Season One of "24" is in the can. Not as good as I was expecting, and definitely not as tight. After watching "Heroes," I was hoping for something that would deliver in the same vein. However, the are two very seperate shows with highly different stories to tell.
Overall, Season 1 gets a B from me. Jack Bauer is awesome, hands down. Palmer became better and better as the show went on. Terri drove me nuts the whole time--she looks like she should be out driving a Suburu with an Obama sticker. Milo was cool, but I don't think he'll be back.
The show's weaknesses did not come from poor acting, but poor writing. Jack would have never married Terri in real life. She was/is a total basketcase, something that George states in the final episode. The characters do stupid things that seemed out of line with their presented personality. Most notably, Terri walking CTU at the end in search of you know who. No way. There are other moments like this in the story, and they strike me as gratuitous fancies of the writers, not objectively probable or likely scenarios.
That brings me to my second main criticism of the show. While everything on TV is intended to be emotionally manipulative to the viewer, the story bends over backwards to accomplish this to the detraction of the narrative. The whole twist of the second mole we find out in the end feels so gratuitous and lame, inconsistant with the rest of the story. Broken relationship on top of broken relationship the whole time, with twists on trust, meant to keep the viewer in suspense. One has the impression that the script writers are unformed hedonists, eating potato chips and reading filth, while laughing at you as they go along, writing, in hopes that they bring you back for another hour. There is little trust in the power of the overall narrative, or the sense of redemption that makes a story powerful.
No, Season One should have stayed on a stricter course and just told the story, instead of trying to destroy each character personally as much as possible throughout. Life only has so many nail-biters per day.
All that aside, I tolerated these defects to watch Jack unleash some lead. I'll continue eventually with the story, I think, but I hope that it's a much more mature in the script the next go around.
Over and Out,
--Nick-Dog
3 comments:
I'm in Season 7 (the current season) right now. A long time ago I started watching Season 1, but I didn't get too far and can't remember what was up. I got into 24 in the middle of season 4 and haven't missed anything from then on to the current episodes. I really should watch Seasons 1-4 completely so I can get more of the background stuff. But overall, I am pleased with the show. This season is pretty darn good!
Awesome, good to hear!
I just started Season 2, Episode 1. I am really digging the way it starts. We'll see where it goes.
--Nick-Dog
I didn't like season 1 in the beginning and I liked it less at the end, but it was great in the middle. I felt it was a little dark for me in parts. Season 2 is excellent though.
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