24
I couldn't agree more in regards to the state of 24. I actually stopped watching after about the sixth episode. I finally couldn't take the needless and over-the-top torture scenes and plot twists. I hope they can arrive at a reasonable plan to freshen it up because up until this year I had not missed an episode.
And on the 7th day, Jack Bauer rested
Apr 30, 2007, 04:40 PM | by Gary Susman
Categories: Television
The greatest threat Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland, pictured) has ever faced may be viewer ennui. According to the Los Angeles Times, 24's producers are feeling the sting of criticism and defection of viewers over the ho-hum plot twists of Day 6 (count me among those fans not feeling this season, especially in contrast to the gripping Day 5), and they're promising big changes next year. "This year could be seen to be the last iteration of it in its current state," writer/executive producer Howard Gordon says ominously.
How radical will next season's changes be? Maybe not that radical; "It won't be a musical or a half-hour," Gordon tells the Times. Also, Jack won't be undergoing any major career changes; as Gordon puts it, Bauer "won't be flipping burgers."
Actually, I'd kind of like to see Jack flipping burgers. "You have five seconds to tell me the secret sauce recipe, or I'm going to put your face in the fryolator." Seriously, Gordon & Co. need to do something different, not just because longtime fans are finding 24's current storytelling predictable and stale, but also because (as the article notes) it's not 2002 anymore, and American viewers are increasingly skeptical of 24's terror-threat scenarios, just as they are of the government's efforts to sell a real-life War on Terror. So let's have it, PopWatchers? What challenges should Jack Bauer face on Day 7? What would 24 have to do to become must-watch Monday-night viewing again?
