Where 24's Going Wrong (and Right)

I love 24. Let me emphasize the word 'love'. It is my favourite show. It may be the best show to exist that doesn't start with the words Mighty Morphin. So it pains me to see some of the troubles going on with this season as of late.

There were some definite struggles at the start of this season. 24 could always be counted on to have a great premiere but this year the premiere felt decidedly bland. It started to pick up some steam at the halfway point and it reached it's zenith after they killed off both President Hassan and Renee. All of a sudden we saw where this season was heading. Jack had failed both publicly and personally. He had lost the love of his life and he was out for revenge. I had thoughts of the finale of Season 1. Jack with a gun in both hands starting his one man assault on the Drazen compound. I got excited. And then 24 stopped dead in it's tracks. The last 2 episodes (excluding today's) may have been 2 of the most boring hours of 24's history. I understand that 24 is packaged as drama, but it's really not to some extent. It's an action show. The episode on April 19th may have been the low point. Not a single bullet was fired. The entire episode was dialogue. There was only one scene of action. Jack Bauer stealing a helicopter. It wasn't enough though. That's one thing 24 needs to fix and keep in mind. Focus on the action.

I would also greatly appreciate things if 24 knew what they planned to do with their characters. What do you know about Arlo? He's been around since the premiere and all I can remember is the time he commented on Chloe's ass and the camera took a nice lingering shot of it. That's about the extent of his personality I know. That actor must enjoy cashing his checks every week with his one line per episode. I also don't buy Dana's descent into mole territory. I feel like that was a knee-jerk reaction by the writers when they discovered that people really didn't like her character's arc at the beginning of the season. Everytime I see her shoot someone in cold blood I'm reminded of her weak will as she dealt with her whole ex-boyfriend situation and had to call Cole. Something just doesn't line up. Once we found out she was a mole her personality changed entirely. That's just bad scripting. I understand they had to do something with the character but it just felt shoddy. How about the re-inclusion of President Logan? He is doing some great work on the show this season. Playing things close to the vest and not tipping his hand. But it all feels like a ploy to me. In Season 6 this was a man who was sorry for his crimes and was seeking redemption. Only now we learn he wasn't, he's still the same snake he always was. This isn't challenging the character, you're just sticking him in a new situation. My final complaint is with Miss Chloe O'Brien. Clearly the writers have been planning for her to take the head of CTU role for a while. So why is it that as soon as she gets the power she turns on Jack? For 6 seasons now we've seen Chloe be Jack's one ray of hope when he goes rogue. She's always the one who believes in him and has his back. I don't believe that she would betray him for the job. It's not her character. They just fell into their old dynamic of Jack going rogue and the boss trying to catch him instead of pushing themselves and the show to somewhere new.

So now let me tell you why today's episode was good. Not only did it feel like 24 is building the action but it also felt gratifying at the same time. Dana just came out and explicitly stated Jack's goal. He's making a list and executing everyone on it. I would've liked it to be more subtly showed to us that once Jack gets this list he kills everyone, but let's be real, 24 needed to just throw this at us to get us back in the game. But finally there was some action. Some action and some important dialogue. They understood the importance of the Cole-Dana situation that hadn't been addressed and they talked about it. That's the kind of dialogue and drama I need to see. They've danced around how Cole's felt finding out his fiancee was really a mole. Thankfully they at least spoke to each other today.That opening speech by Dalia Hassan was pitch perfect. I think I would've liked that to have ended the episode last week. Rather than just seeing her put on stage. It set the tone for her character. Last week I didn't care about the whole peace process situation, but now I'm at least a little invested in how she is going to unite her country. The finale of the episode was done quite well too. I needed a reminder of just who Jack Bauer was. Seeing him disarm a cop, shoot another in the foot, then disassemble the gun and throw it away before chasing after Dana was a reminder of who this man is and why he's so damn cool. That final scene with Jack confronting Dana in the construction building was so important. I would like to mention that it was staged quite well but more than that, I finally got to see Jack's plan in action. I knew Dana wouldn't be surviving the episode but I needed to see Jack shoot her. I needed to see her name crossed from that list. I was reminded of Season 3 and the killing of Nina Myers. It felt very similar. Maybe it's a little befitting that this is 24's last season. Nina killed Teri and Dana was at least partly responsible for Renee's death. It all comes full circle.