Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Best and Worst of the Fourth Season of 24

Best Moments

5. Mandy Returns

The Mandy character is such an odd piece of the 24 puzzle. In 3 of the first 4 Days, she just pops up to be the greatest pay-for-play terrorist in the world. Why did they stop doing this after Day 4? Everything she did in her couple of hours was phenomenal even the exclamation point of Curtis punching her in the face to end her reign of terror.

4. Jack robs a convenience store

When ideas like Jack dons a ski mask to rob a convenience store are brought to life, how did 24 ever run out of crazy shit for Jack to do? This was all about the visual of Jack pulling the ski mask down over his face.

3. Jack's one man assault to rescue the Hellers

Jack had gone alone against the world at the end of Day 1 to take out the Drazens and at the end of Day 2 to protect Sherry, but this went well beyond those climatic scenes. This was a step-by-step assault that left stacks of bodies in his wake. Jack is a video game character.

2. Tony arrives to save the day

Tony Almeida was an integral part of the show for the first three seasons. His absence at the beginning of the day was felt but the hours were still humming along. Then Tony showed up to save Jack and Audrey and I nearly jumped through the roof. It had a great buildup and the visual of him calling out to Jack nailed it.

1. Jack walks off into the sunrise

I've already written that this should have been the end of the series. This summed up the entire character and what he had accomplished and what he was willing to sacrifice in one moment.

Worst Moments

5. I can't even find a legit 5th complaint

4. Richard Heller

I should have timed his scenes because I think the majority of his dialogue was him screaming his lungs out. There was no character just a whiney punching bag. And having the big reveal of his secret being that he is gay ... that does not deliver after the hours and hours of torture.

3. The first blatant defense of torture on 24

Halfway through the day, someone behind the scenes realized that some character was being tortured at a rate of every other hour. It was completely out of hand and instead of finding a new plot cliche, they turned into the skid and said we are wrong for pointing out all of the torture. The douche lawyer protecting the guilty man from being tortured went beyond preachy. Sadly Day 7 will happen and make this seem subtle.

2. Maya Driscoll

Why the hell did Erin Driscoll need to have a handicapped daughter who commits suicide because mommy was busy saving lives? This felt like a replacement for the lack of Kim Bauer this season. There needed to be something awful stretching over hours of the day and here comes Maya.

1. Jack has to choose who survives inside CTU medical

I've been making fun of this scene for years now. The fact that this was the big climatic moment to the sacrifices Jack will make as a field agent that scare Audrey plot is hilariously weak. There had to be another way to get to Audrey not liking the man Jack has become without killing Paul in the most asinine way imaginable. The major government agency can only care for 1 critical patient at a time. And when there are two, you must let one of them die in order to save the other one.

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