Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Your Weekly 24 Update

So… The biggest shock from the entire season finale of “24” was that Morris is fertile. Drat. For the record, Rickey really was expecting Tony to pop up at the end. No such luck apparently. Not to belabor the obvious, but if this season had been as decent as any of the previous seasons, no one would be whining right now. But due to the overwhelming mediocrity that permeated season six, fans needed a lot more than what they got last night.

Don’t get Rickey wrong, the suspense of watching Rickey Schroeder sit at a picnic bench for forty five minutes was just fan-freaking-tastic. And the drama of a teenager being dragged to China by his grandfather is truly riveting stuff. But hey, Josh showed a lot of moxie by standing up to Farmer Bauer like that at the end. One can’t help but wonder what Josh Bauer’s fourteen other personalities are going to be like once they grow up.

Look, if we forget the previous twenty hours of this season, last night could kind of qualify as a passable ending. The last few minutes of the episode with Jack and Heller were terrific—hands down the best (and possibly only) acting of the season. The last shot of Kiefer looking out into the ocean sets up Jack Bauer as his own man, thus hopefully changing the dynamic of the whole show.

So yes, after mulling things over, Rickey dug the ending. It was an emotional shocker to see Jack alone, bitter, broken-hearted and undoubtedly pissed off beyond all measure of belief. Any time the camera focuses in on Jack looking like he’s about to seriously loose it, it’s a major punch in the gut. And best of all, this whole “crossroads” motive definitely opens the door for a fresh start nest season. Overall however, it’s still not enough to redeem a very sub par story arc however.

Did we really have to sit through twenty lousy hours of tv only to be promised at the very end, “hey, we screwed up, but we’ll fix it next season”? So to sum up, here’s Rickey’s scorecard for this past season of “24”:

Jack biting necks and hanging terrorists: Great.

Jack getting arrested forty-seven times by Ricky Schroeder: Not Great.

Fathers killing sons: Good.

Fathers not killing sons, leaving behind cell phone numbers: Not Good.

Bombs going off: Good.

Bombs not going off: Not Good.

Nadia and the Widow Bauer: Hot.

Audrey and Morris: Not Hot.

Everything in Washington D.C. (outside of the acting skills of Powers Boothe and Peter MacNicol): Horrible.

And jebus, Tony Almeida not returning hurts big time—especially considering the fact that there was a rumor floating around that a major player would make a surprise appearance during the last few minutes. Rickey is willing to begrudgingly overlook Tony not coming back, but come on: couldn’t the writers give us something? Couldn’t the mystery guest have been Chase, Palmer, Henderson, Chappelle, or even the cougar from season two? The cougar would’ve totally worked. He rolls up in a van, growls, and the subtitle reads "Jack, get in!" The cougar has much to explain about his night with Kim in the woods...

Bear in mind that this letdown of a season will seem like a distant memory once the previews for the new season pop up during FOX postseason baseball. And you know damn well that Rickey will see you folks in January 2008, crazy as ever.

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5 comments:

TheJackSack said...

Killing Curtis Manning: Not Good

Permanently blinding Ricky Schroder: Very good!

Yeah, as much as I bitch and moan about this being a lackluster season, I am so freakin' ready for Day 7. 6 months is a long time. I could get a girl knocked up in that period. That's too wide a window do be without 24!

Rickey said...

Killing Curtis hurt the show a lot. I kind of like the idea of Ricky Schroeder with and eye patch, but I doubt they'll bring him back next year.

Ed in Westchester said...

Meh. It is hard to do this show, since the plots are all recycled. Funniest story I read was that in season 3 or so, they were still taping Keifer saying "the following takes place between..." and Keifer turns to them and says "Hey, you know what, don't we already have this on tape."
Heck, they could do the same with most of the dialogue.
A big change is needed. The problem is, they can't use the "They pulled Jack back in", since that has been done like 5 times already. So how do they do it?
It will be interesting to see no doubt.

The lack of "tbd" as the returnee was named on one board is probably a good thing. How do you explain it? It is almost like they floated the idea, and got miserable feedback so they dumped it. Either that or they heard it got out, so they scrapped it, no matter the response to it.

Rickey said...

Ed--thats a funny story about Kiefer and the intro. I'm thinking something along the lines of "evil Jack seeking revenge" would be in order for next season.

With the alleged ending with Tony floating around online and the fact that Carlos Bernard was seen on the set of this season's "24," I'm hoping that the rumored scene with Tony showing up might make it onto the season 6 DVD.

TheJackSack said...

YES!!!!

The Tony scene could be the teaser for Day 7! Brilliant! (Which means they won't do it...)