Shark Bytes

Jumped when Jack Bauer appeared in "Young Guns II".....

Season six was a complete diaster. Just terrible. I don't how they will recover in season seven - but I know that bringing Tony back from the dead AIN'T IT!!!

As if season six didn't do enough damage, the writer's strike might be the killing blow. Season seven better be a pretty huge upswing to keep this show afloat.

This show jumped at the beginning of that one episode when Jack Bauer's dad gave his son Gilbert and his best friend Lewis a ride to Adams college..

Gilbert and Lewis were labeled as nerds and waged a war against the jocks on campus (led by the one & only Ted McGinley) and hilarity ensued...

I hate to say it, but this show should have ended after season five. I've seen every episode of this thing, and after last season's train wreck, I'm not sure they can recover. Like the 24-whore I am, I'll keep watching until the bitter end, even though the thing sucks donkey balls as of late. But, I think the show's glory days are over.

They've got to stop killing off major characters at the rate they do. I know they're trying to do the whole "Nobody's safe" thing, but it's going to ruin the show. Other than Kim, Chloe, Audrey, Nadia, and Jack himself, there aren't too many major characters left to kill. I'm this close to saying that the end of last season jumped the shark, but I'm willing to give it another season.

While all of the options above are fine examples of shark-jumping, the audience saw the first examples of it all the way back towards the beginning of the series.

Remember Teri's amnesia in the first season? Sure, it was based off a real-life incident, but even then, it was a rare occurrence, and it was set up purely to bring in added conflict to the show in the form of Teri's doctor (who had a relationship with her in the past); not to mention the silly way the whole thing ended, with the two of them going back to the safehouse and almost killed by an assassin.

How about the cougar/white supremacist/torture storylines in season two? Kim gets caught in a bear trap, stays with a survivalist for a couple hours, then is involved in a convenience store robbery? Or Kate Warner being held hostage by rednecks who have no clue what the chip they're holding is good for?

Need I mention all the characters from past seasons who've been forgotten? What about Belkin, the assassin from season one? Or the guy that was above Max at the end of season two, on the yacht?

There's a marked difference between "Classic 24" (the first three seasons) and (at present) the last three seasons. In "classic 24", the overarching nature of each season was similar, but characters and (some) storylines followed through each season. Once the show hit season four, and the producers remade CTU and jettisoned most of the "old guard", there was no coming back.

I just watched the trailer for season 7 and I have to say it looks like a real shark jumper.

At first I thought it was a joke (I was thinking: Did Kiefer Sutherland host SNL recently?. It starts off with Kiefer Sutherland acting like he's in a particularly bland Insurance commercial, telling us , with awkward delivery and low enthusiasm, how great the upcoming season of 24 will be.

Then it cuts to a congressional hearing of some sort with Jack Bauer defending the use of torture in defiance of the smug liberal senator questioning him. Wtf since when did 24 become a courtroom drama (I half expected Jack Bauer to scream "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!!". As if their endorsement of torture wasn't already obvious we are treated to seeing a young attractive female agent letting jack torture a guy when she had previously promised to "control" him. hmmmmmmm... I wonder if she'll start out as a whiny inneffective liberal bureaucrat who iniatally butts heads with Bauer, but then begins to realize that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to save the country from super chic, mercenaries/terrorists (while I was watching season 6 I was like "wow Bierko's got style) and their cyber, nerd, hacker, bretheren.

And then theres evil Tony. Sigh, where do I even start with evil Tony? First of all there is no possible he could still be alive. He was already in critical condition as a result of a huge bomb blast (he shouldn't have survived that) and then he was injected with massive amounts of poison by Christopher Henderson. He received no medical attention. Jack says goodbye and then They wrap up his corpse. How could he not be dead (did he just wake up in the morgue and then walk out the front door?). This leads me to one conclusion: Tony Almeida is dead, but his super evil twin brother Sergio Almeida is alive and well (think Garthe Knight).Also what would his motives be?(maybe he was tired of liberals spitting on him and calling him "baby-killer") And if that wasn't bad enough the diabolical little bastard is brazen enough to steal the plot from Die Hard 2 ("yippie kayee you big jerk" since its primetime tv)

and if CTU is gone what the hell is Chloe doing? and who are those people in the office? and where did those generic and no doubt useless S.W.A.T. teams come from?

24 has been formulaic and stale for a while.It usually begins with Jack trying to live a normal life. Then for some reason terrorists decide to attack LA (what kind of retard terrorist would waste a nuke on LA? you'd be better off nuking a massive landfill.)Then Jack get called in. someone picks up on a vital bit of intel that is widely ignored, but Jack pursues it.This intel leads to a person or a location, which thanks to the indecisiveness of the people in charge is raided just after high ranking terrorists and important equipment have left. the intel and low level supects recovered at this location suggest a greater threat and provides intel that leads to a similar scenario. Jack will come into conflict with CTU leadership because they don't have the balls to do what is needed (eg authorizing harsh interrogation methods) and eventually Jack will be forced to work independantly and do something crazy an/or form an uneasy alliance with someone he distrusts. Then CTU leadership puts out an arrest warrant on his head. Jack then contacts someone at CTU whom he trusts and asks for help. This person then secretly guides him and provides him with intel constantly fearing being discovered by coworkers. eventually another character will find out about this and either rat them out or prove his or her worth by covering for the person helping Jack. Then Jack will call up the people in charge with a nice bit of intel he gathered and all will be forgiven. Then at some point it becomes clear that someone in there organization or someone close to the president is a traitor (and this person will eventually be tortured). It will also become clear that some shadowy American organization is aiding the terrorist to their own ends. then Jack Bauer has to call up the President to ask him to make a tough decision. He does, but takes heavy criticism for it. Then someone challenges his presidency and/or attempts to assassinate him. After defeating some of the terrorist attacks (some succeed at least partially) and killing some midlevel thugs and torturing almost everyone he defeats a huge and nefarious plot and kills the leader in spectacular fashion. Then yay America is saved, but now Jack Bauers life sucks.

From what I've seen this next season will be much worse. if the writers and producers think they can fool us by replacing a few variable from the old formulas with plot lines stolen from popular movies and that they can kill off a fan favorite character to add drama and then just resurrect him to add drama, I'd say they are wrong.... Dead Wrong!

The writers and producers need to be renditioned off to Syria for this (also get Burke to bring his Pharmaceuticals)

I don't it has jumped yet, but this contrived plot with Tony coming back from the dead seems pretty far-fetched.

Logan Palmer checking in. Currently watching Disc 3, Season 2. Just when I was getting over my infatuation with the lovely Nadia from Season 6, here comes Kate Warner. Sarah Wynter lights up the screen in every scene, making the purchase of my HDTV so worth the money. Nadia, Kate, Lisa Miller, Claudia, Audrey. Where does it end? Thank you, 24.

couldnt have jumped when tony died, cause hes not dead, hes in day 7

For me 24 jumped after jack faked his own death at the end of season 4. This is proved by the events that toom place in the following seasons. Everthing from the Soivets buring chemical gas in an major metroplitan airport hanger(season 5), to the terroists exploding a "device" in L.A., even though another cell was able to bring in, arm, & almost succsefully denotate a LARGER bomb in the same area.(and a third group amost wiped L.A. off the map with a nuclear missle & eradiated a large part of southern California with raidoactivity from a power plant meltdown.) Plus you kill off almost all of your major characters in the the first few minutes, have the brother and the father of your main charecter be in bed with the terrorists, and want to kill him becuase of a family spat. (he kills for the government and not for money.) To show the ludicracy of the writing here are couple more examples. In season 5 Jack not only sneaks onto a secure government flight- but takes controll of it & lands it on a L.A. freeway (!!), and in season 6, not only is baby palmer elected president, he suffers major head trauma & a stroke, he is able to still lead the government.

On a nother note if I was working at CTU and saw Jack walk in, no matter what time it was and what I was doing, I would look at my watch and decide to take a VERY long lunch.

I'm currently on Disc 3 of Season 3, and I see why the smoking hot Claudia (played by the delectable Vanessa Ferlito) can't return to the show (a question asked in my 10/28/07 post). Quite tragic. But bring back Chase Edmunds. He was a great asset to Jack Bauer and CTU.
Hope to see you soon. For now, I'm going dark.

Great show. Redefines modern action and suspense. It may be a bit hokey at times and make some massive assumptions about technology, but it's simply a great show.

Jumped when Jack Bauer bullied River Phoenix back in the 50's when they were trying to find that missing teen...