Now that Jack Bauer’s sixth day has drawn to an unceremonious finish, we can take a look back at the season as a whole. Despite most fans’ frustration and critics’ disapproval, the sixth season of 24 was nowhere near as terrible as you might think. That said, it was also an emotionally unsatisfying, structurally unsound, and needlessly melodramatic 24 hours.
But if this season has taught us anything, it demonstrated the utter brilliance of the show’s first five seasons. The series’ concept has never been a simple one, but when executed as poorly as this season was at times, the results can be, at best, laughable, and at worst, pathetic.
As many critics have noted, there were moments this season that you literally couldn’t wait to finish the episode – not because you were so excited for that final, glorious twist, but because watching became so excruciating. The show simply crumbled beneath the weight of its own impossibly high expectations following the Emmy-winning fifth season. In other words, they couldn’t top themselves.
But viewers who quit watching were never real fans to begin with. The show still provided more plot twists, fireworks, and suspense – as unwieldy as they were at times – than any other show on television. (Yes, including the vastly overrated flavor of the month Heroes.)
In many ways, 24’s finale usually reflects its season on the whole. Last night’s effort showed just how shallow the emotional depth of Jack’s family drama was, just how convoluted and labyrinthine Russia’s diplomatic standoff has been, and just how fleeting every plotline has been this season. No President Logan? No President Palmer? No Lisa Miller? If the plotlines didn’t fit the hour conveniently, they were dropped in favor of dreck like the maudlin and unnecessary five minute exchange between Nadia and Milo’s brother. Newsflash, writers: Surprising as it may be, viewers simply weren’t waiting breathlessly for closure on Nadia's grief over Milo’s death.
The final oil rig scenes actually told you everything you needed to know about this season. Amazing stunt work and incredible action sequences provided no lasting emotional resonance. Jack lets his father die – but like our hero, do we even care? A son letting his father die should move us, right? But the writers constructed the story arc so poorly that we were left with a semi-satisfying, but empty, feeling about the conclusion to an international crisis.
Interestingly, it was the emotional fireworks of Jack’s final minutes with Heller and Audrey that ultimately provided the season with a few brief moments of drama. It’s tough to accept that the writers waited until the last ten minutes to finally give viewers the one they really wanted – Jack’s coming to terms with his capture, return, and desire for a normal life. These final moments were the season’s best simply because they felt the most real. The convoluted, forced plotlines and love triangles had finally been put to bed. These were questions that needed to be answered all along.
Having said all this, 24 was still the most exciting hour on television every week, bar none. But for the first time in the show’s history, this season failed to top its predecessors. And there are many, many reasons for that. To correct the mistakes, the writers have promised a “reinvention” of the series next season. Hopefully, they’ve learned some valuable lessons. So rather than simply bitch about this past season, let’s actually try to learn something from the biggest missteps of Day Six.
1. NO MORE FAMILY DRAMA. The incessantly incestuous and preposterous plotlines finally wore out their welcome this season. The show’s first season remains its finest for its personal storyline chronicling Jack and President Palmer’s involvement in a late 1990’s mission in Kosovo. The danger that the men’s actions put their families in generated all the drama. Subsequent seasons have attempted building bigger plotlines using the same blueprint, but with markedly less success. This season’s attempt was disastrous. Jack’s brother and father actually sent him off to China? Jack’s brother stole his girlfriend from him? And she raised Jack’s child (we think)? You have to wonder just how likely a series “reinvention” can be when Jack’s relationship with Marilyn and Josh has barely been resolved. We can only pray the writers will drop these characters as quickly as they did President Logan this season.
2. NO MORE KILLING OFF MAIN CHARACTERS. President Palmer, okay. It was time. Michelle Dessler, fine. But Tony Almeida? Edgar Stiles? Curtis Manning? These were likable, reliable characters that had finally rounded out the colorful cast of CTU. Killing them all off is still haunting the show. They almost killed off three other now indispensable characters, Wayne Palmer, President Logan, and Mike Doyle, this season as well. What we were left with was the squabbling Morris, Nadia, and Milo. And then they killed Milo off. But he’s the exception to the rule. The writers should feel free to bring him back from the dead – just to kill him off again next season.
3. NO MORE OFFICE “DEBRIEFING”. 24 has only been able to pull this off once with Tony and Michelle’s second season romance. Carlos Bernard and Reiko Aylesworth had undeniable chemistry, and their relationship was organic, growing under the threat of nuclear devastation. Their connection was formed under – and because of – the intense circumstances surrounding them. Season 3 featured a failed attempt to give Palmer a love interest. Seasons 4 and 5 succeeded in avoiding romantic subplots almost altogher. But Season 6 was buried by them. With the exception of Bill and Karen’s understated and seldom mentioned marriage, CTU was awash in hormones this season. Love was certainly in the air. Milo was involved in not one – but two – love triangles. Nadia wanted both Doyle and Milo. And Chloe and Morris produced their own annoying drama. Chloe has always been best in small doses. This season’s obsession with her on-again-off-again relationship with Morris was excruciating. You never felt the characters’ bonds were forged by the extraordinary events of the day, but rather that they were all playing grab ass in spite of them. At times, 24 felt more like Big Brother 7 – set at CTU LA. Hey assholes, there are five suitcase nukes out there. Maybe you should stop worrying about the funny look Milo gave you during the debriefing …
4. NO MORE LARGE SCALE TERRORIST ATTACKS. This one goes without saying. They set off a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles in the first four hours of the season. While intended to send the message that all bets were off the table this season, that cataclysmic climax came far too early in the season and desensitized viewers to everything that would follow. When one nuke has already gone off, there’s only so much suspense you can wring out of the concept. “But there are four more, you say? Oh dear!” The only difference between Season 2 and Season 6 is the number of nukes. Dramatically speaking, the plot starts wearing thin after a major terrorist strike has already occurred. But Seasons 2-6 have all dealt with major terrorist strikes, mostly in Los Angeles. Four nuclear threats involving bombs, power plants, and missiles, two biological threats involving nerve gas, and five attempted assassinations of world leaders, four of which included the President – enough. The show needs to be about Jack’s personal crises OR a large scale terrorist attack, but not BOTH. Seeing as how the show has exhausted its “terrorists destroy the universe” plotline, maybe it’s time to get the show back to basics.
5. NO MORE CTU. I know this one sounds awfully vague. But CTU, along with its agent’s sexual tension (see #2), hilarious bureaucratic power struggles, even more hilarious security breaches, and of course, MOLES(!) just needs to take a breather. Counter Terrorist Unit has become the show’s black hole of suspense and drama. You might as well just doze off as soon as each episode inevitably shifts focus there. I know that a change of setting may only be a cosmetic one. The love interests and political maneuvering may still exist in some form or shape. But just seeing those blue-tinted walls and whatever technology makes my stomach churn these days. Move the show to Dunkin’ Donuts. Move the show to Radio Shack. Move the show wherever the hell you please. Just move it the fuck out of CTU.
That should about do it. I have no doubt that 24 will be back with a much stronger, more coherent season next January. Here’s hoping the writers are back up to the challenge this summer. Better get started though. The clock is already ticking.
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