Then came this year's show.
I thought this season was just garbage.
Man, you ain't kiddin', Brother FReeper! I kept waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ... for it to redeem itself. But the plot, the more it went on, kept feeling like something that was out of control, as if its writers had written themselves into corners each week, and overall seemed desperate rather than designed. For the first time, it felt amateurish on that count. It was like the writers were in over their heads; in previous seasons, the plots were wild and insane, but always by design. You always knew that as a viewer, you were in the hands of professionals. This season it felt like you were in the hands of novices.
I kept waiting for a character I could care about, fall in love with, empathize and sympathize with, grieve for, hate, despise ... Jon Voight and the gal who played the Pres's daughter were the only ones that got an emotional grip on me, and surprisingly, Kim, Jack's daughter, became likeable (she was mostly a silly stupid-female stereotype in the others). And speaking of stupid females, the plot first started to get really beyond stupid when the president appointed her estranged daughter (!!!) as Chief of Staff. I mean, come on! How unprofessional and stupid would that be? So it made me immediately lose any kind of respect for the President's character because only a singularly stupid woman would do such a thing, and as such, one coudln't watch the rest of the show and take her at all seriously as a president.
And even though in the end she did the "right" thing by opting not to cover up her daughter's hit-man scandal, it hardly spoke well of her because the truth was, if she hadn't been so stupid as to appoint her daughter in the first place, then it woudln't have happened. So it was pretty near impossible to admire the president even for making the morally right call. It was sort of like having somebody throw a baby off a pier and then be hailed as a hero for jumping into the waves and cold water to rescue it.
The political correctness in this season was simply stifling. The only bad guys were hawkish American businessmen. Muslims were only portrayed as victims of wicked Americans. When the death bed "confessor" turned out the be the Islamic cleric, it was so saccharine and corny, so deliberate a slap at Christianity as to be shameful. It struck me that the mercy and compassion extended by the Muslim cleric was misrepresentative of reality, but the screenwriters seem to think the only dif between Jesus and Mohammed is the letters in their names. That really did it, pushed it over the edge. I may or may not give 24 a chance next year, but if it starts out as badly as this year's season, I'll just quit while I'm ahead.
I love many despicably liberal actors -- Ed Harris comes to mind. Had 24 cast Ed Harris, I could sure as hell understand why and I'm certain that I'd have enjoyed whatever role he played. They cast Janneane Garafolo, and she brought zero, zilch, null, nada, to the mix. I cannot understand why they cast her -- unless it was to thumb its nose at the show's conservative fan base built on praise of the show by Rush. In fact, it's the ONLY reason I can think of why Garafolo was cast, and I'd bet good, hard cash that it's the REAL reason she was cast. Had they ended up making her a bad guy, that would have at least been gratifying and redeemed the show. But her bland, vaguely unpleasant charater had zero intrigue, and so clearly her choice was completely political. That makes this season even more disgusting.
I agree that there's a bone to pick with Rush for raving over the show at the start of the season. To paraphrase a classic line from Aliens, one of my top ten favorite movies:
"It was a bad call, Rush. It was a bad call."
I have been a BIG 24 fan. Not anymore!!! They went out of their way to get a Bush (Wilson) look alike. Along with the Born again Muslim Jack Bauer. Why in the world would Jack Bauer ever become a Muslim?
They also were taking a huge slam at Lockheed and Blackwater.
The show jumped the Liberal Shark.
Rush! Where are you on this?????
We did the same thing. Started watching during one of the Palmer administrations after hearing Rush rave, and fell hard for the show. We watched season 5, the one with the Logans (BRILLIANT ACTING) in the White House, and went out and got all the other seasons. We watched a lot of them one summer in Hawaii, staying up too late each night watching episode after episode.
I agree that stupid decisions were made by the President in this one, and of course her weak and clueless husband. He turned out to be such a spineless flake that Jack should have left him under that takeout place. But stupid decisions were made by others as well. Didn’t Palmer allow his ex-wife back into the West Wing?
The Muslim cleric at the end was atrocious. Especially since it contrasted with the recent discovery that Mr. Big, the one who killed everyone in all former seasons, as well as the current President’s son, Michelle, and all things bright and beautiful, was a little nebbishy Jewish guy. One can only imagine what the Imam responded with when Jack told him. (Hint: Mel Gibson would no doubt agree.)
But you are right about the writing. So much was never followed up. The beginning of the day was all about Singala or San Galla, and of course the evil Djuma and his pasta-craving illegal alien henchman. But they dropped that plotline so fast that I forgot all about the entire continent of Africa for the last couple of months, which probably was quite the opposite of the producers’ One World dream.
And indeed, Garofalo should have only been cast to be blown to bits at some point. She can’t act her way out of a recycled bag.
It was still fun to watch the season, but next time more plot stability and less Lebanese women.
The best thing I got from this season is a great impression of the Tony Almeida sideways snarl. They should definitely make a cocktail called the Almeida and it should be nearly 100% bitters.