by Luke Rasmussen

Created on: May 25, 2010

I have faithfully followed 24 since season 4. I had never heard of it, until I saw a promo for the Season 4 premiere. I thought it looked like a great show, I watched on that first night, and Monday nights were never the same again.

In some respects, I feel that the finale was a little stale. I expected someone huge to die in this one; thus ending the series on a "silent countdown", the usual 24 response when one of the main characters dies. This did not happen. However, I did feel that when Chloe and Jack went at it (when he knocked her unconscious or she held him at gunpoint), one was going to kill the other, thus ensuing the silent countdown.

I felt that the finale left some things wide open. Sure, President Taylor resigns, as does Jack. But, we've seen Jack leave CTU before. He gets tired at the end of the day and realizes he doesn't want to do it anymore. But, he always finds his way back in the game. And, even though we groaned when she found her way back in the show, but what about his estranged daughter Kim? What will become of her?

Of course, maybe this was intentional, if 24 does in fact become a movie franchise of some sort. You can't make movies if your hero is dead.

I feel this show maybe overextended its welcome by a couple seasons. It seemed the stories with President Taylor were a bit slow. In hindsight, I wonder if after season 6, when everything was found out about the assassination of President Palmer, 24 should have bowed out. It almost felt that way for a little bit, as the writer's strike halted season 7 for a year.

The media, blogosphere, etc. was more excited this year over the series finale of LOST. 24, in my opinion, didn't get much attention in their final season. It doesn't seem to me that 24 is going out on top. Perhaps, if season 6 had been the last one, it might have been a different story. But, more and more, I think they should have just stuck with the David Palmer story. Once they figured it all out by the end of season 6. that would have been the end.

Bloggers said that 24 had become a "parody of its former self," which is true in many respects: the CTU moles, the presidential pardons and so forth. Then again, there are only so many national crises you can come up with: Jack tackled a few nuclear threats, assassination attempts, biological weapons...Jack has pretty much seen it all in his eight "day" run; after a while, you run out of things to say and just end up repeating what usually works. 

At the end of it all, world peace was not achieved and Jack is once again, on the run. But, cheers to one of television's best shows this decade. 

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