The 24 Letdown

The season always starts so promising. New characters, both suspicious and crazy. Intense plotting punctuated by intense music. And then… episode five-ish hits and things begin to get immensely dull.

Why? Well, for starters, every episode becomes full to the brim with exposition. The idea is obviously to make things clear to any new viewers who finally get tired of boring sitcoms featuring fat guys with hot wives. However, the result is anviliciously clunky dialogue.

“Jack, is that the terrorist you captured fifteen minutes ago?”

”You mean the one that was trying to blow up the bunker with the big bomb?”

“Yes, that one.”

“Yes, Audrey, this is him – and I’m really glad that we managed to foil his plot to assassinate all of those important people.”

“You mean the plot we just talked about five minutes ago when finishing our discussion of our torrid love affair from two years ago?”

“Yes, that plot.”

You get the idea.

The other problem is that it doesn’t take long for the plot to get completely ridiculous. This season, for instance, we start with an airport hostage situation. Which is quickly resolved. Hoorah! However, we soon discover that the hostage situation was only a ruse to allow one of the bad dudes (who had been disguised as a hostage) to sneak some big nerve gas weapon out of the airport.

Huh?

This. Doesn’t. Make. Any. Sense. If your goal were to sneak a big nerve gas weapon out of an airport, would you START by creating an immense hostage situation? No, you would not.

The show is still good. But at this point I’m primarily watching for Jean Smart and Jean Smart alone. “I look like a wedding cake. Let’s start over.” HEE!