When I explained my reservations about the future of 24 in my first season, I had no idea they would come true so quickly. This season is a mess. A big, fat mess. There are to be sure some good things in this season, but it's mostly just frustrating. I'm frankly glad I'm getting at least a five month break from this show at this point.
Thankfully, going in, I knew this wasn't a great season. I visited various sites and at best this was a middle-of-the-pack 24 season. So I'm not stopping the show or anything, but this season just kind of sucked.
First off, the black hole of this season, Kim Bauer. I didn't mind her in the first season, but she's just so useless and irrelevant in this season. None of the things that happen to her matter. Oh, she's accused of murder? I'm sure that'll stick! Oh, inconceivably rage-induced husband is after her? That entire plot seemed cut from a different show; it was like a shitty horror movie) What doesn't help is that this is a TV show so we know that her constant attempts to get out of LA are useless since there's no fucking way that nuclear bomb harms a single soul in LA.
What really sucks is most of this season was completely dragged down by that. I'm not going to act like every other story worked, but without Kim's story, a good enough percentage of them worked to enjoy this story. The problem is that Kim's plot took up too much of the episode. I'm not sure how much actual time she was on the show, but anything greater than 0 was too much for what they gave her to do.
Jack's infiltration into a bomb group and the subsequent bombing of CTU worked great. Most of President Palmer plots worked pretty well, but it became pretty tiresome and utterly ridiculous that almost everybody was working against him. And they got Lynn out of the story... by having her fall like 10 flights of stairs? Come on, that's clearly just writing her out of the show in an unrealistic way. I didn't mind that they were trying to kick him off the presidency surprisingly as much as I was first annoyed by it. So it's got that going for it.
What works amazingly, improbably well is the arc of George Mason. This shouldn't have been as good as it was, but Xander Berkely put forth one of the finest performances I've seen on television. He was so damn good. When he left the show via his death, there was a hole the rest of the season. His replacement, Ryan Chappelle, frankly didn't hold a candle to Mason.
I also mostly liked the Warner family plot. Kate was kind of shoe-horned and forced into the show as it dragged on, but enough of it worked to enjoy it. I don't expect realism in 24, but I do expect to not be annoyed by a storyline. This one succeeded.
24's treatment of Middle Easters is somewhat surprisingly well-handled. Reza Naiyeer is completely innocent, which seems to be the case for most of the season. Yusuf Auda it turns out didn't have a hidden agenda and just wanted to keep his country safe. But that does remind me of the obvious stalling technique when Yusuf and Kate are beat up by racists out of nowhere. Man, just when I think of a reason to like this season, I've got another two of why I disliked it.
Overall, this was a bad season. I'm not going to go as far as say this was bad television, but it was at the best a frustrating and prolonged experience. I sincerely hope future seasons are much better, because this was a glorified piece of shit.
Playlist
1. "Annie You Save Me" - Graffiti6
2. "Constant Conversations" - Passion Pit
3. "Fuck Swag" - Rittz
4. "Lovely Day" - Bill Withers
5. "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
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