Breaking Down Bauer: Tackling the New Season of 24
Written by: Rob Van Winkle, CC2K Staff Writer
1-15-07
I was flipping channels on Sunday night (because honestly, how many close, evenly matched, exciting, down-to-the-wire January playoff football games can one guy take?) when I stumbled upon the first part of the two-day, four-hour season premiere of 24 on Fox. (My apologies if you missed it. Man, with a show as seemingly popular as this one, you’d think that Fox would have promoted it at least a LITTLE!) Normally, it takes me a good six to eight episodes into a season to even begin to formulate an opinion on the show, due to the knowledge that the writers are going to throw in giant plot twists and red herrings to keep viewers interested. However, this one got me thinking right away, and as such, I have decided to write my thoughts on the show for CC2K, on a weekly basis.
I will begin with breakdowns of both nights of the premiere.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
First of all, I think it’s safe to say that I felt more anticipation for this season than I ever have before. This can be attributed solely to the brilliant way the writers ended Season 5. After stopping a plot led by none other than the president of the United States, Jack Bauer was given a moment of pure cathartic joy with his love Audrey. It seemed as though he was going to be able to actually rest. At that moment, he’s told he has a phone call he needs to take in private. When he goes to accept that call, he’s beaten savagely and taken hostage by the Chinese government, who had a vendetta against him from something he had done at the end of Season 4! As the credits roll on the season, we see Jack bound for China on a steam ship, with Audrey looking for him frantically.
How could they POSSIBLY My wife and I began considering the possibilities right away. Would the Chinese government force Jack to fulfill a mission for them (the most elegant but also the most prohibitively expensive option)? Would the show begin with Jack staging an elaborate escape, then making his way back to LA in time to save the world yet again? Would an issue come up that only Jack could handle, and CTU stages a daring and potentially war-starting rescue? Would the Chinese government force Jack to pretend that he had escaped, while all the time doing work for them? Since any one of these might have happened, there was no way to guess, and all we (and the rest of the world) could do was wait.
Prior to the premiere, the only clue as to what was happening to Jack came in the form of a bonus piece of footage added into the 24 Season 5 DVD. Apparently (I only heard about this), while the video purportedly shows Jack getting broken down mentally by the Chinese, and tricked into naming a mole despite never speaking a word, the piece is centrally and mainly an extended commercial for Toyota. In other words, not only is it artistically suspect, but it also offered no clues whatsoever as to what was going to happen this year. On to the actual episodes!
When the show started last night, we have learned that there have been a wave of massive terrorist attacks all across the country, and the country has started to slip into mass paranoia. The president (David Palmer’s brother, of course) has come just short of turning the country into a police state, a strategy favored by one of his advisors (played by the lawyer from Ally McBeal who always made weird noises and “pre-flushed” the toilet via remote control.) They have been targeting the man they believe is responsible for the attacks, and one of his lieutenants called the government and offered to reveal the location of this man if his demands are met. Among his demands…Jack Bauer. It seems that Jack killed this informant’s brother years ago, and this man wants retribution. With no other recourse available, and with the government desperate to stop the attacks, the US arranges a deal with China (no clear idea here how the US actually learned that China HAD Jack) to bring Jack home. Jack is thin, and scraggly, and has not spoken a word the entire time he was imprisoned by the Chinese. He is told of the task at hand, and he readily agrees, stating that he tried to stay alive in China only so he would not die for nothing; if this sacrifice saves lives, then it will be for something.
And so, if I do say so myself, the writers have solved the problem of Jack’s re-appearance in the most outrageous and least plausible way possible. I can not even begin to imagine how many dominoes would have to fall into place – confirmation that the terrorist they want to kill truly is responsible for the attacks, confirmation that killing him would stop the attacks, confirmation that the man claiming to know the terrorist’s whereabouts is credible, getting everyone from the president on down to agree to the demands of the caller, etc. – for this series of events to actually occur.
Anyway, the man (his name is Fayed) takes Jack somewhere, and immediately begins brutally torturing him. Jack, through his pain, implores him to call CTU with the information they need, and Fayed reveals that he himself is the real mastermind behind the attacks; the man the government wants to kill (named Assad) is in the US to attempt a cease fire. Instead of stopping the attacks, the US will have helped the mastermind behind them destroy his competition!
But, before Jack can do anything with that information…Fayed kills him! Jack Bauer dies before he can save the day, and the terrorist attacks continue.
Wait…that’s what any other “villain” in such a situation would do. In THIS case, Fayed takes a phone call, which gives Jack the time to kill a guard by biting out his jugular, and having the dead body fall in such a way that he is able to get the keys to his handcuffs out of the pockets. The race, as they say, is on!
Now, as I’ve stated before, there are a lot of things that happened in the show already that are illogical to the point of being absurd, but nothing tops what happens next. Fayed returns to the torture room, discovers that Jack is missing, and orders his men to find him. They search the sewers for a while (Jack somehow escapes into the sewers), but one of Fayed’s men urges him to stop the hunt, since they have pressing business to attend to. Fayed relents, and he and all of his men unilaterally stop looking for Jack. In other words, our mastermind told the federal agent he was going to kill the truth behind his plan. Then, when this same agent escapes death, this mastermind decides to LET HIM GO. So what if he’s a highly trained and skilled spy with knowledge of what I’m trying to do…what harm could he do?
Right as I was dealing with this scene, Jack escapes the sewers and runs off to find a random car. Once he smashes the window and gets in, he finds that the owner has conveniently left his cell phone (complete with GPS navigational software) on the dashboard. He calls CTU, gets the president on the phone, and urges him to stop the military air strike that is right at that moment mere minutes away from blowing away Assad and his men. The President demurs, and the strike continues. Jack, convinced that Assad is the only one who can help them find Fayed and stop the attacks, types Assad’s coordinates (that he memorized when he heard Fayed give them to CTU) into the phone he has just stolen, and takes off in the stolen car to rescue him. Despite the speed and precision of the US military, Jack somehow finds the time to drive across LA to Assad’s location, infiltrate into the house without getting killed, convince Assad of what his happening, help Assad discover which of his men had betrayed him, and get him out of the house before the bombs drop.
The next plot development has Jack and Assad tracking two men who are obviously about to blow some shit up. One is strapped with explosives, the other is his “handler,” whose job is to make sure the bomber goes through with it. While Assad trails the handler (hopefully back to Fayed), Jack follows the bomber onto the LA Metro. Jack temporarily gets the detonator out of the guy’s hands, but in the ensuing fight, the bomber gets it back, and presses the button. With no time to spare, Jack kicks the guy off the end of the train. The tunnel explodes, but no one was killed. In this case, it would seem that Jack (and everyone on board) was just plan lucky that this terrorist (and his handler) were stupid enough to have him get on the last car on the train. Otherwise, he might have caused some damage there! Jack runs off, and the first night of the premiere was over.
Overall, I think I’d give the first part of the premiere a B-. It’s still a damn good show, and they do a good job of making the stakes of each season pretty damn high, so you get invested right away in what’s happening. Also, after months of wondering what was going to happen (and WEEKS of incessant ads promoting it), there was a lot of excitement garnered, which always enhance any grade given. (Also, I did not fail to notice that, when CTU (naturally) watched Fox News to remain updated on what was happening, at least one shot revealed that the fake Fox News anchor was the same fake Fox News anchor from Arrested Development. I don’t know how or why that happened, but I love it.) However, in the end, there were so many plot holes that I could not divorce myself from myself, if you know what I mean, and because of that, the grade dropped dramatically.
Now, don’t get the wrong idea here. I still love this show, and I will look forward to Monday nights from now until June (although, with Prison Break and 24 on Fox, and Heroes and Studio 60 on NBC, I have no idea WHAT I’m going to do…). However, as far as I’m concerned, this show can be enjoyed on two levels: on its own merits, as a well-produced and exciting show, and as a realist who imagines real spies watching it and laughing their asses off. For both of those reasons, let’s all watch and comment. It’ll be twice the fun!