First off, a thousand lashes to the exec at Fox who thought it would be a good idea to run the season premiere of “24″ opposite the Golden Globes. I don’t care if you had the date booked years before NBC decided to host the awards that night; you move the show back a week. Or even a day. But you don’t run a premiere against an awards show, and not just an awards show but one of the biggies. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Having said that, hats off to Mickey Rourke and “Slumdog Millionaire” for their wins.
As season premieres go, “24″ has certainly had more explosive openings, but I liked what they did here, and also what they didn’t do. The show had gotten way too insular in terms of everything happening in Los Angeles, so moving the show to the east coast is a nice change of pace. Even better, the terrorist plot involves a threat that would actually affect the entire country. (No power or drinking water? Yikes.) Yes, it’s a riff on the plot from “Live Free or Die Hard” - and there is absolutely no way that they would ever get those planes synced up so that they would both hit the crossing point of two runways at the exact same time - but if it means that we don’t have to worry about a nuclear weapon this season, that can only be a good thing. They were also smart to acknowledge what a walking cliche Jack Bauer had become. “WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?” (*stabs man in genitals with spork*) That couldn’t have been easy for the producers to admit, but it needed to be done.
“Mr. Bauer, do you swear to kick the butt, the whole butt and nothing but the butt, so help you God?”
However, I’m still trying to wrap my head around Tony Almeida as this year’s villain. We still don’t know why he switched teams - and that’s good that they haven’t revealed that yet, that was the ‘what they didn’t do’ that I was referring to - but I’m not sure they can possibly come up with a rationale that will satisfy me. At the moment, he appears to be a free agent of sorts, a contract guy that offers his services to anyone willing to pay for them. God knows he wouldn’t be doing the bidding of a mass murderer like General Candyman any other way, right? And are we really to believe that Jack is only now learning that Tony is still alive? Yes, he was kidnapped by the Chinese hours after Tony’s supposed death, but he came back…years ago. I’m thinking the first thing someone at CTU would have told him is that Tony is not dead. They better have an answer for that as this season unfolds.
And man, did they stunt-cast the bejeezus out of this season. Janeane Garofalo as an easily stressed techie? Please tell me that Chloe O’Brien literally eats her alive at some point in the season. Bob Gunton, aka the warden in “The Shawshank Redemption,” is on Madame President’s staff, and Colm Feore is the First Man? There’s no way I’m looking at him without thinking of “Storm of the Century.” Bonus points if they work the phrase “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away” into the dialogue. Lastly, the great Kurtwood Smith is the senator that is trying to bring Jack to “justice.” Now, I like Kurtwood Smith, but did they really need him to play that part? You get the sense that the suits were nervous, so they snagged as many name actors as they could. It’s overkill, of course, but that’s Hollywood for you.
For those of you playing the “24″ drinking game, The “Damn it” counter is at three, though Jack only said one of them.
All in all, not a bad way to start the season. Not great, but who knows, maybe that’s a good thing; in years past, they would blow the doors off the show in the premiere, only to implode six episodes later (ahem, abandoned plot involving Jack’s “nephew” in season six). The ads for hours three and four even hint at a big bombshell dropping. Maybe they finally get it now: the premiere is useless if everything that follows is shit. Yep, that’s what blogging a show will do to a person: turn them from a fan to someone who simply hopes that he’s not blogging about shit. Sigh.
I don’t think anyone knew Tony was still alive until he showed up on the surveillance footage. The FBI agent mentioned that they exhumed Tony’s grave and learned that the DNA of the body inside didn’t match.
Definitely a nice start for a show that very clearly needed one. I loved when the FBI Big Wig called Jack out: “What, you’re going to get in my face now? Is that how it starts? And if I don’t do what you want, are you going to throw me up against a wall?” Um…yeah, that’s typically what happens, anyway. I’m assuming that’s what your “walking cliche” comment was referring to. At least the producers are having some fun at their own expense.
Hey Entourage fans, how about a clean-cut Billy Walsh showing up as an FBI techie? Looks like he’s a dick on this show too.
Billy Walsh is gonna be great. I was expecting a serious confrontation with Jack but maybe they’re saving that for later.
I gave up on this show las time around. Hopefully they hired some new writers (or mildly tortured the lst crew). The first two episodes are off to a decent start. Hopefully they have a decen explanation for Tony, though I’m not optimistic.
FBI agents - a favourate subject of Hollywood
Don’t forget about Marty Taylor, Tim’s job-riddled, divorced father of twin girls on “Home Improvement”. For those non-”Tool Time” fans, Marty was the one at Air Traffic Control that Tony called to warn everyone of their power. It’s not easy to watch him and NOT see Tim Allen come around the corner with a board clued to his head or some crazy mishap.
Good start to the show - I’m wondering if there is any more connection with the female FBI agent Jack is working with and her boss. Seems as if those to are “working overtime”, if you catch my drift. And perhaps this guy gets a) jealous of Jack or b) flat-out sick of him, as it appeared in the preview that he says he wants Jack “out of here”. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out - Jack always needs a love interest. Maybe Elisha Cuthbert will make a re-appearance at some point for some well-deserved eye candy?
You’re right, Jamey, I had forgotten about the whole grave-exhuming thing. But to fake your own death, you need accomplices, right? The only way this works to me is that Tony, a la Nina Myers, was always a bad guy pretending to be a good guy, because otherwise how would he be able to fake his own death and keep it off of CTU’s radar? Man, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.
Big Balls Bill Buchanan is showing up for at least one episode (tonight’s, I’m pretty sure). Maybe he has some answers. And DJ, word has it that Elisha Cuthbert may indeed be coming back for an episode or two, hopefully without a cougar trap.
I think the idea here is Tony has a bit of the Harvey Dent/Two-Face syndrome — you took away my life (Michelle), so now I’m going to put the bad guy hat on. Either way, I too hope there’s a better explanation coming. Last night’s ending, with Jack asking Tony “what the hell happened to you?”, would seem to indicate that an explanation may be coming tonight. Whether or not it’ll hold water (Harvey’s was a stretch) is a completely different story.
Here’s the thing abou this show - even when it was good, the writers would take liberties that would make soap writers blush.
In season 1, they decided mid-season to make Nina the villain.
I don’t know how fair that is, Gerardo. I don’t remember how the first season unfolded, but what about it made you think that they decided midseason to make Nina the villain?
I will, however, agree that subsequent seasons have undergone dramatic shifts midseason. I just don’t remember feeling that way when Nina was revealed as the villain in the first season.
Here’s something else I was wondering last night: If Tony wanted to make sure the guy they kidnapped in the opening sequence would do whatever he wanted, wouldn’t it have made sense to grab his daughter and use her for leverage? There’s no way they leave her sitting in that car.
I’m still not entirely convinced that Tony is a bad guy. After all, why would they have Jack capture him in the second episode?
I have to believe that he’s working undercover somehow. If not for the fact that he didn’t crash those two planes, than because he seemed awfully interested in getting his cohort to go against the “rules” and talk about their next job.
They set Nina up as the villain from the very beginning. Jack’s former mentor gave him the info (shortly before he was killed). Jack just didn’t want to believe it. But sure enough, the mentor was right.
What Jason says about Tony makes more sense than making him a true villain. Hopefully, though, this doesn’t turn into the whole “I got addicted to heroin as part of my undercover job that not even the PRESIDENT could know about” thing.
Nice to have 24 back again and something to talk about. One of the neat things about 24 is the turnover of the cast. Every new season has a whole new set of law enforcement folks and new group of bad guys. Inevitably, they drop in a couple new hotties, this season appears to be the FBI agent and the First Husbands dead son’s ex-girlfriend. How convuloted is that story line? I hope it ends with the dead son having sex with his sister or something sordid like that.
My thought about Tony is the old “they are making be do this to save something I care about” angle. Maybe they are holding his personality hostage.
Is it just me or did you really want the senator to call Jack “dumbass” just once?
Forgot one thing.
Jeannine Garafasuck? You have to be kidding me. If Chloe does not do major physical damage to her at some point this season, I will be very disappointed.
Girl fight! Girl fight! The only problem might be that we may see more of Garafacrap’s body (ewwww!!) unintentionally. Oh well, I better start looking into retina implants sooner rather than later, as mine may be burned out of my melon shaped nugget shortly. Sorry optical nerves.
More Elisha can only be a good thing - regardless of the context and how many episodes she appears in. Thanks for the info! Here’s just a random question to you TV “insiders”…if you could make one completely random prediction for this season that none of us would see coming (either a character’s death, a re-appearance of an old character, or something crazy like Jack flying a plane blindfolded and with his feet), what would it be? Last night’s preview said that there would be a shocker in store in tonight’s episode, so maybe that will answer my question, but I’m always interested to hear what you guys have to say.
And to no one’s surprise, I can totally see Jack and the sexy FBI agent getting down and dirty by mid-season, thus pissing off her boss at the FBI, which also might be her lover/baby daddy.
Tony isn\’t a bad guy, he\’s undercover to try and catch the bad guys. If he was a bad guy, he would have crashed the planes. And Jack kept saying he didn\’t believe that Tony had turned. That\’s going to be the \
The show was pretty good but the Car Crash scene was dumb.Who in there rite mind would demolish a car like that when you need the driver alive.Tony is setting someone up and he is only playing the bad guy for the time being You’ll see. Enjoy Tonight
Ah, but, to quote Jack, WHO IS HE WORKING FOR? Tony’s not listed in any of the government agency databases as an agent, under cover or otherwise. Is he working for some SD-6 type company? If I see Ron Rifkin any time during this season, I’m throwing a brick through my TV.
Lee - Tony didn’t crash the planes because it was a “warning shot” meant to intimidate, so that the President would take them seriously when they called with demands.
I find it ridiculous that this whole plot is being organized by General Candyman when he already has his hands full in his own country. Where is he going to get the kind of resources needed to pull this off? Maybe time will tell, but I’m already skeptical.
The big underlying thing this season seems to be the use of torture. Everyone and their brother says that it doesn’t work, lowers are standing in the world and puts our own soldiers at greater risk, yet for years and years, Jack Bauer has been running around getting any piece of information he wants by squeezing a few balls. I get the sense that the opening scene was a big FU to anyone that criticizes the show for its liberal (and incredible) use of torture.
I saw interviews with the writers from Season 1 who admitted they decided mid-season to have Nina be the villain.
>John Paulsen says:
Lee - Tony didn’t crash the planes because it was a “warning shot” meant to intimidate, so that the President would take them seriously when they called with demands.<
And if he had crashed the planes, he would have been a bad guy. Now that the 3rd and 4th episodes have aired, you see that I was right about Tony.
lee says:
>John Paulsen says:
Lee - Tony didn’t crash the planes because it was a “warning shot” meant to intimidate, so that the President would take them seriously when they called with demands.<
And if he had crashed the planes, he would have been a bad guy. Now that the 3rd and 4th episodes have aired, you see that I was right about Tony.
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Don’t you think its just a little douchey to put a spoiler up without warning anyone??
Um…this whole blog is one big spoiler, Ben. Enter at your own risk.
Sorry Ben, but once the episodes have aired, anything is fair game. Lee posted that comment on Wednesday, two days after the second episode ran.
you guys are right. i had a small reading problem, for some reason i thought he had posted on tues. not on wednesday. i apologize for my comments.
No worries, mate. This is a friendly blog, so it’s all good.