The Third Season of 24

Well this is was intriguing, because I had very fond memories of Day 3 that didn’t match the rewatch. Chalk that up to my love for Chloe O’Brian and Chase Edmunds. It’s nowhere near as bad as the later seasons will get, but there are some strikingly horrific subplots that muddy the waters throughout the day. That is added to the patchwork style of the main plot that kept stalling any momentum that was being built up by the hour. That being said … Chloe!

So what did Jack Bauer bring to the table in the third season? Heroin. Well, heroin for the first half of the day then no heroin the rest of the way. Jack Bauer’s willpower is strong enough to just remove the addiction whenever he wants. Kiefer dove into the withdrawal scenes headfirst but it still ended up feeling like a shock idea to start the day off. Even with the heroin coming in and out of the plot, Jack had great chemistry with Ramon Salazar that held the Mexican adventure together. Then he was handed off for a few hours to the returning evil Nina. And after making out and making threats, Jack finally put nails in her coffin. In cold blood even, which was a fitting end. After that, Jack even gets the job of Ryan Chappelle’s executioner. Finally the plot got around to the main idea and Jack had to catch the surviving member of the Drazen mission from years ago. Jack wrung a few more classic moments out of Saunders; Jack and Tony arguing over Michelle, Jack threatening to toss Jane into the hotel, and finally Jack taking an ax to Chase wrist then crying about it. The flaws of the season did not deter to what Kiefer did as Jack Bauer in the third season.

Since I’m not blaming Jack, where did Day 3 fall short? The main flaw was the absurd nature of what the Palmers were doing outside of the Cordela virus. It started with the innocuous Dr. Anne C-plot that was just mildly annoying and pointless. If that is where it ended, no harm done. But we were not so lucky. Once Alan Miliken appeared on screen, every second of Palmer screen time not dealing with the virus was torturous. It kept getting worse. Sherry reappered and killed an elderly cripple. David lies to the police to cover is psychotic ex-wife. Sherry decides that she is willing to go to jail in order to get David out of the White House. And finally Wayne is witness to a double murder effectively ending David’s run as the President on 24. It sucks that Dennis Haysbert and D.B. Woodside were wasted with this shit material. This becomes evident in the little moments when they went back and forth about the real crisis. It is a small consolation that both of them will have other opportunities to show their skills. The Palmer crap would be enough but there was also Chase’s baby and just the idea that Kim now works at CTU. Chloe hiding a baby at work was beyond stupid and a waste of Rajskub. Going forward they will write better plots for Chloe, I like to think as an apology for this nonsense. We’ll get to Kim later.

Outside of Jack Bauer, my favorite aspect of Day 3 was the introduction of my second favorite character of all-time Chloe O’Brian. Her blossoming was a real slow burn throughout the day. She started as Jack’s quirky analyst but with each significant amount of dialogue “quirky” does not do her justice. Chloe was an outlet for humor on a super serious television show. Chloe would continue on but this will be the only chance to see Chase in action. After 2 seasons of different people filling the role of Jack’s wingman, Day 3 starts the day with an official partner for Jack in Chase. This worked because it was structured as a mentor/pupil relationship. Later on people will show up who are in awe of Jack, but Chase was literally there to learn from Jack and it was fun to see. To my everlasting annoyance, Chase will never return and only get a passing mentions in the next couple of seasons. The third man that I was glad to see introduced was Wayne Palmer. I may be in the minority here, but I liked David’s younger brother even if he was rarely given decent material to work with. I dread Day 6 more than anything else. The only other new person worth mentioning would be Adam Kaufman and in the long run that is only because he would go on to be Sylar and Spock. Before all that he was a bitchy CTU analyst who disappeared without explanation. There were 2 solid actors in the villain roles because Ramon Salazar and Stephen Saunders kept the plot moving. Joaquim de Almeida was born to play villains so that was no surprise but Paul Blackthorne was an unknown to me and I was surprised at how well he pulled it off.

There was the usual handful of returnees not named Jack for the third season. Tony and Michelle were given a bunch to work with throughout the day. Tony got to be the boss, shot in the neck, rise from the dead for the first time, then be put to the test in the final hours, so it was good to see that Carlos Bernard was up to the task. Michelle was thrown into just as many different situations starting as a CTU suit, dealing with her husband’s near death, exposure to the virus, and finally being captured. As I already mentioned earlier, no matter how much I love seeing Haysbert in action he had barely anything to work with. And without a decent reason for being onscreen, even the best actor becomes tiresome. So say goodbye to David Palmer as a permanent part of the cast. We also had to say goodbye to some of the best villains of the earlier seasons. Evil Nina had to be killed or Jack would look weak if every year he would end up working with his wife’s killer. So for one last ride, it was nice to see Sarah Clarke make Jack feel uncomfortable. In a shockingly strong death, Ryan Chappelle was removed from the chessboard. I call him a villain because he was the epitome of the suit getting in the way of CTU but he somehow pulled it off without becoming a caricature. And Paul Schulze saved his best acting for his last moments on screen. The third death would be Sherry Palmer and the less said the better. Her entrance into Day 3 was a complete downward spiral and by the end it was a positive that she was killed so that she would never show up again.

That leaves Kim Bauer. I said at the end of Day 2 that 24 would solve half of the Kim problem in Day 3 and they did. Instead of us being stuck with a horrendous Kim on her own plot running parallel to the crisis of the day, she was just stuck in CTU and incorporated into those scenes. The fault here is that it is completely unbelievable that Kim would have the skills to be a CTU analyst. And the idea that Jack could use nepotism to actually get her hired is tough to swallow. But if you can get over that, her presence is much more palatable this season. She is still stupid and a magnet for shit storylines but at least they are vaguely in the sphere of what is important. The real good news is that this experiment failed so 24 would fix the other half of the Kim by just removing her from the show altogether. It's only cameos from here on in.

I had fonder memories of Day 3 then what I just wrote down. Having to sit through all the Palmer nonsense was horrendous. Add the barely connected main plot to that and the season falls to the bottom of the better season. It's not top 3 but at the same time it's not bottom 3. Enough, it's time to get to the apex of 24.