I've been meaning to post something about 24 ever since the "non-stop season" started, back in January. Initially, I was excited about the season: the first four epidodes -- which Fox aired over two consecutive nights -- were really fun and promising. The tone was less hawkish than the previous seasons'. (Relatively speaking -- this is still a show about torture.) Less misogyny, too. Still a lot of xenophobia, though . . .
Sadly, though, the new, less offensive show is a lot less fun, as well. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, but the problem seems to be a lack of suspense. The last really good nailbiter was "hours" ago, when the terrorists attacked the motorcade carrying the First Lady (Jean Smart) and Agent Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower). And that was really good. Pierce is one of those minor characters that I think the long-time fans probably care a lot about, paradoxically because of his obscurity. Morshower himself deserves to be a Hey! It's That Guy!: he really owns the stalwart law enforcement agent niche. So seeing poor Aaron slumped over in the front of the limo was really worrisome; it was a great moment when he snapped awake and shot the would-be assassin making toward him.
Since then, some really big things have happened. The show has gotten a lot of press coverage for killing off three central characters over the past two "hours." Well, I experienced those two hours, as well as the few before, and I have to say that I was bored. No, the show's not as stupid as it's been in the past -- not as many plotholes, not as many weird detours -- but it's not very interesting or suspenseful. I guess it's early to say that the show is in a slump, but I did want to weigh in, because I don't think that any of the stories about the deaths have mentioned that, as plot devices, they're not working. I'm not sure that these plot devices ever work. Who was shocked when Shannon died on Lost?
Comments