24's Change

[Trekker4747]

I'm watching through 24 on DVD and I'm currently on Season 2.

And the series just had a different... "feel" then. It felt a bit more real, a bit more sinister, a bit more "realisticly" based they stretched out the drama a bit more and there's just an inherent "coolnes" with CTU being this elusive, seldom known, agency.

"I'm Tony Almeda with CTU."
"CTU what is that?"

I love 24 but it seems now I'm just in it for the spectacle The insanity of it. The "DAMMIT!"s the tossing of tables by Jack, Bauer-kills, etc.

I'd say the change came in Season 4, the season of Marwan's Rube Goldbergian one-day plan of global terror. Season 3 was hit and miss, but there's just a certain "magic" that I think Season 2 and especially Season 1 had.

And I feel that getting rid of Palmer as POTUS at the end of S3 was a mistake. They could've kept him around for a couple more seasons as his second term as POTUS.

How do you feel about 24's changes over the years? I'd almost rank the seasons in order from "best" to "worst", meaning the show has gotten progressively worse, but I'm almost convinced Season 5 is better than Season 4.

So: Season/Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, Day 4, Day 6.

Obviously, the jury is still out on Day 7 (current season.)

But, of course, all said. Nothing beats Jack when comes to kicking ass!

I mean, I still applaud at the end of Hour 1 in Day 2 when he shoots the informant and asks for a hacksaw!

 

[TheInsideMan]

Day 2 is the most re-watched Day of 24 in my house.

"There a nuke on US soil, its gonna go off today. When??? I dunno."

I like Day 4, but compared to Dark Knight's Joker, Marwan is THE Master planner.

 

[Trekker4747]

Day 2 is the most re-watched Day of 24 in my house.

I will say that Season 2 is damn good and almost surpases Season 1 but I think it is hurt by Kim's antics and Season 1 just has a.. "style" to it I really liked.

I like Day 4, but compared to Dark Knight's Joker, Marwan is THE Master planner.

As I said, his plan is very Rube Goldbergian.

 

[Barbados Slim]

Totally agree. I loved seasons 1-3 because they had a real world quality about it. Season four was visually different and so bombastic in its goals, trying outdo itself and getting more ridiculous along the way. Also, the threats have gotten more scifi. This season has started well mostly because nothing has blown up yet. It's been pretty grounded. Though I do find the threat to be really stupid. One device controls the entire air traffic grid and the water supply. And the potus just sits around torn about not invading a third world country when she can just back of, change the code on the doohickey and invade tomorrow. And the torture just won't stop. I wish Jack and now Walker would outwit the bad guys instead of just lazily beating them.

 

[Trekker4747]

I still want to see Jack do that thing where he jams a towel down someone's throat and then uses it to rip out their stomach lining.

But, yeah, Jack was a bit more of a "psychological torture" kind of guy once upon a time. But, to his credit, he hasn't killed anyone yet "today."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The big change I noticed was between S1 and S2. In S1, Jack could have real things happening to him - get stuck in traffic (in LA? never! ), eat food, etc. I still remember that conversation he had with the waitress he had taken hostage, where she's fooled by how much he seems like just a normal guy and gets up to leave, figuring he won't shoot her. Then the "other" Jack comes out.

But yeah the show seems increasingly like science fiction. Not that it isn't fun, it's just not the show it could have evolved into.

I mean, I still applaud at the end of Hour 1 in Day 2 when he shoots the informant and asks for a hacksaw!

That was a great Badass Bauer moment. That and the towel thing, tho I suspect that might be an urban legend...

One device controls the entire air traffic grid and the water supply.

Yeah the over-reliance on fantasy gizmos that nobody in their right mind would create (like the one for melting down nuclear plants) or probably would be able to create definitely helps push the show away from reality.

And the potus just sits around torn about not invading a third world country when she can just back of, change the code on the doohickey and invade tomorrow.

But that would be wrong!

What I can't believe is a potus who is dumb enough to put herself in that position in the first place - now she can't back out of the invasion without "looking weak," what a doofus, what was the point of horning in on someone else's civil war anyway. Who's to say the poor Sengalians or whoever they are who are being subjected to genocide won't just turn around and try to wipe out their erstwhile enemies if "liberated."

That shit has certainly happened often enough before, and them America is guilty of having abetted the retaliatory attacks, isn't that great. Plus the so-called "liberated" people will just start shooting at our soliders because nobody wants foreigner soldiers in their country when they are trying to wipe out their enemies and take control, especially if the foreigners seem likely to interfere and insist on nonsense such as "democracy" and "not killing your enemies when you have the chance."

Does anyone really think rose petals will be involved in any of this? Let's say the potus does invade Sengalia successfully. That will just be seen around the world as more American imperialism, and we aren't going to get any "credit" for saving any lives, assuming lives are even saved - when the retailatory killing starts, the balance sheet might be negative.

Whoever is writing 24 has an extraordinarily naive view of how the world really works, yet another factor that makes the whole thing ring false.

I wish Jack and now Walker would outwit the bad guys instead of just lazily beating them.

Lazy? They seemed to be putting some effort into it...

 

[Aragorn]

Jack fell asleep during season one!

 

[Barbados Slim]

And Nina and Tony had lunch in S1.

 

[Trekker4747]

And Nina and Tony had lunch in S1.

The Palmer family sat around for dinner!

 

[Trekker4747]

The big change I noticed was between S1 and S2. In S1, Jack could have real things happening to him - get stuck in traffic (in LA? never! ), eat food, etc. I still remember that conversation he had with the waitress he had taken hostage, where she's fooled by how much he seems like just a normal guy and gets up to leave, figuring he won't shoot her. Then the "other" Jack comes out.

Jack's conversation with the Sassy Bolt-Cuter Weilding Waitress was some good stuff and Jack seemed real there as he began to doze off talking about the horrible things he has seen. Good stuff.

 

[Barbados Slim]

I did Brannon Braga as a producer or consultant this season. So realism isn't coming back anytime soon. I'm sure in the finale there will be a time anomoly and the whole season will reset

 

[Augustus]

I loved S1 and S2, but S5 I think is my favorite.
Don't know why, maybe because Jack shoots Henderson like 10 times after he was dead....

I haven't had time to see any of this season, reactions so far?

 

[Trekker4747]

I loved S1 and S2, but S5 I think is my favorite.
Don't know why, maybe because Jack shoots Henderson like 10 times after he was dead....

I haven't had time to see any of this season, reactions so far?

Promising. Hard to say for sure right now.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Jack fell asleep during season one!

Yeah! How'd that happen? He was a hew-mon back then.

I did Brannon Braga as a producer or consultant this season. So realism isn't coming back anytime soon. I'm sure in the finale there will be a time anomoly and the whole season will reset

I look forward to the revelation that the mastermind behind the genocides in Sasafrassia are...Space Nazis!

I haven't had time to see any of this season, reactions so far?

Fun. As long as you aren't too picky about logic & stuff.

 

[Aragorn]

The person who has logged the most sleep on 24 is Tony, and that's only because he was shot in the neck, was blown up and had his death faked.

 

[Trekker4747]

The person who has logged the most sleep on 24 is Tony, and that's only because he was shot in the neck, was blown up and had his death faked.

Is being unconscious or in medcally-induced comas/knocked out for surgery or "dead" the same thing as sleep?

 

[DeafPoet]

I watched Days 1 and 2 when they aired. They were really good. Then I kinda lost interest. I watched the first five or six episodes of Day 6. Started out promising but got ludicrous and lame really quickly. Don't think I'll be trying Day 7 out unless the word on it is very encouraging.

 

[SalvorHardin]

All this reminds me I have to watch the first 2 seasons again at some point.

I've only seen them once, years ago so I can't really offer any valuable comments as to how the show has evolved.
It's all kind of a blur.

I do seem to remember some kind of cougar involved though...I believe it was a key character ?

 

[JoeZhang]

a real world quality about it.

What? I only watched Season one and thought it was silly to start with - Isn't the daughter attacked by a mountain lion and kidnapped twice in the space of 24 hours?

 

[Lindley]

Agent Cougar was in season 2. (Agent Baby was in season 3.)

I think the Jack & Tony team-up works really well, and I'm a bit surprised they haven't kept them together more often over the years.

Oh, incidentally: