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coming out that the attacks that don’t villianize the middle east, the “war on terrorism” themes of 24 are rather outdated.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?

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I Know The Secret Of Kells

Up until it’s mention as a nomination for Best Animated Film during this past Oscar ceremony, I had never actually heard of The Secret Of Kells. It’s set in 9th century Ireland and centers around The Book Of Kells, which for those who aren’t religious, is an actual book that deals with a bunch of New Testament scriptures. Not being big on the subject, the inital plot surrounding said book confused me.

After my inital viewing, I went to the Internet as anyone would to find out more about the real history behind the film. Low and behold, many of the things included in the film, such as the theme of illustrating Biblical texts, actually did take place. I never was good at the history of all things holy, so my initial confusion became an excuse to look up stuff.

I can’t really say how I came across the film, but i’m sure you can see it if you have the right people. You should try to see it if you can. It’s a beautiful film.

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When Bowling Balls Have Sugar — An Animation By Matthew Milam

Just more of me doing Flash CS4

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Home

I’m coming back.

Although it’s nice to live on your own.

There is no place like…

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Reagan Gomez Of The Cleveland Show Has A Talented Brother-In-Law — And He Can Actually Sing!

Reagan Gomez, famous for the 1990’s WB series The Parent Hood and most recently for The Cleveland Show, has recently started promoting a short film called This Time, which she stars in and wrote the script for. I can’t really judge the film on the trailer, but my attention is more so on DeJuan, a brother-in-law of Reagan’s who did the title track for the short. It’s a evenly balanced song that pushes for the vocals to draw a listener in. It’s not everyday you get that kind of production value in music.

You can download it here, or you can listen to it on the player below.

Here is also a trailer for this time. At least it’s not a ghetto flick.

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Why I Don’t Need To See Precious: A New Post On ChicagoNow


I
‘m going to catch hell for this.

In these tough times, the last thing I need to see is Precious.

Here’s a post on why I don’t want to live at ChicagoNow.

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Checklist Females

Women.

I love you.

I really do.

You say you want unconditional love, but you put conditions in anyway.

He must have money.

Must be sexy.

Must be sexually experienced.

Must be able to take care of you.

Must be a man.

Must not be human.

I don’t like checklists, or checklist females.

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Water Vs. Rain — An Animated Flash Short By Matthew Milam

Being a filmmaker was always my dream. The problem is with no connections and no actors to work with, it’s hard to do a film all by yourself. After seeing videos like Sita Sings The Blues, it became clear that perhaps the best thing for me is to do become an animator.

Being an animator allows me to do things on the computer while actually staying at the computer. No need to purchase camera equipment, or any of that other nonsense. It also seems to be alot of fun.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Harrison Ford Thinks Fans Want Another Indiana Jones Sequel

From Hollywood.com:

“The process works like this,” he said. “We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it. Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form. Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it’s ready and we do it.”

I like Lucas.

I like Speilberg.

I like Indiana Jones.

A dead horse is a dead horse.

Let’s keep this franchise dead.

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Keith Partridge Doesn’t Have A Brother

“Every time he gets arrested, people call me up as if we’re still living in the same house together.” THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY actor DAVID CASSIDY distances himself from his former TV brother DANNY BONADUCE’s multiple drug arrests.

From Hollywood.com’s The Things They Say series.

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