Jack Bauer is back, baby! I finally finished Season 6 of 24, back when I was still on Winter Break. Very soon after that, we watched 24: Redemption, the made-for-TV movie that bridges the gap between Season 6 and Season 7. THEN, last Sunday and Monday night, we leapt full-throttle into the new season, with a four-hour premiere over two nights. I'm so excited for the direction this show is taking - but more on that in a moment.
(By the way, this blog is full of SPOILERS. It's pretty much all spoilers, so if you haven't seen what I'm talking about and don't want to know, now's a good time to close your internet browser).
Season 6: I don't remember exactly what detail I went into when I talked about this last time. I can see why Season 6 got a great deal of criticism. It was much more scattered than any of the other seasons. It had too many plot lines and twists, it was full of gimmicks (the kind of moments that look good on a commercial for the show, but aren't really that great when you get there), and Jack seemed kind of, well, not as cool as usual.
My main problem was that they just couldn't settle on one plot. First Assad was a bad guy, then Fayid, then Fayid with nuclear weapons, then there was Graem Bauer, then Jack's father, then Fayid working with the Russians, then the Russian, Gredenko, working with the consulate, then the Chinese, then Jack's dad again..... Get the idea? Waaaay too much. I like it when the bad guys are harder to capture - when (and I never thought I'd say this), the plot drags on a bit more. It's more suspenseful when it takes more than just a few episodes for Jack to capture all the nuclear bombs.
Plus, everyone just felt whiney and mad at each other! I love these characters but, gosh darn, let them be likable! Jack didn't want to be doing CTU work, but went along with it anyway. Chloe was pissed at Morris, then lovey dovey, then hurt by the breakup, then pissed again. Let her be her quirky self! Morris was the injured guy, then the angry boyfriend... It felt like they were trying to make us hate them! We're supposed to like the protagonists!
Anyway, it wasn't totally flawed. I liked how they balanced the different plot lines - the white house, the terrorists, all that. They always do a good job with editing and split screens. That stayed the same. Chloe was still her funny self sometimes, and the characters who died were just as poingant and heart wrenching as ever.
But they can do better.
24: Redemption: This was interesting. Basically, the makers of 24 had filmed only 8 episodes when the Hollywood writers went on strike early last year. Rather than air those, then get stuck for god-knows-how-long (like most shows did), they decided to push Season 7 to this year, 2009. That gave them time to work extra hard to make it extra better, as they've all said countless times in interviews. But, in their spare time, they also decided to film a made-for-TV movie in South Africa. It's basically a 2 hour 24, with Jack, that reminded people of the show in November, and got them all excited for the January premiere that happened last week. Also, I'm pretty sure it's serving the purpose of a screen-test to see if a 24 movie would be a good idea - but more on that in a minute.
24: Redemption fits into the story thus: Jack Bauer ran away to find himself and avoid everything after Season 6. He traveled all around the world (they mentioned India, I believe) and then ended up with an old army/special-ops pal who has a school going in Sangala, Africa. Jack's been receiving subpoenas to appear before the U.S. Court, but of course, like a true bad-ass, he's been ignoring them. Meanwhile, there's the makings of a military coup going on, and Jack gets all tangled up with it, (cue the heart-wrenching scenes of child soldiers, and the boys that Jack must save). Long story short, he ends up having to turn himself in to save the kids, and thus gets sent back to the U.S.
Meanwhile, the creepy VP from Season 6, who became a less creepy President, has now lost the office to one Allison Taylor, the first female president on the show. This 2 hour segment takes place right before and during the inaguration.... and there are some great scenes of her speaking with the outgoing Daniels that really echo the current administrative shift in the real world. Also, her inaguration speech is really cool.
Finally, there's a subplot that ties this all together, one that we don't know much about. We meet a guy (who's name I've totally forgotten) who works at a financial office of some sort. Several things happen here. 1) Jon Voight (who I think is going to be a great addition to the show) is a client of this firm, and he's somehow funding the war in Sangala. A.k.a., he's a very bad guy! Our guy-who's-name-I've-forgotten somehow probes the files and figures this out. He warns his friend Roger, who also works at the firm, and just happens to be the son of the incoming president, about what he's discovered, but before he can fork over the proof, our guy gets killed. Aww. However, Roger now knows about it, which is important to Season 7.
And that's where they leave us! I KNOW! Just from this little 2-hour snippet (less, when you subtract the commercials), it was clear that the new season was going to be awesome. So, now....
This blog is getting way too long to go into Season 7 details right now. I'll have to come back later this weekend to get into that all, but that's where we stood on 24 up until last week's premiere. So, let me just wrap this up for now....
As you can tell, Redemption really caught my attention. Finishing Season 6 was almost like a chore - I just wanted to get caught up so that I did. But it wasn't great. It wasn't OMGod I have to keep watching this second. However, Redemption was great, and it turns out it was a great indicator of what Season 7 was like.
To be continued! Haha, it's just like the show! The clock keeps ticking, but you have to wait for the next episode!
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