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24 reboot - Without Jack, it's not 24 (Spoilers)


Rhom

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13 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

This show reminds me of the X Files insofar as when they both began, they were original, and exciting... and both of them should have ended after three seasons... Broadcast TV gets so little right, that when they have a good concept, they can't help themselves when they milk the shit out of it.

Kind of like the movie reboots over and over! How many Godzilla, Spiderman, and King Kong movies have there been?

24 has the potential to be good if they can focus on current tracking techniques and less on a one man wrecking crew or silly drama where there is always a mole. I am currently watching a "reality" show called Hunted. It's kind of like 24 but for "real". It's has been showing modern tracking ideas and has been pretty interesting so far.

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17 hours ago, Knight of Ashes said:

Looks like Miranda Otto's playing a less interesting version of Alison, her character in Homeland.

Please don't tell me this... She is the only reason I may be interested in trying this. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The third episode got out of its own way.  Everything moved much more smoothly.

Still think the Ayesha and high school plot lines are "Kim Cornered By A Mountain Lion" levels of unnecessary at the moment.

Didnt expect dad to be behind the team getting whacked.  Will be interested in seeing why he did it. 

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10 hours ago, Rhom said:

Didnt expect dad to be behind the team getting whacked.  Will be interested in seeing why he did it. 

That got me surprised, too. Which is a good thing. Although it might turn out there is a very crappy explanation for this. And I must say, I still feed the adrenaline when watching this kind of thing.

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4 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

That got me surprised, too. Which is a good thing. Although it might turn out there is a very crappy explanation for this. And I must say, I still feed the adrenaline when watching this kind of thing.

Yeah, the action beats on the show are still better than the cascades of wannabes that came out after 24 broke in.  My wife watches Blindspot and the action set pieces just look like TV budget scenes.  For all its many flaws over the years, 24 still knows how to present action and drama.

I didn't figure the campaign manager was really behind it (too easy... too early in the day) but the dad was not on my radar for that.

Also was stunned when it turned out Hard Ass Field Agent and Slightly Weasely Analyst turned out to be jilted gay lovers.  :stunned:  Definitely not a plotline you would have seen when the show launched in 2001.

Will say that I also didn't see Good Looking High School kid getting up and running away... mainly because he'd been laying there mostly dead for the better part of 45 minutes of show time.  Lolita and Well Meaning Teacher (who's really a terrorist) never checked to be sure he was really dead while cleaning up all that blood?!!?

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Ok so this is a genre I enjoy but nobody's really killing it:

 

24:  Just too many familiar tropes.  There's a mole in CTU.  The high school storyline is absurd and ridiculous.  But I like Corey Hawkins even if the storyline with his wife and brother is lame.

SIX:   Walton Goggins is the reason to watch this show. I saw dialogue in episode 5 I thought I'd never see on television.  It keeps getting better. But the home life storylines all feel stock to me.   Its got a 2 episode lead on 24, but so far this is the better watch.

SHOOTER:  Mindless fun.  It doesn't pretend to be good and it really isn't, but super silly and super watchable.  Its like they saw 24 and SIX and declared those shows too heady. 

HOMELAND:  The granddaddy of them all. Not feeling it this season so far. Its still the smartest of the 4 shows, but right now the least engaging.  Feels like homework, hoping it gets better. 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Last couple of episodes have been fair.  Felt like the brother and wife plot was trying to go with an Empire type vibe for a bit there, but has now reverted to typical 24 second half of season twist by moving everything in a different direction at the midway point.

The Armenian family also took bizarre twists.  She went from performing oral sex on her teacher to balking at the entire thing within the span of a couple hours of the day.  Again, standard 24 tropes I suppose.  Same for Jimmy Smits' dad who went from admitting everything to denying everything.

Overall, I think the show has settled into a nice groove.  Its not as good as the very early seasons of 24; but probably better than the last couple of full seasons.

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I was pretty disappointed at the kidnapping twist. I had so hoped that this wouldn't happen since it was so predictable.

Let's just hope things don't go the 'I have to save my wife no matter what' road but probably they will.

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6 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

I was pretty disappointed at the kidnapping twist. I had so hoped that this wouldn't happen since it was so predictable.

Let's just hope things don't go the 'I have to save my wife no matter what' road but probably they will.

They will. 

I know my thread title says "Without Jack, its not 24" but this show is definitely 24.  It has all the flaws of the original, with the same high production values.  So I'm giving it a bit of a pass.  Its nowhere near as fun without Jack and I'm still waiting for a "Dammit Chloe" but the show has settled in. 

We'll see how the back half goes.

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It works pretty fine without Jack. In fact, the dysfunctional character of the new guy - not being able to let go of war - makes the whole thing much more interesting than it would have been with Jack. The guy still has sort of a history and character, unlike Jack, who basically become a walking cliché.

I still think the real time concept of the show could also be used less often with this whole terrorist threat thing but, going more back to the roots, utilized assassination attempts, or other lower scale threats that would still make us care because we got to know the characters.

I mean, the first season just had the whole Palmer assassination thing going, and that worked pretty well.

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Spoiler

Tony Almeida returns in tomorrow's episode

The official 24 Facebook page contained what I considers to be a pretty major spoiler.

:angry: 

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On 3/12/2017 at 1:37 PM, Rhom said:
  Reveal hidden contents

Tony Almeida returns in tomorrow's episode

The official 24 Facebook page contained what I considers to be a pretty major spoiler.

:angry: 

I mean we knew he was coming from press releases and trailers. Honestly he's the only reason I remotely can care about this show. 24 was season 1, 2, 3. The season 4 was a parody of season 2 almost and every nuanced thing they did was undone by being so f'ing stereotypical and generic. Then they hit gold with season 5 and tried to coast off that the rest of the way from making the end villains of season 6 and season 7 all co conspirators of the season 5 plot and then they brought Logan back as the big bad for season 8. Live Another Day is the most original thing they ever did since 2006. 

Anyways the concept really just isn't good enough to stand on it's own. You had a character we cared about in Jack Bauer and a great actor in Kiefer who had real teeth to him and was compelling to watch and see him battle through these high stress situations. It just doesn't work outside of him. 

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Now that the episode is past... Yes, I knew Tony would come back this season; but I didn't know how or when.  The FB preview really kind of took the wind out of the sails there.  No big deal though... because his reveal was very underwhelming.  :dunno: 

Overall though, I have to say; this reboot really is growing on me.  After the initial hours really tried to drop too many names and introduce too many tropes, the show has really settled into a nice groove that fits like a comfy old pair of shoes.  The drama was suitable last night as Black Jack Bauer said his goodbyes to Ike Turner and his wife.  The overly gruff gay field agent even had some good emotional beats with sensitive and misunderstood gay analyst.

I think what is working is the fact that the plot kind of has settled into more personal elements like we talked about preferring from the early episodes.  I'm eager to see where things go from here.

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They got me surprised this week. I did not foresee Carter convincing Andy to go along with him. That was an interesting move. Of course, the whole thing won't work in the end, but right now I really want both of them to survive.

I expected Eric to pull a Jack and abducting, threatening, and torturing him (or Edgar's cousin) into compliance.

Tony's return was also very much appreciated. They so ruined that character by killing him and then making him a madman bent on revenge.

I mean, this show was essentially far beyond the shark when they provided us with two men behind the murders of Michelle and Palmer - Jack's bald brother (and by extension his dad) and that other conspiracy guy from season 7 Tony was after. I mean, how many men can possibly have been behind that whole thing. Was it super conspiracy guy talking to Jack's dad talking to Jack's brother talking to Logan giving an order to Henderson?

That Rebecca-Tony love story is sort of weird. Wasn't he sort of undercover from the moment his death was faked?

In hindsight, season 5 was pretty good. Season 4 is a joke. Season 3 had pretty good ideas but the plot really suffers from the sudden twists and turns in that story. 1 & 2 are pretty good because things aren't yet all that over the top yet.

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Season 1 was original and personal. Like it was a big deal when Jack and Palmer just finally met face to face. The twist at the end was also legendary. I really feel like season 2 established the terrorist formula and they took such care to be nuanced and not stereotypical in handing Islamic Extremism and also showing how the corporate military industrial complex can be just as bad. Season 3 was great in that it combined the personal touch of the first season with the scope of the second. Saunders was a great foil to Jack. 

I will always maintain that season 4 is crap and it's almost like they said "hey remember season 2, lets try to do that again with almost none of the respect, care, and logic".

Elements of season 6 and season 7 should have just been combined honestly. I don't mind a rogue Tony and think that should have been the crux of the season, Tony searching for the co consirators to Logan and Jack having to stop him when he goes to far. And it kinda ties into a theme that goes across the series of you having all these kinda agents who are fighting the good fight and a changing government that betrays them. In the first two seasons Jack sacrafices everything for these people and you see how it completely destroys him. In season 3 Saunders is like his dark reflection who taunts him about how things change and someday he'll be in his shoes. In season 5 he brings down a corrupt President who completely dicks over his friends and he watches it drive his buddy Tony insane. Then in season 8 he watches this leader he believed in subvert justice for her own political ends and it drives Jack off the deep end. And then in the end he is the terrorist getting in the way of peace talks.

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I am enjoying this reboot. I like the fact that they went outside the box with some of the characters. I am hoping we get a second season to see if the lead can get into his groove acting wise. To me, he is acting like his character is supposed to be cool calm collected badass instead of just being it, if that makes any sense.

Didn't really care for Tony to show up but oh well. If his GF causes a problem with the dad because she is unstable and psychotically jealous then I may change my opinion, usually can't stand those convenient characters.

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1 hour ago, dbunting said:

I am enjoying this reboot. I like the fact that they went outside the box with some of the characters. I am hoping we get a second season to see if the lead can get into his groove acting wise. To me, he is acting like his character is supposed to be cool calm collected badass instead of just being it, if that makes any sense.

Didn't really care for Tony to show up but oh well. If his GF causes a problem with the dad because she is unstable and psychotically jealous then I may change my opinion, usually can't stand those convenient characters.

I agree on Carter.  (I think that's the first time I've used his name here instead of Black Jack.  :lol: ) I really have come to like him. 

On Tony; yeah... Having a relationship with Miranda seems a bit much.  And not just because its Miranda; but because of what she represents now and would have always represented.  When last we saw Tony's post Michelle relationship, he was all tied up with a trashy gutter slut.  And that felt kind of right for a guy who had everything taken away from him.  So we are supposed to believe that before he fell in with the gutter slut, he had a serious relationship with someone who was in line to head up CTU?

I think I'd prefer if they had gone ahead and started torturing the dad though.  I don't like bringing in Bail Organa prior to.  Would have been better in my mind to see him come in with the "My God!  What have you done?  Miranda!  We can't resort to torture!!!"  But maybe that's what is going to happen anyways.  Going off the preview of next week's episode, I don't know how this is going to shake out.  They apparently are going to send a missile strike of some sort (drones like in Live Another Day?) at the junkyard?  So do they get the coordinates somehow from Ike and Tina?  Or does dad talk? 

  

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9 hours ago, lancerman said:

Season 1 was original and personal. Like it was a big deal when Jack and Palmer just finally met face to face. The twist at the end was also legendary. I really feel like season 2 established the terrorist formula and they took such care to be nuanced and not stereotypical in handing Islamic Extremism and also showing how the corporate military industrial complex can be just as bad. Season 3 was great in that it combined the personal touch of the first season with the scope of the second. Saunders was a great foil to Jack. 

I will always maintain that season 4 is crap and it's almost like they said "hey remember season 2, lets try to do that again with almost none of the respect, care, and logic".

Elements of season 6 and season 7 should have just been combined honestly. I don't mind a rogue Tony and think that should have been the crux of the season, Tony searching for the co consirators to Logan and Jack having to stop him when he goes to far. And it kinda ties into a theme that goes across the series of you having all these kinda agents who are fighting the good fight and a changing government that betrays them. In the first two seasons Jack sacrafices everything for these people and you see how it completely destroys him. In season 3 Saunders is like his dark reflection who taunts him about how things change and someday he'll be in his shoes. In season 5 he brings down a corrupt President who completely dicks over his friends and he watches it drive his buddy Tony insane. Then in season 8 he watches this leader he believed in subvert justice for her own political ends and it drives Jack off the deep end. And then in the end he is the terrorist getting in the way of peace talks.

You know... this post just reminds me of how little I remember from the later seasons.  :lol: 

It was a different time in my life in those early years.  Still in school.  No wife.  No kids.  I did full rewatches of the show before each season right up until probably season 5 or so.  That means I watched season one 6 or 7 times, season two 5 or 6 times, etc.  :lol:  I own the DVDs for all the seasons, but I never have rewatched those last few seasons.  Maybe I should sometime.

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1 hour ago, Rhom said:

I agree on Carter.  (I think that's the first time I've used his name here instead of Black Jack.  :lol: ) I really have come to like him. 

  

I am hoping he gets better at his craft. I have watched him in several things, The Walking Dead, NWA, 24, and King Kong...his expressions seem the same in every movie.  (BTW, the actor that played Easy E is in King Kong also, took me a second to place him)

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