24

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

Anyone here been watching 24 lately.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Everyone here has been watching it but theres not a lot of chat going on.

[Gaidin]

I'm having a lot of fun with this season. It's the first time something so politically bad for America as a head of state being assassinated has happened. More interesting than the usual "CRAP BLOWS UP" season.

[Kip]

SPOILERS! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN APRIL 12th's EPISODE

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Attack on CTU? Check

Mole in CTU? Check.

Jack's girlfriend dead, catatonic, or otherwise incapable of being his girlfriend forever? Check.

Maybe instead of canceling the show they should hire new writers.

[Gaidin]

Maybe instead of canceling the show they should hire new writers.

Why? This is the first season where Jack completely and utterly failed to stop a terrorist action he was directly involved in stopping.

[Kip]

Why? This is the first season where Jack completely and utterly failed to stop a terrorist action he was directly involved in stopping.

Suitcase nuke. But my point is - these are the same recycled plot twists. Obviously there are new elements, but when twists are repeated, they become stale. I mean I really have been enjoying this season - but "twists" lose their impact when we've seen them all before.

[MathiasOfAthens]

SPOILERS

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Attack on CTU? Check

Mole in CTU? Check.

Jack's girlfriend dead, catatonic, or otherwise incapable of being his girlfriend forever? Check.

Maybe instead of canceling the show they should hire new writers.

Damn, I havnt seen mondays episode yet... did you just say

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Renee

gets

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wacked

But you do have a good point... I noticed the same thing as soon as the season began...Plot are very similar just new characters, dialog and stage props are used.

[Kip]

Damn, I havnt seen mondays episode yet...

Damn I'm really sorry - I threw in the giant "SPOILERS" to try to keep people from looking if they hadn't watched. I didn't mean to ruin it for you or anyone else You can see it coming from a mile away though. Still, I'm sorry, and I'm gonna edit my post above to make sure no one else looks

But you do have a good point... I noticed the same thing as soon as the season began...Plot are very similar just new characters, dialog and stage props are used.

Exactly. They inject a little bit of freshness with the new setting (not very much though, as the show has never been driven by setting, except for perhaps the Mexico year [which I didn't watch] and in "Redemption"). If you forgive the fact that 24 is notorious at having one-note/one-dimensional characters, some of the new faces have been fun to watch - and I can forgive the stuff like "The terrorists have a dirty bomb/nuclear bomb/world leader hostage/gonna shoot down an airplane/bomb L.A.!" because there are only so many terrorist plots out there in the world.

It's just the twists. The twists we've seen before.

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

Sad they killed Renee Walker though.

[Kip]

Spoiler alerts dude, lots of people don't watch live. In fact I usually watch online, this is the first week that I haven't since the premier 4 hours.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Damn I'm really sorry - I threw in the giant "SPOILERS" to try to keep people from looking if they hadn't watched. I didn't mean to ruin it for you or anyone else You can see it coming from a mile away though. Still, I'm sorry, and I'm gonna edit my post above to make sure no one else looks


It's just the twists. The twists we've seen before.

Not your fault, I saw the spoilers just didnt think it was anything major.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know she would die too though, knew it the moment he said he loves her. Jack never wins.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You know how Jack carries her body from the bedroom and out and in all the time the sniper misses like what 10 times, how bad of a sniper is he? I might of missed it but did he have a listening device set up, otherwise how did he hear what O Brien said? He must of set up a scanner I just didnt see.

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

Spoiler alerts dude, lots of people don't watch live. In fact I usually watch online, this is the first week that I haven't since the premier 4 hours.

Then don't read the thread then until you watched it!

Not your fault, I saw the spoilers just didnt think it was anything major.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know she would die too though, knew it the moment he said he loves her. Jack never wins.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You know how Jack carries her body from the bedroom and out and in all the time the sniper misses like what 10 times, how bad of a sniper is he? I might of missed it but did he have a listening device set up, otherwise how did he hear what O Brien said? He must of set up a scanner I just didnt see.

I figured that to, but I thought they do it in the last episode or something. Jack always get screwed.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I did send the actress a autograph request, but not back.


I did get Kiefer's autograph though, personalize to me.

[Kip]

Not your fault, I saw the spoilers just didnt think it was anything major.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know she would die too though, knew it the moment he said he loves her. Jack never wins.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You know how Jack carries her body from the bedroom and out and in all the time the sniper misses like what 10 times, how bad of a sniper is he? I might of missed it but did he have a listening device set up, otherwise how did he hear what O Brien said? He must of set up a scanner I just didnt see.

Exactly. You suspect it from pretty much the beginning, and then you could see it coming from a mile away this episode.

More Spoilers!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The sniper didn't have audio - he just knew that Renee is the one who recognized him, so he unilaterally decided to take her out when he saw her on the phone (and likely saw her urgency). Then, he tried to take out Jack in a hurry, who was a moving target - a difficult shot when accounting for distance, wind, bullet drop, etc. etc., the hallmarks of a sniper post that far away from the target.

Then don't read the thread then until you watched it!

Hehe I think I just feel bad because I messed it up for Mathias this time

[Gaidin]

Suitcase nuke. But my point is - these are the same recycled plot twists. Obviously there are new elements, but when twists are repeated, they become stale. I mean I really have been enjoying this season - but "twists" lose their impact when we've seen them all before.

He wasn't directly involved in stopping that. If he was there wouldn't have been a season 7 or 8. All he did was get them the location. You don't exactly survive something like that if you're in the same building with it taking terrorists down as it blows up.

Key word: directly.

Though I should clarify. There have been attacks that he was directly involved in the assault on stopping that partially succeeded. However none have ever fully succeeded until now(as rated here).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The sniper didn't have audio - he just knew that Renee is the one who recognized him, so he unilaterally decided to take her out when he saw her on the phone (and likely saw her urgency). Then, he tried to take out Jack in a hurry, who was a moving target - a difficult shot when accounting for distance, wind, bullet drop, etc. etc., the hallmarks of a sniper post that far away from the target.

The wind, drop, and distance from across the street is actually negligible. Jack's just a moving target and he's looking through a scope so when he moves his gun the movement is exaggerated from the zoom, making it really easy to aim past the target. I'm kinda surprised he didn't gun out the back of the cab. Five to six bullets in that small area and not only is Renee guaranteed gone, but Jack's likely hit too.

[MathiasOfAthens]

He wasn't directly involved in stopping that. If he was there wouldn't have been a season 7 or 8. All he did was get them the location. You don't exactly survive something like that if you're in the same building with it taking terrorists down as it blows up.

Key word: directly.

If you think about all the crazy that goes down in a span of 24 hours it literally seems ridiculous. And consider the luck CTU has in acquired information, locations, whereabouts, names, etc. You think things like that take hours not minutes. And why is there always a mole, traitor, or guys out for self interest motives.

The wind, drop, and distance from across the street is actually negligible. Jack's just a moving target and he's looking through a scope so when he moves his gun the movement is exaggerated from the zoom, making it really easy to aim past the target. I'm kinda surprised he didn't gun out the back of the cab. Five to six bullets in that small area and not only is Renee guaranteed gone, but Jack's likely hit too.

Or hit the driver and then hit jack when the cab is no longer a moving target. Seriously, sometimes jack gets lucky and loses at the same time. If the sniper was willing to hit renee before knowing why she looked excited than he was willing to fire into a moving cab.

[Kip]

He wasn't directly involved in stopping that. If he was there wouldn't have been a season 7 or 8. All he did was get them the location. You don't exactly survive something like that if you're in the same building with it taking terrorists down as it blows up.

Key word: directly.

Though I should clarify. There have been attacks that he was directly involved in the assault on stopping that partially succeeded. However none have ever fully succeeded until now(as rated here).

I disagree with that - he was on the team in the field searching for the weapon when it went off. It doesn't matter if he was two feet away or two miles away - he was heading the ops team searching for it, and they didn't find it in time. It doesn't really matter that he wasn't on the entry team at the warehouse that was ground zero; he had a task and he failed.

Like I said, there are new plot elements, and enjoyable ones at that - but most of the major twists are recycled and completely expected.

The wind, drop, and distance from across the street is actually negligible. Jack's just a moving target and he's looking through a scope so when he moves his gun the movement is exaggerated from the zoom, making it really easy to aim past the target. I'm kinda surprised he didn't gun out the back of the cab. Five to six bullets in that small area and not only is Renee guaranteed gone, but Jack's likely hit too.

I was under the impression the building was much farther away than just across the street - if so, you're absolutely right - bullet dynamics are not a factor from that close, and instead it would only be the "moving target" part that would make it tough (and as you said, movement is amplified in a scope). I'm surprised about that too; shooting up the cab would have been simple from where he was standing, but I suppose he was banking on having killed Renee before she revealed information, in which case his clean escape would be more important than killing Jack too.

[Gaidin]

I disagree with that - he was on the team in the field searching for the weapon when it went off. It doesn't matter if he was two feet away or two miles away - he was heading the ops team searching for it, and they didn't find it in time. It doesn't really matter that he wasn't on the entry team at the warehouse that was ground zero; he had a task and he failed.

Even were we to consider him directly involved, it still fits my point as the attack is considered 'partially successful' as they lost their bomb technician and it wasn't detonated where they wanted it to be. And yea, the plot twists are somewhat old, but that's the nature of the story I think. As a conspiracy tale 24 does a really good job, but like any conspiracy tale it has its general elements. Just like 99% of fantasy stories share the same elements. The question has always been about the characters. That's honestly been a combination of so-so this season as there's only four major cast members from previous seasons. And their working together has been interesting, especially with how they had to fight to keep jack in the game. The new characters are somewhat wooden, mostly because we don't know them yet(and won't get to obviously). But then, when you get down to it that's not too shocking either, Bill Buchanan wasn't as interesting in season 4 as he was in seasons 5-7. Same for Tony Almeida in season 1.

[Kip]

Even were we to consider him directly involved, it still fits my point as the attack is considered 'partially successful' as they lost their bomb technician and it wasn't detonated where they wanted it to be. And yea, the plot twists are somewhat old, but that's the nature of the story I think. As a conspiracy tale 24 does a really good job, but like any conspiracy tale it has its general elements. Just like 99% of fantasy stories share the same elements. The question has always been about the characters. That's honestly been a combination of so-so this season as there's only four major cast members from previous seasons. And their working together has been interesting, especially with how they had to fight to keep jack in the game. The new characters are somewhat wooden, mostly because we don't know them yet(and won't get to obviously). But then, when you get down to it that's not too shocking either, Bill Buchanan wasn't as interesting in season 4 as he was in seasons 5-7. Same for Tony Almeida in season 1.

Yeah I guess I see what you mean. I still don't really follow that train of thought though, since its not like they tried to assassinate the president and failed - they tried to detonate a nuclear bomb in L.A., and instead detonated it in one of the suburbs. Still a nuclear terrorist attack, which really isn't a prevention in any sense of the word. But all in all, I get the point you're making, and I do agree.

You make a good point about the characters - I loved Buchanan in his later appearances, but that's because he had time to develop. This year is their last year, so all the fresh faces will remain that - fresh faces. They'll get no time to develop personalities over years as the most important players have. Arlo could've been good, Cole could've been good, but they don't get a chance as characters since there are no more seasons to come.

And its true that as a "conspiracy" fueled action show, it will borrow elements in the way that any generic fantasy will borrow from Tolkien, but they still shouldn't recycle things as much as they do. Every season, my dad and I take guesses on who the mole in CTU is, and what kind of attack CTU will suffer. We've never been right before, but the fact that it actually happens more often than not says something about originality.

[Gaidin]

and what kind of attack CTU will suffer. We've never been right before, but the fact that it actually happens more often than not says something about originality.

Season 4 must have been really boring.

To the bad guys' credit this year, they didn't just try to blow stuff up. They flat out shut CTU down and made them all but blind. It took a gamble to get them online as quick as they did or it'd have been a week of repairs.

[Kip]

I really do enjoy this season overall - just a little miffed at the "twist" in the last episode (and not even because of what happened, but because it seems to happen all the time).