Monday, January 12, 2009
"24" Premiere Disappointing
"24" and Jack Bauer (played flawlessly by Keifer Sutherland) returned Sunday night.
I'm going to hold off - mostly - for one more day ripping on the overwhelmingly boring and disappointing premiere of "24".
I'll watch tonight's two hour follow up, but if Sunday and tonight's two hours are any indication of the rest of this season, I won't be watching the remaining 20 "hours."
I would like to know from those who are today writing that "24" is "back on track" - did you watch a different "24" on Sunday night than I did? Christ, it was dull and a yawner. What did you folks see that I didn't?
The character of Tony Almeida is back from "the dead." Uh - sorry, this plot device works and works well on daytime Soap Operas, but not on a program that used to be the finest one hour drama on television.
Tony Almeida, "alive", hit the "24" clock at 12 minutes after 8AM. This - as far as I'm concerned - is the moment "24" officially Jumped The Shark. My criticism has nothing to do with Carlos Bernard, the actor who plays Almeida. I like him, I think he's a fine actor.
If the first two hours of "24" are any indication of the remaining 22 hours, I expect the final episode to have Patrick Duffy stepping out of a shower and Victoria Principal walk up to him saying, "I had a nightmare. A terrible nightmare."
The writers' also ask their loyal audience to accept that the character of Almeida - a patriot who loves his country and would do anything to protect it during all prior seasons - now wants to destroy it? This is absurd.
Other hackneyed plot devices used, re-used and abused in the Sunday night premiere (plot devices overused from all previous seasons) were the computer module/chip and the shooting and apparent killing of a bad guy the moment before he was about to spill the beans and the "inside mole" device. Every single previous season depended and hinged on an "inside mole." This plot device has no legitimacy or believability in "24" anymore.
The computer module/chip was one of the most offensive of "24" treating its loyal audience as a bunch of idiots. The module had to have a "workaround" done to it by the kidnapped character of Michael Latham because it was overheating. I guess the writers and creators of "24" take it for granted that their loyal viewers are NOT AWARE, INFORMED OR SAVVY ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT A MODULE OR CHIP CAN BE COOLED BY A COMPUTER FAN!
I've never had a two-hour block of time pass by so slowly as Sunday night's "24" two-hour premiere. Jeebus, I was bored to death.
Is Southern California going through a dry spell and there simply isn't an adequate amount of The Chronic or Kush, or booger sugar available to stimulate writer creativity and inventiveness? WTF?!
A disappointing two-hour yawnathon. The only moments it garnered up a modest amount of adrenaline was in the last few minutes of Jack and Tony in a fistfight.
Okay. Tell me why I'm wrong if you think I am. If you thought the Sunday night premiere was good and that the program is back on solid footing, by all means, 'splain to me why I am in error.
©2009
I'm going to hold off - mostly - for one more day ripping on the overwhelmingly boring and disappointing premiere of "24".
I'll watch tonight's two hour follow up, but if Sunday and tonight's two hours are any indication of the rest of this season, I won't be watching the remaining 20 "hours."
I would like to know from those who are today writing that "24" is "back on track" - did you watch a different "24" on Sunday night than I did? Christ, it was dull and a yawner. What did you folks see that I didn't?
The character of Tony Almeida is back from "the dead." Uh - sorry, this plot device works and works well on daytime Soap Operas, but not on a program that used to be the finest one hour drama on television.
Tony Almeida, "alive", hit the "24" clock at 12 minutes after 8AM. This - as far as I'm concerned - is the moment "24" officially Jumped The Shark. My criticism has nothing to do with Carlos Bernard, the actor who plays Almeida. I like him, I think he's a fine actor.
If the first two hours of "24" are any indication of the remaining 22 hours, I expect the final episode to have Patrick Duffy stepping out of a shower and Victoria Principal walk up to him saying, "I had a nightmare. A terrible nightmare."
The writers' also ask their loyal audience to accept that the character of Almeida - a patriot who loves his country and would do anything to protect it during all prior seasons - now wants to destroy it? This is absurd.
Other hackneyed plot devices used, re-used and abused in the Sunday night premiere (plot devices overused from all previous seasons) were the computer module/chip and the shooting and apparent killing of a bad guy the moment before he was about to spill the beans and the "inside mole" device. Every single previous season depended and hinged on an "inside mole." This plot device has no legitimacy or believability in "24" anymore.
The computer module/chip was one of the most offensive of "24" treating its loyal audience as a bunch of idiots. The module had to have a "workaround" done to it by the kidnapped character of Michael Latham because it was overheating. I guess the writers and creators of "24" take it for granted that their loyal viewers are NOT AWARE, INFORMED OR SAVVY ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT A MODULE OR CHIP CAN BE COOLED BY A COMPUTER FAN!
I've never had a two-hour block of time pass by so slowly as Sunday night's "24" two-hour premiere. Jeebus, I was bored to death.
Is Southern California going through a dry spell and there simply isn't an adequate amount of The Chronic or Kush, or booger sugar available to stimulate writer creativity and inventiveness? WTF?!
A disappointing two-hour yawnathon. The only moments it garnered up a modest amount of adrenaline was in the last few minutes of Jack and Tony in a fistfight.
Okay. Tell me why I'm wrong if you think I am. If you thought the Sunday night premiere was good and that the program is back on solid footing, by all means, 'splain to me why I am in error.
©2009
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