What's wrong with 24: Season 6-8?

[TrekNut87]

I thought season 7 was brilliant, especially after the lackluster season 6.

For me, the biggest problem with season 6 was the lack of character development/lack of an interesting storyline. I didn't really find it predictable, just boring.

Season 8 is where I gave up. The thrill and excitment that first drew me to the show is just not there anymore. Back in the day, whenever a major plot twist occured, I would want to know what happened next and I would be left wondering where the story would go. I didn't get that feeling this year. The charachers were all so predictable and shallow that it just made things unenjoyable for me so I finally dropped it.

 

[Mr Light]

The best part about the suicide vest is that even though it's a trigger connected to the vest by a wire it somehow works on a wireless signal that you can hack

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Aliens?

Who have a mole working at CTU, of course.

You've heard of Superman And the Mole Men? What about a sequel, Jack Bauer and The Mole Men?

 

[payndz201]

The first four hours of Day 6 were almost like a Bourne movie - thrilling, surprising and moving fast enough that you could suspend your disbelief (which has always been necessary with 24, but sometimes far more so than others). Unfortunately, after that it turned into some kind of demented soap opera with plotlines randomly dropping in and out like a fever dream. The sinister mastermind from Day 5? He's Jack's brother! And Jack's dad is his evil boss! And we'll bring Logan back only for now-crazy Martha to stab him! And Chinese agents can attack CTU for no particularly good reason, and turn out to be working with Jack's dad even though he was previously established as an ultra-patriot! The writers were not only making everything up on the fly, but felt compelled to be MORE SHOCKING with BIGGER TWISTS every episode, and it became laughable very quickly.

Days 7 and 8, in contrast, have been far better because they at least sort of followed one main through-line, even though bad guys have come and gone like videogame bosses as usual. Day 7 was all about the Sangala connection (Dubaku, General Candyman, Jon Voight) with a Tony side-dish, while Day 8 has (so far) been tied in with the Islamic Republic of Fakeistan's nuclear program. Except for the damn Dana/Jenny subplot, which just won't die...

 

[Aragorn]

24 always has a problem with needing big shocking twists for the sake of having twists, even if it contradicts a lot of what came before it (namely making Logan the evil mastermind behind it all). It also seems unlikely that they had planned to make Nina evil. I can buy that they intended for Tony to turn out to have his own agenda, but revealing it by having him kill Larry for no real reason was pretty lame.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Was surprised to discover today that I'd somehow managed to give up on 24 a few weeks ago now without even realising it. I guess Season 8's been enjoyable enough so far as I've seen (minus the terrible Dana subplot of course) but it feels kinda pointless to watch. I guess I might pick it back up when the DVDs come out, but I haven't bought a set since season 5, even though I enjoyed season 7.

 

[Luminus]

Okay, so I’m extraordinarily late returning to this thread. My bad. This new job is kicking my ass (crazy random schedule). But now I have a steady schedule, so….

Was Season 6 the one where Bauer, while below decks in a jumbo jet, ripped open an access panel, took hold of the cables supposedly controlling the ailerons on the wing, grabbed them and pulled them with his bare hands to control the plane?

Yeah...that'd be why the later seasons suck.

I don’t know anything about airplane mechanics, so this didn’t bother me. It was just another great moment in the life of Jack Bauer to me.

I didn't mind season six that much, it wasn't that bad. It was certainly better than the god awful season four. It's season seven and now season eight where things have started to go bad.

The show has become bland and predictable and the writing requires normally intelligent characters to commit acts of rank stupidity in order for the plot to proceed.

Then we get to the worst part of season seven of them all.

Spoiler: Major Spoilers for Season 7

The first half of season seven as well as the prior DVD movie Redemption revolves around the government of General Benjamin Juma, your typical African military dictator. It is revealed that he, in concert with a Blackwater-esque American private military company, had established a large network of operatives and informants within the United States government funded through their extensive diamond mining operations.

His people try to capture the legitimate President of his country, "Sangala", who seeks to prevent the mass ethnic cleansing of his people.

Despite Juma's attempts to force them to stay out of the conflict the United States invades Sangala and meets with very little resistance but cannot find Juma. Why ? Well, therein lies the rub.

Juma, you see, is already in the United States and personally leads an attack on the White House! He and a small number of Sangalan soldiers manage to take over the entire building, holding the President hostage - though fortunately, Jack Bauer was already in the building.

The problems with this are numerous and show why the show has gotten so bad. First, Juma is an African dictator, not some terrorist. African dictators don't go on suicide missions, and that's what their attack was. They had no plan of escape. Their American allies couldn't do anything once they entered the building.

Apparently not realising that he was A) holding the commander in chief of the most powerful armed force in the history of the world hostage or B) that every gun in Washington DC would have been pointed directly at his head at this point, Juma just stands there and gloats.

But anyway, later it turns out that those private military contractors are planning to sneak a biological weapon developed in Sangala in to the US in order to commit a false flag operation.

Jack is accidentally exposed and there's the second problem. Jack spends the remainder of the season sick and unable to be, well, Jack. As a result he is sidelined in favour of Girl-Jack Renee Walker and the miraculously resurrected Tony Almeida.

Actually, Almeida’s return made sense if go back and watch his “death” scene. Didn’t you find it odd that “Robocop” just got up and stabbed Tony with the needle RIGHT AFTER he’d been supposedly sedated? That tells me that the guy who was administrating the drugs was in on it as well.

As for Juma’s actions… come on, it’s an action series, not a dramatization. You can’t get good action entertainment by sticking so anally to reality. That’s why movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Sunshine are so paint-dryingly boring.

The main problem I have with the later seasons is that the novelty factor had well and truly worn off by about Year 4.

Yep. Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart got it thru S5 but after that, it was all over. Some shows have narrow premises that can't just go on and on. This is one of them.

I always hated the end of season four, where the terrorists fire a nuclear missile in Iowa (with mountains!), but instead of aiming at a nearby target, they lock their sights on Los Angeles, which is just far enough away that it gives Jack and Co. time to locate the missile.

I'd say that was just about as bad as the suicide vest with the LCD timer on it this season.

Ooooh no! The suicide vest with the LED countdown is my new gold standard for TV stupidity.

I wonder if any real terrorists might have watched that episode (for pointers, dontchaknow) and wondered what the frak have the infidels been smoking now?

The LCD timer is for us. It’s just a dramatic tool to make you understand the gravity of the situation, like a red shirt in Star Trek or a black guy in any Horror movie.

I thought season 7 was brilliant, especially after the lackluster season 6.

For me, the biggest problem with season 6 was the lack of character development/lack of an interesting storyline. I didn't really find it predictable, just boring.

Season 8 is where I gave up. The thrill and excitment that first drew me to the show is just not there anymore. Back in the day, whenever a major plot twist occured, I would want to know what happened next and I would be left wondering where the story would go. I didn't get that feeling this year. The charachers were all so predictable and shallow that it just made things unenjoyable for me so I finally dropped it.

I kinda agree with this (Season 8 gripe). I think the writing team has changed or something. Sad.

 

[T'Baio]

Was Season 6 the one where Bauer, while below decks in a jumbo jet, ripped open an access panel, took hold of the cables supposedly controlling the ailerons on the wing, grabbed them and pulled them with his bare hands to control the plane?

Yeah...that'd be why the later seasons suck.

I don’t know anything about airplane mechanics, so this didn’t bother me. It was just another great moment in the life of Jack Bauer to me.

Oh, come on, I'm not exactly an aeronautical engineer, either, but I know stupid when I see it.

*shrug* But some people like stupid.

 

[Jax]

^ I may have to shout this because your look quite high up on that pedestal of yours...

Lets see you write a 24 episode show without stupid things to help with just action moments.

but I know stupid when I see it

We have all watched Trek here so I find this comment very funny.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd say that was just about as bad as the suicide vest with the LCD timer on it this season.

This one small detail is emblematic of everything that is now wrong with the show. There are only two explanations for how something like that could appear:

1. The show is completely written on autopilot.

2. The writers think the audience is composed of total morons and they are fucking with us.

All the plot twists have been used about five times too many. Tony is bad! Tony is good! Oh wait, Tony is bad after all. Now we have Dana. No doubt she will follow the mirror pattern: good/bad/good. Yes, double-double-agent Dana will die nobly in the defense of her country and make her dickwad fiance look like a chump for not realizing the whole thing was just double-deep cover with a back flip and lemon twist.

 

[sidious618]

He show was always awful they just made it look cool so you'd ignore the act that it made no sense at all.

 

[Luminus]

^ I may have to shout this because your look quite high up on that pedestal of yours...

Lets see you write a 24 episode show without stupid things to help with just action moments.

but I know stupid when I see it

We have all watched Trek here so I find this comment very funny.

I think you've said it all for me.

He show was always awful they just made it look cool so you'd ignore the act that it made no sense at all.

Again, this coming from a Star Trek fan? How many things does the Deflector Dish do again?

 

[scorpius1701]

Personally, the only season i have problems with is Season 6, mainly because it just recycled a lot of plots like the president on trial for his presidency again. Also the soap opera plots were pretty ridiculous. Moreover, over the course of the day the threat continued to devolve. It started out with the bad guys having 6 bombs, dropped down to 5, then 4, then 3, then 2, then a computer microchip. Say what you will about seasons 3 and 4, but the bad guys actually succsessfully executed attacks that killed people. Build UP the suspense.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Season Six was the back breaker for me...I stopped watching about half way through it I think pretty much for the reasons everyone else has posted about.

 

[Top41]

One word: Not enough Tony.

This.

For me, seasons six through eight haven't been as exciting or fresh as the first five. Season six was just plain bad--Jack's dad as the villain? Come on. If they'd actually given him a real motivation rather than just being eeeevil, it might have worked, but as it was presented, it just didn't.

Seven and eight (so far) have entertained me, but have had fewer highlights than earlier seasons. I think ending it this year is a sound decision. There's only so many years the premise can be stretched out for, and I think it's hit its end date.

 

[Morpheus 02]

This season will be the worst ever if Aaron Pierce doesn't make an appearance...

My personal thought for a last season would be having Jack train Aaron's son to be a new director/associate director of CTU...Aaron can drop by for whatever reason, and then get caught up, and be the assistant hero.

 

[Aragorn]

Aaron Pierce's son "Lance"?

 

[doubleohfive]

Did we ever find out what happened to Wayne Palmer?

Last I recall, he was recovering from his injuries sustained on Day 6... and while it's true Daniels clearly succeeded him, no mention (at all!) was made ever again of BROTUS.

We can bring back Logan time and again, but there isn't even a hint dropped about the fate of one of the GOOD presidents?