Jack Bauer Jumping the Shark

[JasonX 0]

http://thesmartmarks.com/artman/publish/article_1464.shtml

 

My new and controversial article discussing the third season of 24 and how it has caused the series to jump the proverbial shark with it's casual killing off of key characters and shoddy scripting and abandonment of plots left and right.

 

Thoughts comments loose change?

[Guest El Satanico]

The only thing that article told me is that you weren't really paying attention.

[JasonX 0]

The only thing that article told me is that you weren't really paying attention.

Can to elaborate on this?

[the pinjockey 0]

1. Jack being a drug addict.

 

Salazar gave him a pill to take care of the symptoms for the time being. Who knows, he will probably still have the addiction and may get it taken care of.

 

2. Tony being shot in the neck and whether or not he suffered any major injury from his wound.

 

I would assume no major damage considering he kept on the rest of the day. You can call it a cop out of the storyline, but I don't think you can call it aborted

 

3. The entire subplot about Jack sleeping with one of the Salazar sibling's wife while he was undercover.

 

Well when she got killed I would imagine that would end the romance. We should know by now Jack isn't going to mope around for days about his plight when there is shit going down.

 

4. The subplot involving Sherry threatening to expose the fact that her ex-husband's political patron-turned-enemy had killed a girl in a drunk driving accident and then covered it up.

 

How was this dumped? She ended up killing the guy.

 

5. Jack's break-up with Kate Warner, his romantic love interest during season two.

 

Who cares? Why would they bring this up when it is three years after their ordeal. How stupid would it be if the gave a random dialogue about a failed relationship of Jack's?

 

6. The story behind Chase's baby and Kim's reaction to Chase confiding in Chloe and not her about it

 

I kind of remember Kim being a little pissed.

 

7. Tony planning on leaving CTU for a new job and the question of what would happen to Michelle professionally.

 

Um, I think the matter he is up for treason should close this one for you.

 

8. Suicide pills being offered to the doomed innocent people in the hotel that Saunders infected with the virus so that they wouldn't suffer a horribly bloody death at the hands of the virus.

 

How was this aborted? Michelle made them the offer and they left it at that, we didn't need anymore. Hell, the storyline was probably just to make Chapelle look more sympathetic so people cared about his death. It would have been quite the slow down if we are in the middle of chasing down Saunders, then 2 episodes later we jump back to the hotel just to see people take the pills.

 

9. The infection outbreaks that happened throughout the city after an infected cheating husband snuck out of the hotel after being exposed to the virus and running around the city.

 

The medical crew was setting up quarantine zones to look for the people. IIRC, they were able to find the people who came in contact with the man who escaped. But either way the show focuses on CTU, not the medical crew.

[Guest OctoberBlood]

Yeah, I would agree that you pretty much didn't pay attention. Pin nailed most of the points...

 

going to mope around for days about his plight when there is shit going down.

 

Hours.

[treble 0]

The only thing I can really think of them dumping was Jack claiming he would leave the country after helping break Salazar out of prison. I don't think they brought that up again after he went down to Mexico.

[JasonX 0]

1. Jack being a drug addict.

 

Salazar gave him a pill to take care of the symptoms for the time being. Who knows, he will probably still have the addiction and may get it taken care of.

 

But once they gave him the magic pills the entire plot went away without any mention of it again. Pretty lazy writing, especially after they made a huge ass deal about how Keifer purposely did H not to fit in but because he was fucked up inside enough that he had to have the H to kill his angst and function.

 

2. Tony being shot in the neck and whether or not he suffered any major injury from his wound.

 

I would assume no major damage considering he kept on the rest of the day. You can call it a cop out of the storyline, but I don't think you can call it aborted

 

So why did they tease the notion of him not having full mental capacities at CTU?

 

3. The entire subplot about Jack sleeping with one of the Salazar sibling's wife while he was undercover.

 

Well when she got killed I would imagine that would end the romance. We should know by now Jack isn't going to mope around for days about his plight when there is shit going down.

 

You would think it would get passing mention especially given how she essentially saved Chase's life as well as the fact that maybe Claudia's fling with Jack is why he was breaking up with Kate at the start of the season

 

4. The subplot involving Sherry threatening to expose the fact that her ex-husband's political patron-turned-enemy had killed a girl in a drunk driving accident and then covered it up.

 

How was this dumped? She ended up killing the guy.

 

Only after they jetisoned the entire plot point down the drain after spending two episodes establishing it. IF they wanted her to just kill him, why not skip that entire thing all together and go straight to the nagging to death?

 

5. Jack's break-up with Kate Warner, his romantic love interest during season two.

 

Who cares? Why would they bring this up when it is three years after their ordeal. How stupid would it be if the gave a random dialogue about a failed relationship of Jack's?

 

It would explain a lot of stuff (such as Jack's drug addiction). Plus we never really knew why he dumped her or how the dumping might be connected to the fact that he was banging Claudia on the side (which would have given some more depth to the Claudia subplot, with Jack being torn between helping her and not wanting to have anything to do with her because of how his fling with her helped ruin his relationship with Kate.

 

Plus Kate was a pretty popular character in seaons two, so it would make sense to make passing referrence to her.

 

6. The story behind Chase's baby and Kim's reaction to Chase confiding in Chloe and not her about it

 

I kind of remember Kim being a little pissed.

 

But it was never fully explored or expanded upon. It was like the writers wanted to create a wacky CTU-themed subplot and instantly created the baby, which went away as soon as they got bored with the plot of Chloe having to play "hide the baby".

 

7. Tony planning on leaving CTU for a new job and the question of what would happen to Michelle professionally.

 

Um, I think the matter he is up for treason should close this one for you.

 

Yeah but the writers don't acknowledge it after making it such a big thing in the first couple of episodes. A throwaway joke between Tony and Michelle about would be nice if only to give closure to the plot

 

8. Suicide pills being offered to the doomed innocent people in the hotel that Saunders infected with the virus so that they wouldn't suffer a horribly bloody death at the hands of the virus.

 

How was this aborted? Michelle made them the offer and they left it at that, we didn't need anymore. Hell, the storyline was probably just to make Chapelle look more sympathetic so people cared about his death. It would have been quite the slow down if we are in the middle of chasing down Saunders, then 2 episodes later we jump back to the hotel just to see people take the pills.

 

Law of depravity in film. You promise gore and death, you deliver it. The fact that they made a huge point of suicide pills being provided and suddenly drop the entire plotline for the sake of Michelle as hostage cheats the audience of a major element to the whole virus storyline, of whether or not people would do it. But the writers ended up being lazy hacks who totally dropped the hotel plot as soon as they established Michelle wasn't infected except for when they decided to bring everyone back to the hotel in order to do the cliche of Saunders giving up his plan to keep Bauer from infecting his daughter and even then the situation at the hotel was never fully expanded upon as to what happened.

 

9. The infection outbreaks that happened throughout the city after an infected cheating husband snuck out of the hotel after being exposed to the virus and running around the city.

 

The medical crew was setting up quarantine zones to look for the people. IIRC, they were able to find the people who came in contact with the man who escaped. But either way the show focuses on CTU, not the medical crew.

 

More hack writing. Why tease the virus getting out of control and then pussy out? People watch 24 for death destruction and violence. So why not make the last episodes of season 3 end with LA being turned into a plague-consumed death-zone?

[Guest T®ITEC]

Because that might be a little hard to expand upon next season? With the virus out, everyone was doomed, right? What are you going to build upon if everyone's dead?

[fazzle 0]

You can talk all you want about the dropped storylines in season 3. I just want to know where the hell Milo went.

 

More hack writing. Why tease the virus getting out of control and then pussy out? People watch 24 for death destruction and violence. So why not make the last episodes of season 3 end with LA being turned into a plague-consumed death-zone?

 

That's basically what they did last season with the bombing of CTU. Sure, it looked impressive, and it even killed someone that looked like they were going to be a regular, but in the end, it DIDN'T MEAN SHIT! CTU was fully operational within what, 2 or 3 hours? With the random failure of whatever system was convenient at the time.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

But once they gave him the magic pills the entire plot went away without any mention of it again. Pretty lazy writing, especially after they made a huge ass deal about how Keifer purposely did H not to fit in but because he was fucked up inside enough that he had to have the H to kill his angst and function.

 

Chappelle questioned Jack about this after he got back from Mexico. Jack agreed to go to rehab after the crisis was over and Chapelle covered the whole thing up.

 

So why did they tease the notion of him not having full mental capacities at CTU?

 

To build tension between him and Michelle. Also the storyline was resolved when

Michelle confronted Chapelle about it and he discovered that Tony was fit to run CTU after all.

 

You would think it would get passing mention especially given how she essentially saved Chase's life as well as the fact that maybe Claudia's fling with Jack is why he was breaking up with Kate at the start of the season

 

It was a job. When the job was over, that was that. Kate never would have known about it. Presumably they broke up over Jack's job and possibly in part due to his inability to move on from the death of his wife. His heroin addiction might have been part of it. Jack's personal life is pretty screwed up.

 

Only after they jetisoned the entire plot point down the drain after spending two episodes establishing it. IF they wanted her to just kill him, why not skip that entire thing all together and go straight to the nagging to death?

 

That was her motivation for going to his place. She didn't even go there with the intent on killing him, she just wanted to find something more out about him that she could use. While there an oppurtunity presented itself to make it look like an accident and she took advantage of it. The subplot also is there to take away sympathy for Milligan, both for the audience and for Palmer.

 

It would explain a lot of stuff (such as Jack's drug addiction). Plus we never really knew why he dumped her or how the dumping might be connected to the fact that he was banging Claudia on the side (which would have given some more depth to the Claudia subplot, with Jack being torn between helping her and not wanting to have anything to do with her because of how his fling with her helped ruin his relationship with Kate.

 

Plus Kate was a pretty popular character in seaons two, so it would make sense to make passing referrence to her.

 

I've covered most of this above, but Kate was not a popular character. It was a toss-up between who viewers wanted to be killed off more, her or Kim.

 

But it was never fully explored or expanded upon. It was like the writers wanted to create a wacky CTU-themed subplot and instantly created the baby, which went away as soon as they got bored with the plot of Chloe having to play "hide the baby".

 

It is just backstory for Chase, and serves as an obstacle as far as the relation with him and Kim are concerned. Nothing more. Nothing came from this because Kim got over it.

 

Yeah but the writers don't acknowledge it after making it such a big thing in the first couple of episodes. A throwaway joke between Tony and Michelle about would be nice if only to give closure to the plot.

 

I don't think they would be joking about a treason charge. Things escalated to the point where this didn't matter.

 

Law of depravity in film. You promise gore and death, you deliver it. The fact that they made a huge point of suicide pills being provided and suddenly drop the entire plotline for the sake of Michelle as hostage cheats the audience of a major element to the whole virus storyline, of whether or not people would do it. But the writers ended up being lazy hacks who totally dropped the hotel plot as soon as they established Michelle wasn't infected except for when they decided to bring everyone back to the hotel in order to do the cliche of Saunders giving up his plan to keep Bauer from infecting his daughter and even then the situation at the hotel was never fully expanded upon as to what happened.

 

They all died. Does it matter how? You are wasting time that could be used on more important matter. Offering the choice is the important part. We don't need to see the results from that when they don't affect any of the major characters. We know what happened.

 

More hack writing. Why tease the virus getting out of control and then pussy out? People watch 24 for death destruction and violence. So why not make the last episodes of season 3 end with LA being turned into a plague-consumed death-zone?

 

Why would we want to see the bad guys win? Sounds like you wouldn't like any of the seasons. Palmer wasn't killed in Season 1. LA wasn't nuked in Season 2 and the war was stopped at the last minute. They were trying to stop the virus from getting out. They succeeded. End of story.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

When was it ever mentioned that Jack and Kate had a relationship?

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

First episode, where she talked about having his jacket.

 

For some reason, I think that'll eventually come up again (i.e. next season). I've heard a rumor that Jack will have a love interest next season (can't remember where, so don't quote me), and I wouldn't be surprised if it's her.

[Guest Ray]

The death of Sherry Palmer, longtime series villain and fan-favorite

People actually liked her? I found her and all the subplots involving her to be very annoying.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Wow, I don't even remember her being in the first episode.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

That's the thing with Nina and Sherry. They HAD to be killed off, or else the writers would surprizingly~! bring them back every year.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

This article was awful. I think this has easily been the most subtle and character-driven season of 24, and you seem to have missed the point on most of it. Just about everything has been covered already though, so I won't nag on you anymore. Okay, maybe a bit.

 

They "totally dropped the hotel plot"? Come on now, how often do we need to be reminded that yes, there's a virus in the hotel, and no, it hasn't been entirely contained? We want back to the hotel for something in just about every episode anyway, whether it be showing images to Jane Saunders to convince her about her father, or having Jack threaten to shove her into the hotel in the second-to-last hour.

 

I don't know where you get all this Palmer nonsense. He took the pills early in the day, and at no point did anyone say "take these pills every hour or you DIE," or anything of the sort. I thought it was lip service to the attack that, in storyline time, happened three years earlier, so that we could see he had survived but still had to be cautionary. He probably just needs to take some pills each day. Big deal. Also, you apparently missed the two Palmer brothers openly weeping in David's office after Wayne explains what happened to Sherry, and the struggle Palmer had to keep going on stopping the virus and preventing a panic despite his shock and horror at how it all ended up. The answer? His resignation. He's not resigning yet and he just wanted to tell Jack before the rest of the world knew, so why on earth do we need to see some big dramatic thing about it now?

 

One of the things I love most about this show is that it sets up threads, resolves a lot of them, but leaves a few of the less-exciting ones - how will Jack get through rehab, where will Michelle go now that Tony is probably going to jail, how will the public respond to Palmer's choice to not run again - up in the air until we hit the next season. It takes place in 24 hours and we already get enough crises as it is - I don't want the writers to foolishly try to wrap up things that very obviously will take more than a day to settle, especially when we already have some general suggestion of what will happen based on the rest of the season.

[BlackFlagg 0]

Wow, I don't even remember her being in the first episode.

She wasn't really in it, it was just a phone call.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

No, we saw her, if only for a minute. She was stuck in traffic, or at least sitting in a car. Basically, she was in the first 15 minutes of the season for around 45 seconds, and then gone. Alas. I kinda liked her by the end of last season, once she moved past her initial "my sister is a terrorist, ahh, my sister is a terrorist" stuff. I remember thinking it was a really odd choice to stick a person who was just a plain ol' civilian - admittedly, one who'd have a huge part in the season - in the main "starring" credits.

[fazzle 0]

I've covered most of this above, but Kate was not a popular character. It was a toss-up between who viewers wanted to be killed off more, her or Kim.

KATE! KATEKATEKATEKATEKATEKATEKATE!

 

The only way I want her back in the show is if it's to see her die. RIGHT AWAY. Not a build up to her death, just maybe Jack waving across the street to her and a bullet going through her brain. Then Jack laughs. As does the audience.

 

If nothing else, I don't forgive her for actually making me root AGAINST Jack. Every time he successfully saved her, I had to boo him. When Marie had her pinned down and was about to shoot her, I was SCREAMING at the damn TV for her to just fucking do it and not be a pussy. I never hated Jack Bauer as much as I did when he shot Marie in he damned arm. Fucker. He could have at least waited until after she shot Kate before taking her down.

 

During the Season 2 marathon on FX, I had to turn away from the TV every time she was on screen. I grew to hate her that much. It's probably not healthy to hate a damn television character as much as I do her. She's going to send me into therapy if she returns for season 4.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

That's the thing with Nina and Sherry. They HAD to be killed off, or else the writers would surprizingly~! bring them back every year.

I swear I'll laugh if somehow Sherry manages to come back.

 

It was more of an assumption that she was dead, Wayne never went over and felt for a pulse or breathing.

 

Not to mention the numerous scenes where the writers showed David Palmer taking pills, which were treated in such an ominous fashion that it was as if the writers were literally flashing "FORESHADOWING! THIS IS IMPORTANT! THE PILLS ARE A CRITICAL PLOT ELEMENT!".

 

The Pills you keep refering to that Palmer was taking were to treat where he was infected with the handshake at the end of season 2. I seriously think that you were looking into how they showed him taking the pills too much. And I would think that with most medicines, he might only have to take them once a day so not showing him taking the pills again makes sense. As for the foreshadowing part, you COULD say that a bottle of pills, although not his pills, were a major factor in him quitting the campaign for re-election.

 

Secondly, the virus storyline was never really aborted. In fact the first body to show up infected was supposedly a warning and then it went off to Jack going to Mexico to help the Salazars buy the virus so that it could be contained...but...they got doublecrossed a couple of times and for whatever reason Amador never had any intention of actually selling since he was giving it to Saunders to use. As for the virus being able to infect people faster, I think it was explained that it was a modified strain of the virus.

 

Overall I think season 3 was ahead of Season 2 by a longshot but still wont even touch Season 1. I don't think anything that can be done will make a full season again as good as Season 1. As for Season 4, you say that most of the supporting cast won't return. Since most of the recurring supporting cast are people at CTU: LA, it could be infered that they base the show out of some city other than LA, which would be a very good move for the show.

 

And I throw a fun factoid in that I found while looking for info on the Season 3 DVD Set:

 

Cheppelle's death marked the third time one of Jack's superiors at CTU was killed in the line of duty. He was preceded by Richard Walsh on Day 1 and George Mason on Day 2. In all three cases, Jack was the last person to see them alive.

[the max 0]

In the cases of Walsh and Mason, they both were killed protecting Jack.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Walsh would have been a really good character if he hadn't died in like the second episode ever.