Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Fifth Season of 24

And the greatness of 24 comes to an end. There is no coming back after season 5. They emptied the cupboard in order to make a memorable day. But once the day is over, you are left with a show that killed 3 of the top 5 remaining characters from the early years and just turned the President evil. It’s not easy to replace a David Palmer or a Tony Almeida and it is damn near impossible to top the President as the bad guy behind everything. That’s what we are left with for the fifth season. It is a hell of a lot of fun but I don’t think it was worth it.

Day 5 definitely included some fantastic moments for Jack Bauer. From the first scene where he is trying to find construction work under a fake name to the final minute where he is being shipped to China, Jack had a tough day. He also executed the man who killed David Palmer and the man that ordered the assassination so it was a productive day. Thankfully, he wasn’t torturing someone every hour so when he does put Walt Cummings at knifepoint or threaten to kill Collette Stenger it felt more important and serious. Coming off the heels of robbing a convenience store in the fourth season, Jack robs a bank and hijacks a plane. I think Jack may actually be a terrorist. He also commits his most egregious crime when he kidnaps the sitting President of the United States. There is nothing Jack wouldn’t do for his country.

In the big twist for the season, Charles Logan is the other key player. It took them 2 seasons to figure out a way to do a non-David Palmer presidential storyline. They must have saw something in Gregory Itzin’s work at the end of the season 4 because the evolution of Logan was incredible. The previous day ended with Logan in over his head and the early hours of day 5 were much of the same. He was trying to be Presidential and craft a legacy with his Russian treaty but once the events started stacking up he became the same useless man under pressure. They kept pushing this through the introduction of Vice President Gardner. But just as Logan was at his weakest, they pulled the rug out and made Charles Logan the man with the plan. Was this believable? I don’t know. Did they ever give a really good reason why he would do something so dangerous? There were mumblings about oil in Central Asia but no it was never acceptably explained. But this is television so shut up and enjoy the ride. Once he was revealed as the big bad boogeyman, it was just as much fun to watch him terrified as Jack Bauer hunted him down.

Day 5 went deep into the well of returning characters. Nearly everyone who was still alive was brought back. Except Chase; where are you Chase Edmunds?!?! Chloe had a bunch of classic Chloe scenes. Day 5 gave us her one-night stand, her refusal to talk to Bill about Jack, Edgar dying in front of her eyes, picking Miles’ pocket, and her fun times at Bill’s house and the hotel bar. The end of the day even introduced Morris, which will significantly change her character over the next couple of seasons. Bill Buchanan solidifies himself as the best man to run CTU since George Mason. He deals with both Lynn McGill and Karen Hayes undercutting his power but he still looks like the only competent man in management. Plus we got to hang out in his house. Mike Novick is brought back to the main cast and makes up for his shitty heel turn at the end of season 2. He was the voice of reason throughout the day at Logan’s retreat and then did what was necessary to take down the man responsible for killing David Palmer. Curtis continues his role as the field agent B team. He was perfect in this role so, of course, he will be killed next season. Once again, I may be the only one happy about it but Wayne Palmer is brought back. Just like his actions at the end of season 3 make him a bad candidate for President, this season he is killing people with Jack Bauer and he still will be President next season. Audrey Raines just happens to be hanging out at CTU today but we get to see more Jack and Audrey, which looking back was probably Jack’s best relationship. And now that I say that, the creators will destroy that next season. I HATE SEASON 6! Aaron Pierce gets his best season as the calmest Secret Service Agent around. He even gets to shoot his gun instead of standing around and looking stern.

Let’s move on to the significant deaths in the fourth season. If the story is strong enough, I have no problem with 24 offing their characters. This is one of the things that made the show different from everything. So building season 5 around the assassination of David Palmer was a fantastic idea. It puts so many returning characters in motion that it felt like a legit idea to drive the season forward. But the deaths of Michelle Dessler and Tony Almeida are different ideas. Michelle was never a great character so killing her to implicate Jack Bauer doesn’t bother me, but it should have lead to a Tony B-story throughout the year. Instead Tony is unconscious for half the day, then wakes up and is killed. So these 2 characters were killed as motivation for Jack, but he didn’t need any more after the death of David Palmer. Now they will reverse the decision on Tony by magicing him back to life, but that wasn’t during season 5. He is dead at the end of the day. Those 2 character deaths were a waste and should have been much more. On the other hand, Edgar’s death was one of the stronger deaths that the show has done. I wouldn’t say his character was expendable but sometimes the shock is worth it and you can’t kill two-thirds of CTU without killing one of the speaking characters.

Day 5 didn’t have as many introductions as past seasons but some of them were memorable. For this season alone, Martha Logan was extremely important. Like I wrote for her introduction, I was not a fan of Jean Smart’s performance. 24 is so close to soap opera already that I don’t think introducing an insane First Lady was a good thing. As the season went on and she became calmer, it worked much better. Karen Hayes is the other character that will come back in a big way next season. I hate her character mainly because I am tired of the asshole coming into CTU and bossing Jack and friends around. Once her character evolves past this crutch, she becomes much more tolerable. Outside of those 2, only Morris will come back in future seasons. And all he is here is Chloe’s goofy ex-husband. I skipped Graem because I need to pace myself when it comes to attacking the Jack Bauer’s family is evil storyline. Of the characters introduced and removed in the same day, Lynn McGill was the weirdest. The casting of Sean Astin was strange in the first place but then to give him the ultimate CTU dick role … why? It was painful to watch. Then after he is dead; we get that prick, Miles. He is definitely in my top 5 most despised characters in the history of 24. All he does is cackle as Homeland Security takes over CTU. He is just a complete piece of shit. I may have hated those 2 guys, but there were 2 great villains that Jack killed in Day 5. Both Christopher Henderson and Vladimir Bierko were top-notch 24 villains. The Henderson character works because someone had to train Jack and you don’t get a more tried and true storyline than the student has to take down the teacher. And 24 went with it by having Henderson constantly comment on Jack’s tactics before Jack even does anything. He also got a great death scene. Bierko may have been the standard terrorist, but I enjoyed Julian Sands’ performance. His escape at the end may have been dumb, but it was fun to see him one last time.

There was some weak sauce C and D plots throughout the day. The Huxleys were introduced as a means to explain where Jack is living, but once the day began they were gone and forgotten. What was the point? Not only did I hate the Lynn McGill characters, he also brought with him his meth head sister and boyfriend. There was also the Russian sex slave and later on, CTU has sexual harassment Shari. I don’t understand why these things were necessary. Oh yeah and Kim was brought back in about the worst way possible. Who knew you could take a shitty character like Kim Bauer and then strive to create the worst possible plotline for her 2 hour return.

Like I've already said, season 5 crushed 24. Everything that was left was thrown at the wall in order to get one last gasp of greatness. It wasn't the best day for the series but compared to what comes next it should be in the Hall of Fame.

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