[Movie] 24 Season 6 Discussion Thread

I am not impressed at all with this season so far(and the last few seasons for that matter). 24 is starting to remind me of Pro Wrestling now. The same scenarios are rehashed in slightly different ways, with slightly different results. Episode 4 didn't impress me, because, for one, immediately you could tell Curtis would try to kill Assad, which I didn't really care about, but it haunted me the whole episode because it was so obvious. Also, The nuke going off at the end is a rehash of last season with the nuclear plant meltdown, only to realize there is going to be more of the exact same threat. I can go on and on with problems I see, but I won't bother them all or I will be here for hours. I really wish I could ignore it, but I just can't.

I hate all the characters except Jack, who I just don't care about any more, I hate the cliches and constant story rehashing. I hate the horrible fake accents. I hate that the writers almost ignore that the fact that the story is supposed to be in real time. I hate that Jack Bauer has to Shave and get a Haircut 5 minutes after he comes back from China only because in less then an hour later, he is a be tortured and executed by terrorists(sorry, I just had to throw that in). I think it would have been very interesting(and realistic) if he kept the beard and long hair for the entire season.

I really think that 24 needs to take a 1 or 2 year hiatus, so the writers can really come up with a really unique, compelling, and more realistic season(that doesn't involve any more nuclear weapons...BORING). I can imagine it is extremely hard to come out with 24 episodes of show every single year, so why not take a break and make it good, and them come back.

Season 1 was such a great season for many reasons, the main one being that creators were probably planning the show for years, so they actually had time to write 24 great unique, compelling, and realistic episodes. Season 2 was great too, because that was probably thought about for years too. Since then, downhill, like a rushed series of video games, where the developer has to put out a new one every year, with no time to polish the game and make it original.

A show on HBO called The Wire took a 2 year hiatus and this last season every minute of every show, my eyes were glued to screen, because it had such great writing, I was amazed. Not since Season 2 of 24 was I so engaged in a show.

Anyway, forgive my rant, 24 was, by far, my favorite show at one time, that's why it bothers me so much that the show just isn't very good any more. I will continue to watch though, because I have a lingering hope that maybe I will love it again.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by The Furious One

Anyway, you can see why they went for the nuke, whats more dangerous than a nuke?!? i mean they've had the killer virus, nerve gas, next they could have anti-matter lol"

The best season was the 1st season, there was no nuke and no real high scale terrorist threat for that matter. The plot was Jack Bauer's wife and daughter are kidnapped by a terrorist group plotting to kill presidential candidate David Palmer. That's it... the threat was really only against 3 people, yet it was the most compelling season. Season 2 had a nuke, but it was the first time, and but the season was really mainly about stopping a war from happening and it was a great season because it had good writing and characters I cared about. Since then, seasons 4, 5, and now 6, all have nuclear threats. WHO CARES ABOUT NUKES? It's not a numbers game, a great season isn't determined about how many people can potentially die. I cared much much more about if someone was going to successfully kill David Palmer in Season 1 than I cared about a million people dieing in a Nuclear meltdown in Season 5.

When Jack Bauer was captured by the Chinese at the end of last season, I was really hoping this season would just be about Jack having to escape from the Chinese. Instead, Jack Bauer has to save millions of Americans... again.

Quote:

You know what I think it would be pretty interesting if all the nukes go off, Jack actually fails to save the day. But then day 7 can be all about american being taken over by terrorist with them all in the white house etc. Better stop ranting now lol

That would be far more interesting than Jack saving America from Nukes... again.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Nevermind, still, 3 is too many.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by RockgamerXIII

Actually, they weren't planning the show for years. Maybe about a year, at the most. Before 24, they were still working on La Femme Nikita, which ran until 2001 (the same year 24 started). And just in general (listen to the DVD commentaries, and interviews and stuff), they've always said that they don't plan things out that far in advance, and mainly write as they go.

So to say that they even had Season 2 thought about for years was definitely way off. They didn't even know if Season 1 would get picked up for the whole season, so why start planning Season 2? And when you look at it, they had more time between the later seasons since they actually had breaks between them, unlike when 24 was scheduled like a regular show (starting in September, instead of in January like it is now).

I agree with you that Season 1 is the best season, so I'm not against you or anything, but to give you my honest opinion, I just think maybe you're disillusioned with the show or something. I mean, admittedly, some of the plots are starting to wear a little thin, but what long-running show hasn't experienced that? The way you talk about it though, you make it seem like the show has had some massive decline in quality, which it really hasn't. That's just my opinion, though.

Look, I'm not certain about it, but what I mean when I said they were thinking about the show for years, was that maybe the creators, even while making La Femme Nikita, or even long before that, had an idea in their mind, "Won't it be great if we made a show about a government agent who had his family kidnapped?..." and over several years, thought about different ideas, scenarios, etc., long before they even decided to make the show maybe having enough ideas for a couple seasons over the years. And when it came time to actually write the show, they already had these great unique ideas, and didn't have to quickly come up with something. It seems obvious to me, that they used all of their good ideas first, and now they are just quickly coming up with ideas. Some new ideas are good, but a ton are bad.

Yes, to me, I do see a massive decline in quality. The writing is very bad compared to the first couple of seasons in my opinion. The ideas are hashed way too much, most of the surprises don't really shock me anymore, cliche after cliche, 95% of the characters are lame and don't care about any of them at all, etc. I haven't watched the first 2 seasons in a couple years, so maybe the show has always been like this, and just didn't see it(I doubt that). Maybe I will have to get back and watch them again. But I definitely see many problems now, as with the last couple seasons too.

I started watching 24 at the very end of Season 1, I didn't really know what was going on, so it didn't know how great it was. When Season 2 started, I watched from the beginning, and I remember being blown away. So I bought Season 1 on DVD and was even more blown away by Season 1. I can tell you now, if I had started watching at season 3(which was okay), 4, 5, or 6, I would not have been blown away. So I do definitely see a decline in quality.

I don't watch a whole lot of different shows, but one show I watch that have been around as long as 24 is The Shield. That show has always been consistently great, although not perfect. But the difference is, there are only 12-13 episode per season of The Shield, and there are 24 episodes per season of 24, so I can definitely see it has to be much harder to write double the amount of episodes in the same or probably shorter amount of time. That's why I say they should take a year off, and take the time to write a great season instead of having to rush everything.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by RockgamerXIII

Okay, but the creators have said that the first thing that came in their mind was the real-time concept, not the story or setting or anything. All that came afterward, so it's not like they had this massive amount of time to work on these things like you seem to think they did. Who says you can't write great stuff in a short amount of time anyway?

As for the show taking a break, I doubt that's going to happen, and it doesn't really need to. Besides, since it's at the height of it's popularity now, this would probably be the worse time for it to take a year off. They just got all these new viewers with Season 5, so why drive them all away by not showing the show? Maybe you've just had an overload of the show or something, and thus, you should take a break from it, but I honestly don't think the show taking a break would affect it that much.

But honestly, this all stems from your percieved decline in quality of the show, so while you think Seasons 3-6 are bad, it doesn't mean that they actually are (personally, I think Season 2 is the worst season, looking back at it). I can't make you change your mind about this, but I did want to mention these things.

Ok, well if the creators came up all of the ideas right away for season 1, then they did a very good job. But I do kind of find that hard to believe that FOX just called them up one day and said "Hey, we want you guys to come up with a show off the top of your heads, writing and film it and we will put on the air in less than a year". Very illogical. Anyway, that was just a concept I had as to why season 1 was so good, like I said, I really didn't know. But the last couples seasons weren't good to me, so I think they are just running out of good ideas and rely way too much on the same ideas again and again.

You're right, the show probably won't take a break, but I think it should. As for it losing viewers, if the show still really is great, and people love it so much, they will come back because of anticipation. People tend not to forget great things so easily. If you look at a show like The Sopranos, they take 2 years off, and come back and get monsters numbers from the start. The longer the show stays off for, the higher rating the season premier seems to get because of the anticipation involved. But 24 being on FOX, which tends to like to milk a franchise for every dollar it can, the show won't take time off, because it will would not make as much money. But in affect, you lose quality. I prefer quality over quantity. I would much rather have 2 great seasons of 24 in 4 years, than 4 mediocre/OK ones.

BTW, I actually thought season 3 was alright, and just 4 and 5 were very mediocre and season 6 looks to be going in that same direction so far. Season 2 was great in my opinion because all of the ideas were fresh at the time, and I actually liked most of, if not all of the characters, cliches were less existent, and writing much better. The plot wasn't the best, but it was very well done, I thought. So, yes you can't make me change my mind, I know bad quality when I see it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

At this point, I am about 95% sure that I will either not watch next season at all, and just stop watching the show completely(which I don't want to have to do, but I just might), or I will just not watch next season at all on tv, and just watch it all at one time on Blu-ray/HD-dvd(no dvd, because I want High Def), when it is released.

I will continue watching this season until it is over since I already invested this much time, but after that, I'm not sure at this point. I'm just bored by this show now. Almost everything is predictable, and I hate literally every single character on this show now, including Jack Bauer. Words can barely describe how much I used to love this show, but at this point, I wish they would just have a series finale already, and put me out of my misery.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm glad they ended that lame nuke storyline.

But I can't wait to find out in what ridiculous way they are going to explain why the Chinese would kidnap Audrey. This season started out with Jack being released from the Chinese prison because the US paid tons of money to China to have him release so that Fayed could kill him. But for some reason, the Chinese kidnapped Audrey a year or whatever previous to that? Why? It makes no sense(which is nothing new). And I love that the Chinese dude called Jack literally 1 minute after the nuke threat ended, what great timing!

At least I still have 2 well written shows back on the air now to fall back on. The Shield and The Sopranos.

FELIPE NO