TVSquad

It's definately off this season. They became a little too gun-ho to bring in more family for everyone. Jack Bauer suddenly has a father and a brother, a woman he probably had an affair with and a nephew/son. Suddenly, the Palmers have a sister, who dissapeared into the Land of Behrooz. Wayne Palmer is President, after just about 2 years after his brother died. Which means he's a sneaky oppertunist, playing on the public's emotions like that. Especially since he's a wimp to begin with and brings no gravitas to the office of POTUS.

Another thing that I think is hurting this season is that they seem to be spending their budget on explosives, not talent. We've seen cast member after cast member get written out of this season's story, but we hardly get anyone new. Meanwhile, they keep having big ginormous explosions for no real reason.

Not to mention that after the Valencia incident, Fayed became less of a villian and more of a background annoyance.

Season 5 was pure magic. Season 6 minus well be in Mexico again.

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started off a), nuke ep was a b) followed by a bunch of a)'s with maybe one b) in there, but the logan reveal last episode leaves it at a c) for now.

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I would say to give it time. Even though it's off right now, I have enough faith in this show to know that it will get better.

My problem is that they are using similar storylines as before. How many times can someone be trying to double cross the President? I'm just waiting for the obligatory "mole" in CTU storyline to pop up again.

I do disagree with Charles in a couple of things. We don't know if Josh is Jack's son yet. So far it's just been pure speculations. You also imply on one hand that they've introduced too many characters (jack's father, brother, woman, son, etc., then you say that we haven't seen anyone new??? Aside from a handful of people, everyone else is new.

Let's give it time. 24 always comes through.

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24 is Lost as Lost is

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The son/nephew Josh is the spitting image, in the face. eyes, cheekbones..as Kim Bauer. Maybe we will have a side by side...Josh looks nothing like his mother and dead "dad"

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Definitely off this season. Even by 24 standards, the ridiculous things they are asking viewers to believe is getting out of control. Notably, both Morris & Milo recovering in about 30 minutes from brutal injuries (shoulder getting drilled, gunshot wound to the bicep) and going back to work. No shock, no surgery, no nothing. This would be ridiculous even for Jack, but for 2 desk jockey nerds? Come on.

The dialogue is far too dumbed down. Most conversations are plot recaps. People don't talk like that. They wouldn't say, "Jack, you want me to track Fayed's car? Because he has more nukes with him? Similar to the nuke that he detonated an hour ago? And because he is a radical Islamic terrorist?" They would say, "Got it, tracking Fayed's car." Once you notice these constant recaps they get very annoying.

Palmer II is a horrible actor. Every scene with him is painful. It's like watching Keanu Reeves.

I'll stop there.

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I stopped watching 24 after season 3. The show has long since jumped the shark.

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Yes, it's off. It's WAY off.

And that's what the writers are aiming for.

I will admit I haven't been crazy about the casting this season. But I can see very clearly what's going on.

The loopiest sting operation ever.

Jack is leading a major scam with the help of Chloe, Morris, Buchanan, Wayne, and several others to trap the "Patriots", the string-pulling baddies behind many evil incidents in the series. I think this season is leading up to a climax which will bring together seemingly unrelated events and address many unanswered questions. My predictions:

1. It will turn out Jack was in Chinese custody for only a short period of time.

2. Jack's family is NOT evil. I suspect Pop and Bro may be secret agents running a front corporation. Think "Valerie Plame".

3. The Vice President is NOT evil. In fact, many of this season's villians are actually in the service of the good guys.

4. A nuclear bomb DID NOT go off in Valencia. The bombs are red herrings.

5. Morris is NOT an alcoholic. It will turn out that it's a ruse to go see his "AA Sponsor", who isn't exactly a sponsor.

6. A former government official will be going down.

7. Multiple characters will be returning from the dead.

This is REALLY a "wait and see" season.

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The season is just starting to heat up. I though season 1 and 3 took a little time to get moving. Josh is not Jack's son. I can't see that happening plus she said she only stay with Grham(sp?) because of Josh. If Josh wasn't his she would have left him.

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I can understand how people might say it's "off" this season, I still think it's such a high quality piece of drama that's very worthy of continuing to be made. I hope that just because it's not as good as earlier seasons they don't think it needs to be dropped. It still is way better than newer shows like Criminal Minds, Shark, The Nine etc.

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The one thing that bugs me about 24 is how many things can happen to LA? Why would that city be a target? Is it only because that's where all the actors live?

The seasons do follow a pretty standard formula tho now:

- Sum up what happened since last Day.

- Large horrible event that everyone is trying to stop.

- Somebody close to someone dies

- That event is actually a distraction to another un/known event.

- Trying to find to out who/what/why of actual event

- Jack goes rogue

- Jack stops going rogue

- Meanwhile secondary storylines and power struggles abound.

- Main event barely averted

- Last couple episodes wrapping up and going after the real bad guys

- One bad guy is caught, other(s) get away.

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Every year Kiefer has an excellent cast with compelling characters to help make it a team effort. Season 6 feels off because 24 has officialy gone from the groundbraking, realtime, splitcreen serial to 100 percent Jack Bauer Power Hour.

We have no Nina Myers, David or Sherry Palmer, Mr. and Mrs Logan, Teri Bauer, Chase Edmunds, or Naked Mandy this season to help make the show a team effort. Characters killed off last season are sorely missed this season (TONY!)

Instead, this season is simply relying on Jack's bad ass skills.
Other problems:
Unbelievable plotlines (Bad guy is Jacks bro! Wayne Palmer is Pres! Jacks dad is evil!

Recycled Plotlines and Monotony: Theres nothing shokcing or clever about the show anymore. The torture and betrayals are expected and the big scale threats have been used since season 2.

I recommend going back to a season 1 type direction. Make Jack fairly normal again, give him a family life, and have the events of the day be more personal (not in daddy/brother Bauer) type of way for Jack. Not everything needs to be CTU.

oh and i like Chloe as a blonde.

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I grew tired of 24 after season 3, held on season 4 cringing all the way, caught a few episodes while Tony was still alive and gave up when he died. That was the last straw for me.

Plus I LOATHE Chloe.

I'll take d) unecessary killings of favorite characters terminated by viewing.

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I think it is a little off, but I think we should wait and see what happens. This show really hasn't disapointed me before, so I am still a believer at this point.

I do want to mention that everyone is always all "we didn't even know Jack had a brother or father," like it is a huge shocker. But, first, we did know about Graehm (or however you spell it) last season, he was the head of the group of bad guys. Granted, we didn't know it was Jack's brother, but I thought that was a hell of a revelation. How cool!

Also, didn't you assume Jack had some sort of family out there.... I mean they have said they were estranged, and really, we have only seen 5 days in Jack's life thus far. You have to admit these were some pretty drama-filled days, and if you didn't speak to your family, they might not come up at this point......

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Last season was good? Yeah this "dumb" president was a terrorist and had planned the last sevral days. Oh brother, and people say this seeason is bad.

Anyone know how many more seasons are left?

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Definitely off a little bit. But after last season, waht do you expect?
Wayne Palmer, the campaign manager and chief of staff for his assasinated brother is president? That's a little weird. I'm not even sure he was chief of staff. And, wait, didn't he shoot someone? Or have a crazy wife?
In what america does an unmarried African American with little or no political experience become president? And with a goatee, no less?
The last time I had a hole drilled into my should I found it very hard to type, you know. But that's just me.

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Far be it from to agree with a critic, but I think the analsysis is correct. Something jsut doesn't seem "right" this season. I think a lot of it has to do with weak supporting characters and a presidential plot reminiscient of previous seasons. However, I'm not ready write off 24 just yet. The series has a history of weakening after a strong beginning and then picking up as we near the end.

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#3... Sorry, I should have clarified... They introduced a bunch of characters, then shelfed over half of them, then have barely brought anyone else new in to the picture. Since the premiere we've gained one Chad Lowe and Gredenko, and that's that. And we've gotten rid of the Suburban Family, Kal Penn, Sandra Palmer and her boss/boyfriend, Karen Hayes (howbeit temporarily), and Curtis.


The beginning of the season had some energy, in part because it had multiple storylines. This season is the "Jack Bauer Power Hour", as somebody already mentioned, with CTU sprinkled in here and there. Except CTU is back to it's old tricks, focusing more on personal demons than on national security issues. Shoot, even the villian for the first half+ of the season, Fayed, barely gets 5 minutes anymore.

But again, my theory is that we've shortened the cast early on - and kept it short - because they are using all the money on BIGGER explosives.

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The reason the dialogue is dumbed down? Because all the main characters are play-acting to prevent their scheme from being discovered by moles (yes, they have finally learned not to share information!). I remember hearing a story about the FBI staging a phony movie shoot as part of a mob sting. This year's plot is sort of like that. I think the early episodes will appear a hell of a lot better in retrospect once the season has concluded and we know what was going on.

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I keep expecting to find Jack in the ocean on water skis... jumping a shark (with a terrorist-implanted nuke in its gills).

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