Brannon Braga on "24"?!

[TedShatner10]

I heard that the highly contentious Brannon Braga has become a co-producer on the bombastic, overwritten 24 alongside Manny Cotto (who has been on the show considerably longer).

I always thought 24 was a not especially good show to begin with anyway and I wonder how well the show is faring under somebody who has done such crap like "Genesis" and "Threshold" (but of course his better stuff like "Parallels", "Frame of Mind", and most scripts with Moore or Menosky, get brushed under the carpet).

While he is partially responsible for the creative ennui that had troubled much of Voyager and Enterprise I've heard from some fans that Day 7 of 24 is actually OK (in the context of a show that is so overwhelmingly pofaced despite its relentless silliness, not unlike CSI: Miami).

 

[Lindley]

It's better than Day 6. Some of the sillier moments have come during Braga's episodes, though.

 

[Samurai8472]

Jack Bauer will uncover a conspiracy that reveals high ranking officials are being replaced by worm like aliens. Chloe will develop an addiction to an alien disease.

The season finale will have Bauer time travel and encounter alien nazis!

 

[Data Holmes]

When he's good, he's good. When he isn't... well.


I always thought he's best when he has a complementary writer who is the opposite of him. This is why he and moore were such a good team.

 

[auntiehill]

I have to say that this season is far better than last season. I was ready to quit the show for good after last year, but this season, so far, has been pretty good.

I don't think him being a co-producer means all that much, since, if you check the credits, this show has more producers than it has cast members.

 

[Harvey]

It's hard to evaluate his work as a writer on the show. 24 is written by committee in such a way that no matter who is attached to a certain week's episode, you can bet everybody else had a major hand in it.

As for day seven, it's better than day six. But that shouldn't be surprising for anyone who struggled through that mess. It's not as good as seasons one or two, nor is it as good as my next favorite season, day five.

 

[Aragorn]

Well if they don't have a legitimate reason for Tony being bad again, it'll be just like season five and Logan!

Anyone remember when 24 started to go full-speed ahead with their plots where secrets are uncovered or new developments are fully dealt with during the course of one episode? They used to have a pace where things built up and logically developed. Now each episode has to end big.

If season one were written now, Kim and Teri would've been captured, Jack would be forced to assassinate David Palmer, and Jamie would've been outed as the mole... all in the first hour.

 

[SlyCardie]

Well if they don't have a legitimate reason for Tony being bad again, it'll be just like season five and Logan!

Good point because honestly if they can't justify this with a real reason, it will single handedly ruin this season. I have faith in the writies, but that whole Logan thing certainly made me a little hesitant to take it on blind faith now.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

It's been their best season in a LONG time.

But nice thread.
You hate Braga AND 24... yeah, have no idea where you want this topic to go...

 

[Trekker4747]

Braga is at his best when he works under someone much better.

Luckily, Manny Cotto is on the show as an EP, too.

But, you can certainly see his influences here and there.

There was some line in the first episode where a character said a device was "out of phase."

Every fiber in my being tells me that line was all Braga.

 

[Dream]

I loved seasons 1, 2, and 5.

Disliked seasons 4 and 6. After the first four exciting episodes of season six things went downhill pretty fast. The writers wasted James Cromwell by giving his character a crappy storyline. I started to realize we were going to have problems when the writers randomly made a reoccuring villain Jack's brother.

 

[scorpius1701]

Yeah i had a hard time accepting that Rocket Romano is actually Jack's brother.

Loved all the seasons so far (except for 6) for various reasons. Season 1 for starting it all, Season 2 for being awesome overall the whole way through. Season 3 stayed in Mexico too long but made up for it by actually having the bad guys succesfully carry out an attack, upping the danger. Season 4 was so goofy it was great. The villains plan is to kidnap SecDef which is a distraction from his plan to melt down nuclear plants, which is a distraction from his plan to steal a stealth fighter and shoot down air force 1 which is so he can steal the nuclear football and launch a missile. If only they didnt have to cut it off at 24 hours, it would have TRULY been epic. Season 5 was great the whole way through and Season 6 sucked immediately after the first 4.

 

[DeafPoet]

It's hard to evaluate his work as a writer on the show. 24 is written by committee in such a way that no matter who is attached to a certain week's episode, you can bet everybody else had a major hand in it.

I haven't watched 24 since Day 3 so I can't speak to this year's quality but I will note that all the modern Trek shows were written largely by committee too.

Braga as a voice in that chorus has had moments of sheer brilliance. It's when he gets to conduct the discussion that the latter Trek shows ran into trouble. I don't have any trouble imagining that his 24 episodes are generally pretty good. He's not a shitty writer or anything. He's like Shatner of writing. He's got good stuff he just needs to be reined in.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

It's been their best season in a LONG time.

But nice thread.
You hate Braga AND 24... yeah, have no idea where you want this topic to go...

Exactly.

 

[Harvey]

It's hard to evaluate his work as a writer on the show. 24 is written by committee in such a way that no matter who is attached to a certain week's episode, you can bet everybody else had a major hand in it.

I haven't watched 24 since Day 3 so I can't speak to this year's quality but I will note that all the modern Trek shows were written largely by committee too.

I'd argue that 24 is written that way more-so than Trek--when Ronald D. Moore or Michael Piller or Jeri Taylor wrote a teleplay, there voice was distinct; there is little deviation on 24, the writers admit on the DVDs that the "written by" credit on each episode is merely a contractual formality.

 

[D Man]

It's hard to evaluate his work as a writer on the show. 24 is written by committee in such a way that no matter who is attached to a certain week's episode, you can bet everybody else had a major hand in it.

I haven't watched 24 since Day 3 so I can't speak to this year's quality but I will note that all the modern Trek shows were written largely by committee too.

I'd argue that 24 is written that way more-so than Trek--when Ronald D. Moore or Michael Piller or Jeri Taylor wrote a teleplay, there voice was distinct; there is little deviation on 24, the writers admit on the DVDs that the "written by" credit on each episode is merely a contractual formality.

It's probably just my own interpretation and bias, but I feel like the episodes this season written by Braga and Coto (interesting that they're a team now) have more technobabble than the other episodes. It's modern day babble, of course, but it's still a load of nonsense computer stuff that really doesn't make sense. Maybe the "written by committee" thing is completely true and I'm just reading too far into my own perceptions...but if there really aren't any singular writers of any given episode anymore, why not have 8 "Written By" credits in a row?

 

[Harvey]

24 has always had technobabble. I forget which writer is responsible for it, but one is a former computer scientist and usually punches up those lines. Although Braga and/or Coto could as easily be responsible for it now.

I'm not sure about the writing credits, though. It's definitely a hole in my argument.

 

[LutherSloan]

Well if they don't have a legitimate reason for Tony being bad again, it'll be just like season five and Logan!

Good point because honestly if they can't justify this with a real reason, it will single handedly ruin this season. I have faith in the writies, but that whole Logan thing certainly made me a little hesitant to take it on blind faith now.

I wasn't happy with that Tony twist, so I agree that they better have a GOOD explanation, since we were already led to believe once this year that he was a bad guy.

 

[Trekker4747]

24 has always had technobabble. I forget which writer is responsible for it, but one is a former computer scientist and usually punches up those lines. Although Braga and/or Coto could as easily be responsible for it now.

I'm not sure about the writing credits, though. It's definitely a hole in my argument.

Indeed. But there's been a "Braga quality" to it this season.

I mean saying that an avionics device is "out of phase."

 

[AviTrek]

I missed the avionics line. But I loved hearing Rick Berman suggested as a possible Chief of Staff.