Warning, the following contains spoilers of last night's episode and possibly earlier episodes/seasons.
Well, it has finally come to an end. Last night, the last televised episode of 24 aired. I have been a fan of this show for some time now. Seasons 6 and 7 were kind of weak, especially season 7. I did make some fun of the quality of these seasons, but honestly, season 8 wasn't half bad. It started a little slow, but picked up towards the end.
The show has come a long way since it's beginnings. For the first couple of seasons, you literally were at the edge of your seats, wondering what would happen next. These seasons were very well written. One of the things I think constitutes good writing for this kind of show is good willing suspension of disbelief. I can really get into this kind of show if I am sitting there thinking "there's NO WAY that would have happened that way". It actually doesn't even have to be perfect, just good enough that the errors or ludicrous scenes don't take me out of the "world" of the show. The first few seasons had this. During later seasons, it sort of broke down. Season 7 was particularly bad in my opinion, as I find it so hard to believe that commandos were able to take over the white house. I would like to think that this would be nearly impossible in real life. The thing that was really absurd, though, is that they entered through a crappy secret door with minimal guards. It was bad enough they took over what almost certainly is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the world, but did so through a completely absurd security hole. That is the point I started to lose interest in continued watching. I must say though, that for the most part, all of the seasons had reasonably unpredictable plotlines. I actually suspect that the whole White House thing was supposed to be a gut-wrenching twist, but didn't really work sue to absurdity.
Season 8 seemed to do a lot better in the believability department. And it really picked up the pace when Jack went on a rampage. After all, all anyone watching this really wants to see is Jack Bauer kicking ass.
24 of course is known for killing off major characters. This is part of the appeal of the show; you never know who is going to live or die, unlike most shows where everyone usually lives happily ever after. In fact, the cast from season 1 to season 8 had changed significantly from year to year, which also serves to keep the show fresh. There were rumors (going back years) that Jack would eventually die. I am very glad they did not do this. Yeah, it would serve to demonstrate that no character is sacred from death, but honestly, Jack has been anything but mortal over the last 8 seasons. All killing him now would do is piss people of without really accomplishing anything. What plot purpose would it serve? So while it certainly would have been more edgy to do so, I am glad they did not.
They say that a 24 movie is in the works. Here's hoping that it is as good as the show. I'd hate to see it ruined by going crazy over the top. I do like it when a successful TV show that ends spawns a couple of movies. It's like "the bulk of it is over, but you get an additional little bonus chunk of the story every few years". I'd point to Star Trek for a good example, although admittedly some of the movies were crap. But I think it was pretty cool that they were still making TOS based material in the 80s to early 90s and we basically got a couple new TNGs up to 8 years after the show ended. Plus, since they are movies, they have a broader storyline and overall scope than a TV episode. Anyhow, I was initially skeptical because a movie wouldn't be able to be in realtime. I even think the initial treatment ideas weren't realtime. To me, this would ruin it. However I guess the plan is to make the first half "movie time" and the second half realtime. That actually wouldn't be a half bad way to have your cake and eat it too.
So, for now, I am patiently waiting for the movie to come out, and wondering what I will be watching on Monday nights from now on...
