch it, even if that means multi-tasking and only getting glimpses of what's going on. There's something weird about 24 - it makes me feel better about whatever I'm worrying about in my life. Nothing ever seems quite as bad when comparing it to the troubles poor CTU is going through, now does it?

- e