24 Season Finale - crappy tv ends crappily.

[Rasix]

I have never ever ever seen a show go from awesome to pure tripe as fast as 24 has.   The season finale kept in line with what has been the most disappointing show on television this season.  It ends with Jack chopping of his daughter's boyfriend's hand, and sticking a biological weapon of mass destruction (which was attached to said hand) in an air tight (and glass doored) refridgerator to save a middle school.  He cries afterwards alone in the car, and then is called back into the office.  (THE GUY HASN'T FUCKING SLEPT IN 24 HOURS)

Anyone else bother watching this show anymore?  I kind of just stuck around to see how bad it could possibly get.  It was like one giant train wreck I just couldn't pull away from.  I don't think I've ever laughed so many times at plot lines than I have watching this show.   I heard, although I can't confirm anywhere, that David E. Kelley was a consultant for the show this year. That would explain all of the forced romantic subplots, teen angst filled characters, horrible writing and even worse casting that occured this year.

If anyone wants I could give a quick rundown of all of the plot twists and what not this year.  It would likely take about 5 pages and resemble something a crack addict writing for a fix would put together.

[Margalis]

I've never understood the appeal. It was a dumb show from the very start. I remember seeing 2 episodes in a row in season 1 that were his stupid daughter running around and getting into increasingly improbable goofy adventures...

People compare it to The Shield, which is odd, because The Shield is a good show and 24 sucks.

[Aslan]

That's like comparing Michael Jackson to Sammy Jackson.  The Shield kicks so much ass it hurts me.  Did anyone see last week's episode with the goodie cop killing that cat just to see what it felt like?  That was creepy.

[HaemishM]

The Shield is teh pwn.

I gave up on 24 about 4 or 5 episodes into this season. I could stand it last year; there were some implausible bits and some bits that really stretched my patience, but they didn't repeat themselves. This season though, it just got fucking stupid.

They bring back Sherry. Then they repeat the "president's woman has deep secret that will destroy his presidency" subplot, and I cringe. Then they bring back Sherry, despite the fact she should be either dead or in prison somewhere. The final straw was when Jack ONCE AGAIN, like every season before it, had to "go rogue" or else the whole operation would be a failure. I mean, come on. I bought that once, twice was a stretch, three times is just lazy writing.

And Kim, the daughter, has NEVER been anything but fucking stupid. She should never have been in the second season, as that whole plot line was just retarded. This chick couldn't stop complete fucking idiot shitmittens from stealing every gun handed to her, and somehow, Bauer lets her near CTU? Fuck, he's lucky she didn't blow up the entire building just by touching their computers. She was the type of character who would open the "Pink Slip" virus like on that Southwest Airlines commercial.

No, the show should have ended at season 2.

[Rasix]

The subplots and casting was just horrid this season.

The only good casting move they made was bringing in the guy from Clear and Present Danger to play the Mexican drug lord. He plays the best slimey, rich, amoral Mexican drug lord I've ever seen.  But, then tragically he was killed in a subplot that added nothing to the overall plot of the story (the entire Mexico part of the show was a complete waste of fucking time).

The two new tech people were just attrocious. Add Kim as the third tech person and it was just a fucking nightmare anytime they had to show anything at CTU.  The male techie (Adam) I think was just a horrible actor but didn't detract as much from the show as Cloey.  Good old, dumpfaced Cloey.  Every time she delivered her lines, she looked and talked like she had to take the biggest shit on the planet, ever.  She managed to keep this up for the entire season. BRAVO.  

And then we have Chase, Jack's new junior field ops guy that's banging his daughter.  Ohh and he has a baby (they randomly threw that in).  Chase and his interactions with Kim exuded enough teen angst to fill an entire seaon's worth of Dawson's Creek.  At least he got his damn hand chopped off and tortured during the season.  (and still made it to the end!)

Most of the villian casting was just as bad.  The main bad dude was ripped straight out of a "How to write bad rogue agents" handbook.  Ramon Salazar's brother would have been better with a guest spot on a WB sitcom.  His accent and presentatin were so overdone it was ridiculous.  I almost cheered when his brother killed him for being a wuss.

Both Sherry's and Nina Meyer's (YES HER AGAIN) involvement in the show was so forced and unneccessary it made me want to fucking cringe every time they came on the screen.  I think as an apology to the fans, both were finally killed off this season.  

Really, the entire season just reaked of David E. Kelley influence. How you can turn a well written, fast paced, entertaining show into a teen angst filled, jumbled hodgepodge is beyond me.  They need to go a step further than the massive housecleaning they're planning for next season and just kill the show.

[daveNYC]

Just for shits and giggles, why exactly did he have to chop the guy's hand off in order to stick the bomb thing in the fridge?  Did it have something to do with superglue?

[Rasix]

To prevent the courier(who was beating the holy fuck out of "Special" Agent Chase Edmunds) from escaping with the device, Chase used the devices arm latch-on thingamabob on himself. Apparently this thingamabob cannot be removed once activated. Of course, the courier was too retarded to use this in the first place(he may have tried toward the end to latch it on, I don't exactly remember).  At this point, the device had been activated and Chase was getting the stuffing kicked out of him.

Jack comes in to save the day and plugs the courier with his entire clip. They call the bomb squad guys and apparently since they're missing a green wire they can't diffuse it (OMG THEY HAD TWO YELLOWS, GAME OVER). Since they had only a couple minutes to go and they didn't want to wait for a call back, they spied a fireman's axe in a glass case.  So, Jack lopped off Chase's arm at the wrist. Ran down the hall to the teacher's lounge (apparently he knew where it was without asking) and shoved the device in the fridge.

[Paelos]

Hearing people discuss this show makes me glad I watch only sports on TV now. And Simpson's reruns.

[MrHat]

I really think that Chase should've died at the end. You knew something was wrong w/ the writers when Chase didn't die.  Or Jack didn't die.

It was so happy. Bleh.

So this Shield thing you talk of? Recommended for people who thought 24 Season1 was the coming of Christ?

Edit:News Post on who is gone, Tony, Michelle, Chase are all unemployed, and sweet sweet Elisha is a tenative. [/url]

[HaemishM]

The Shield I would recommend for anyone, so long as you have a strong stomach. The characters are very naturalistic, more akin to Popeye O'Doyle from "The French Connection" than anything on "24." The stories are usually pretty strong, and there's always a piece of an ongoing story.

[MrHat]

The Shield I would recommend for anyone, so long as you have a strong stomach. The characters are very naturalistic, more akin to Popeye O'Doyle from "The French Connection" than anything on "24." The stories are usually pretty strong, and there's always a piece of an ongoing story.

French Connection is before my time, watched it like 10 times as a kid, but because I rode my bike behind a pesticide truck because white clouds are cool, my memory is no longer what it was.

Is it (Shield), like Training Day Gritty?

[HaemishM]

Yeah, it's like Training Day gritty.

Vick, the main character (played Michael Chiklis of The Commish fame) is a bad motherfucker who breaks as many rules as he has to to get the job done. For much of the first season and a half, he was getting a cut from the precint's drug deals, in exchange for protecting them. All they had to do was cut down on the violent crime and drive-by shootings, and provide him info when he asked. In the very first episode, his team (Strike Team) was doing a drug bust. One of the cops on the team was an Internal Affairs plant, and Vick knew it. So when he got the opportunity on the bust, he capped the plant right between the eyes. A fellow cop. Then he pinned it on one of the drug dealers.

It's like that.

[schild]

The French Connection is the shit. I just watched it again a week ago.

Go buy it. If you don't appreciate it, you have bad taste in movies. Yea, it's one of those.

[Kenrick]

Yeah, the end (as well as the entire season) of 24 this year was laughable.  Just... completely... ludacris.

Going into the final episode, I really thought that the writers were going to try and pull an Armageddon.  Father gives his own life so daughter's boyfriend can live happily ever after with daughter.  Except, replace Bruce Willis with Keifer Sutherland and Ben Affleck with the Chase Edmunds dude.  This, at the very least, would have been a very nice end to a show that once pwned.

Instead, we got this arm-chopping travesty and an all-systems-go for another season of absurd mediocrity.  Yay.