As a former fan of the Kiefer Sutherland action series on Fox, I always felt after watch the latter seasons that the show would have been better off as a mini-series. The format they have now, 24 episodes of 24 hours, worked will when the show was in it’s first year. Eight seasons onward, the problems of the format have begun to show.
This is not as complicated as I’m making it. In fact it’s quite simple.
The Fox Network’s obsession with terrorism meant that 24’s storylines would be tailored to that very subject. The initial season back in 2001 started just after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks and therefore caught an audience looking for a fictional hero to respond to the country’s outrage. In a post-Obama world many years after the tragedy and with reports coming out that the attacks that don’t villianize the middle east, the “war on terrorism” themes of 24 are rather outdated.
It would have been better and more creatively interesting to not only change the theme from terrorism, but to not have the same character have the same bad day every year. Everyone has a bad day. A retail supervisor, a president of a huge corporation and even a school teacher could have been the lead focus in future seasons. Considering the show is more of an action series than a thriller in it’s current form, those professions don’t speak to the fetishes of people who like gunplay and torture scenes ad museum.
The idea of centering the show on the theme of a chaotic day in a person’s life, rather than a chaotic day in the same person’s life every season, would not only be less of an expense, but it would be a breeding ground for new up and coming actors to showcase their talent on the show. Having Kiefer and perhaps one too many familiar faces from other films and television shows suggests that the producers weren’t too keen on going for complete unknowns.
A bigger problem than 24 repeating it’s plots season after season is Jack Bauer himself. Technically, he has no one to turn to for emotional stability and is very much a lone wolf who only feels useful when he is shooting a terrorist or being a martyr for his country. His wife is dead, his daughter can’t stand him and most of his friends end up being enemy agents or dead by the end of the season.
Having nothing to latch onto besides fighting people on the seeder side of society makes him an empty character. If that was the eventually intent of the latter seasons, to turn Jack into a bittersweet version of his former self, then 24 should have ended after the sixth season. Watching his girlfriend at the time lie in a coma while hearing the haunting words of the Secretary Of Defense essentially telling him he is a cursed individual should have been enough for him to end his life.
Fox not really having any confidence they could make another show like 24, they decide to take the chicken route and let him live another year. A dumb and laborious move on their part; 24 was done along time ago, they shouldn’t have waited so long to kill it.
Now that they are possibly going to can the show, the question on my mind and possibly on everyone’s who used to watch the show is the same:
What took you so long?
Why 24 Should Have Ended After The First Season
As a former fan of the Kiefer Sutherland action series on Fox, I always felt after watch the latter seasons that the show would have been better off as a mini-series. The format they have now, 24 episodes of 24 hours, worked will when the show was in it’s first year. Eight seasons onward, the problems of the format have begun to show.
This is not as complicated as I’m making it. In fact it’s quite simple.
The Fox Network’s obsession with terrorism meant that 24’s storylines would be tailored to that very subject. The initial season back in 2001 started just after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks and therefore caught an audience looking for a fictional hero to respond to the country’s outrage. In a post-Obama world many years after the tragedy and with reports coming out that the attacks that don’t villianize the middle east, the “war on terrorism” themes of 24 are rather outdated.
It would have been better and more creatively interesting to not only change the theme from terrorism, but to not have the same character have the same bad day every year. Everyone has a bad day. A retail supervisor, a president of a huge corporation and even a school teacher could have been the lead focus in future seasons. Considering the show is more of an action series than a thriller in it’s current form, those professions don’t speak to the fetishes of people who like gunplay and torture scenes ad museum.
The idea of centering the show on the theme of a chaotic day in a person’s life, rather than a chaotic day in the same person’s life every season, would not only be less of an expense, but it would be a breeding ground for new up and coming actors to showcase their talent on the show. Having Kiefer and perhaps one too many familiar faces from other films and television shows suggests that the producers weren’t too keen on going for complete unknowns.
A bigger problem than 24 repeating it’s plots season after season is Jack Bauer himself. Technically, he has no one to turn to for emotional stability and is very much a lone wolf who only feels useful when he is shooting a terrorist or being a martyr for his country. His wife is dead, his daughter can’t stand him and most of his friends end up being enemy agents or dead by the end of the season.
Having nothing to latch onto besides fighting people on the seeder side of society makes him an empty character. If that was the eventually intent of the latter seasons, to turn Jack into a bittersweet version of his former self, then 24 should have ended after the sixth season. Watching his girlfriend at the time lie in a coma while hearing the haunting words of the Secretary Of Defense essentially telling him he is a cursed individual should have been enough for him to end his life.
Fox not really having any confidence they could make another show like 24, they decide to take the chicken route and let him live another year. A dumb and laborious move on their part; 24 was done along time ago, they shouldn’t have waited so long to kill it.
Now that they are possibly going to can the show, the question on my mind and possibly on everyone’s who used to watch the show is the same:
What took you so long?