Is '24' running out of time?

[question everything]

latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel30apr30,0,523470.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
CHANNEL ISLAND
Is '24' running out of time?
SCOTT COLLINS

April 30, 2007

JACK BAUER, America's favorite counter-terrorism agent with the violent code of honor and the weird sadomasochistic bent, is squaring off against a stealthy and unforgiving new enemy.

His fans.

After peaking in the ratings last year, Fox's thriller "24" has been getting dumped on by seemingly everyone in this, its sixth season. Critics and fans alike are aiming tomatoes at the stage, carping about the soapy and repetitive plotlines that unspool Jack's unlikely familial past, tiresome romantic triangles in the security bureaucracy and endless bickering among Oval Office advisors.

(snip)

More than one-third of viewers have bailed since the special four-hour season premiere that aired over two consecutive nights back in January. And if that wasn't enough bad news for the series, last week "24" was one of the prime-time shows that the Federal Communications Commission singled out in urging Congress to curb TV violence.

(snip)

Could it be that the vague but gnawing post-9/11 fears that helped turn "24" into a hit are ebbing — the nightmares that envisioned great cities laid low by chemical weapons spilled into the water supply, say, or suitcase nukes wielded by shadowy assailants?.. If so, that's probably good for America. And alas, that's probably bad for "24." Real-life political tension does wonders for creators of thriller fare. Look how kind the Cold War was to Ludlum and Tom Clancy.

(snip)

[Little Wing]

1. They only thing they haven't covered is an alien attack

[Occulus]

2. And in an act of utter desperation

they're bringing in Michael Shanks, from Stargate: SG-1.

Don't get me wrong: I like his character on that show. I think he's a pretty decent TV actor. But isn't it a bit... odd, perhaps?... that they would bring an actor from a show in its final season to another show that's starting to lose its lustre?

OOops. Strike that. Farscape got canceled, they brought in Browder and Black to SG-1, and promptly canceled that show as well.

You'll know 24 is due for the axe if Browder or Black show up as sultry or special Agent Someone-or-other, I guess?

:sarcasm:

[seemslikeadream]

3. The politics of the man behind “24.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/19/070219fa_fact_mayer

The office desk of Joel Surnow—the co-creator and executive producer of “24,” the popular counterterrorism drama on Fox—faces a wall dominated by an American flag in a glass case. A small label reveals that the flag once flew over Baghdad, after the American invasion of Iraq, in 2003. A few years ago, Surnow received it as a gift from an Army regiment stationed in Iraq; the soldiers had shared a collection of “24” DVDs, he told me, until it was destroyed by an enemy bomb. “The military loves our show,” he said recently. Surnow is fifty-two, and has the gangly, coiled energy of an athlete; his hair is close-cropped, and he has a “soul patch”—a smidgen of beard beneath his lower lip. When he was young, he worked as a carpet salesman with his father. The trick to selling anything, he learned, is to carry yourself with confidence and get the customer to like you within the first five minutes. He’s got it down. “People in the Administration love the series, too,” he said. “It’s a patriotic show. They should love it.”

Surnow’s production company, Real Time Entertainment, is in the San Fernando Valley, and occupies a former pencil factory: a bland, two-story industrial building on an abject strip of parking lots and fast-food restaurants. Surnow, a cigar enthusiast, has converted a room down the hall from his office into a salon with burled-wood humidors and a full bar; his friend Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk-radio host, sometimes joins him there for a smoke. (Not long ago, Surnow threw Limbaugh a party and presented him with a custom-made “24” smoking jacket.) The ground floor of the factory has a large soundstage on which many of “24” ’s interior scenes are shot, including those set at the perpetually tense Los Angeles bureau of the Counter Terrorist Unit, or C.T.U.—a fictional federal agency that pursues America’s enemies with steely resourcefulness.

Each season of “24,” which has been airing on Fox since 2001, depicts a single, panic-laced day in which Jack Bauer—a heroic C.T.U. agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland—must unravel and undermine a conspiracy that imperils the nation. Terrorists are poised to set off nuclear bombs or bioweapons, or in some other way annihilate entire cities. The twisting story line forces Bauer and his colleagues to make a series of grim choices that pit liberty against security. Frequently, the dilemma is stark: a resistant suspect can either be accorded due process—allowing a terrorist plot to proceed—or be tortured in pursuit of a lead. Bauer invariably chooses coercion. With unnerving efficiency, suspects are beaten, suffocated, electrocuted, drugged, assaulted with knives, or more exotically abused; almost without fail, these suspects divulge critical secrets.

The show’s appeal, however, lies less in its violence than in its giddily literal rendering of a classic thriller trope: the “ticking time bomb” plot. Each hour-long episode represents an hour in the life of the characters, and every minute that passes onscreen brings the United States a minute closer to doomsday. (Surnow came up with this concept, which he calls the show’s “trick.”) As many as half a dozen interlocking stories unfold simultaneously—frequently on a split screen—and a digital clock appears before and after every commercial break, marking each second with an ominous clang. The result is a riveting sensation of narrative velocity.

[Occulus]

5. Surnow didn't come up with the "concept".

Sorry, but that one-hour-in-the-life ticking-time-bomb "trick" he "created" has been done and redone well before 24 started airing. It's nothing new. That's he's taking credit for a generic literary device is more than a tad arrogant...

[bryant69]

4. I don't know - I know they lost me this year

It was a choice between 24 and Heroes - Heroes won.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[question everything]

15. Some of the plots are really too far fetched

a man gets a drill in his shoulder but within an hour is back at work as usual.

In previous seasons Jack himself came back from being clinically dead and continued to roam as if nothing happen.

Last year was bad in that every character who helped him ended up dead.

This year is different in that there is no physical barrier of 24 hours; i.e. - something has to be done to stop a terrorist before 24 hours are over.

Still, as the post above noted: it is like being on a ticking time bomb and the hour flies while sitting at one's seat of the pants.

Still, the co-producer - don't know his name, as well as Sutherland himself are Democrats, so..

[bullwinkle428]

6. Weaker storylines and stronger competition from other networks -

"Heroes" on NBC and "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC, and I actually think both of those shows are being challenged by the sitcoms on CBS, putting "24" into 4th place.

[Squatch]

7. Repetetive is an understatement.

24 has most definitely jumped the shark.

[BlooInBloo]

8. It did for me a year or two ago. *Neverending* thrillers are stupid.

[nashville_brook]

9. everyone is watching Heroes --

[MadBadger]

10. I'm sick of the plot holes of 24

Like what ever happened to last year's president being stabbed? Did we forget about him? Or whatever happened to Jack's father?

[question everything]

16. Or even from the second season

who was behind the assassination attempt of President David Palmer? (the poisonous hand shake)

[MadBadger]

25. Well that is the original plot hole.

[Initech]

11. I've been watching the show since the beginning...

And even I have to admit that this season hasn't been nearly as good as previous seasons. If this year doesn't have a good ending, I'm done.

[soleft]

12. Look for Keifer to pull a Jimmy Smits

With Ricky Shroeder waiting in the wings

[endarkenment]

13. They forgot the real reason.

Repetitive Stupid Plot Syndrom didn't help, but Heros killed 24. That is one reason why they are my heros.

[Mr. Ected]

14. I'm Still Watching Last Season on DVD

The first few seasons really rocked. Last year's episodes seem to be repetitive and lackluster. Been there, done that.

America tires of its war on terror. See ya, Jack. It was nice while it lasted.

[Aristus]

17. "24" is right-wing wish fulfillment; a conservative "The West Wing", if you will.

Never could understand why my mother, a rock-solid liberal, is such a big fan...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. I wouldn't call it right-wing, exactly.

For the most part, the domestic villains have been Republicans, and the sympathetic characters have been Dems.

[MadBadger]

20. I dont understand this view necessarily

FOr example, the second season is about not going to war on shitty evidence. In the end, a war is prevented because they investigated the evidence and found out that it was false. Seems to me like that can be seen as a shot at the policy of the President.
Also, this season, the people who want to take away civil rights and bomb the hell out of other countries are looked at as the bad guys (Republican things to do)

Second, West Wing and 24 arent comparable because they are just completely different types of show.

[bullwinkle428]

21. The Vice President character (played by Powers Boothe) is doing a great job

playing the Cheney role, and he's extremely unsympathetic and unlikeable on the show ...

[Laughing Mirror]

22. Your mother may be monitoring its unrelenting propaganda

She may also be watching it for its entertainment value.

[wicket]

23. That's why I watch it

The entertainment value that is.

[Champion Jack]

19. How many times can you hear Jack say

"you've got to trust me on this"
How many times can the bad guys disappear in the desert?
Jumped the shark is the understatement of the year...

[qanda]

24. Reminds me of the demise of Alias

The plots became too confusinf, far-fetched and soap opera like. I'm part of the 1/3 of viewers who no longer watch.

[tjwash]

26. I'm sure Keifer has a long glorious career in infomercials waiting for him after it's over..

[bigwillq]

27. And I still haven't seen that show

:bounce: