When the announcement came that a one-off season of 24 was going to air this year, I was really excited along with many other people. The series finale left a bitter taste in my mouth in what was also a rather uneven final season. And yet after binge watching the entire series in anticipation, I began to see that as a whole, the series wasn't really that great to begin with. Out of all the seasons, there can be some debate about which one is the best but it will usually come between seasons 1-5, take or leave season 2. As for me, overall, the one I consider to be the best is in fact the first season. While later seasons had some great elements that surpass the first one, most of it having to do with the casting and overall moments that can make me go "woo hoo!" but there was never really any consistency in terms of the flow of the story and events as the first one did, minus the whole amnesia subplot but that also leads to something weird that makes the show kind of really enjoyable: that it can get really dumb sometimes.
While some of those moments where the show does kind of get off track can really derail the show for a large period of time, one of the more obvious examples being the whole Kim subplot of season two (with the protecting a girl from her abusive dad, escaping police custody, a cougar, a mountain man, the list goes on) it can just come with the territory of how the show itself is structured. Being as the whole gimmick of the show is that each season takes place within a period of 24 hours, and each episode itself is an hour, there can often be problems with the story either by there being lulls where almost nothing happens. Which is one of the things that got me more excited about the revival being only 12 episodes, in hopes that it could condense the story and have less of the dumb subplots that plagued the series since the beginning. But as of the first episodes have shown, it is still as dumb as it has been for a long time. There are good things about it, usually what comes within the last few minutes of the episode is always nice, but the show has been kind of a boring slog for the most part this season. I'll probably end up watching it till the end but it just makes me wish that what they had promised was actually what I was watching. So why do I still watch this show even though it can piss me off to no end?
And the answer to that question can be that there is always something worth watching in the show for each season. There are some good villains for each seasons despite the convoluted ways of getting them involved, with some of my favorites being the Drazens in season 1, the Henderson/Logan combo of season 5 which does make me remember that season 8 started getting really enjoyable when Charles Logan came back in a larger role than his one off appearance in season 6. Some of the better seasons also had a great season opener for the most part, like season 5 killing off two major characters right away. Some have some stupid elements, like Jack's heroin addiction but that mostly has to do with that plot line as a whole rather than the reveal and when he bites off the neck of some guy. And while I enjoy Jack Bauer becoming more of a badass as the show progresses, culminating when he goes into a full blown revenge mission at the end of the series, it is also weird that he's supposed to be in his 50s around this time.
And then there is this miniseries. The first half of it has been what plagued the series for most of its run, with little to no change at all. Reading articles beforehand regarding it had left me rather excited about it but it seems like those hopes I had for it's return have been dashed away. There have been some good parts in it but they come few and far between, while most of the melodrama that the series has been known for has been more prevalent throughout. From Jack and the stuff with people from his past to the stuff going on with the terrorists this time, it really drags down the story and makes a lot of the decisions really odd and confusing. There is also the fact that why do people still never listen to Jack? Then again, if anyone listened, the show would probably be shorter but at this point, it could be a benefit.
This comes back to the question, Why do I enjoy 24? And to be honest, I am not sure. There are good things about it and the most obvious reason is Jack Bauer, but for the most part there are too many things about it that make the show a chore to watch and one I will probably not go back to anytime soon after this miniseries is over. I'm hoping that maybe the show pulls something out and does something completely unexpected which could be possible but it seems like that won't happen at this point.
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