Another nihilistic ending.
24 is a silly, over-adrenalized adventure -- I loved it for precisely that reason. It was a fun roller coaster of a TV show.
But if you know a roller coaster ride will end in a crash, will you get on?
Like millions of others, I was caught up in Jack Bauer’s quest to stop the nerve gas attacks and expose the conspiracies behind them. Hell, like many, I wanted him to personally imprison if not cold-bloodedly execute the whimpering excuse for a president, Logan.
Instead we see that after hours and hours of pain and struggle, after saving hundreds if not thousands, yes, Jack’ s plan to expose Logan works - -but he doesn’t get to see it happen.
Instead, as reward for his efforts, he is drugged, beaten, and kidnapped by the Chinese -- still angry over the consulate killed in a mission Jack led [although who actually pulled the trigger is a mystery lingering from last season].
I don’t like it. I want to see my heroes struggles, yes, otherwise there is no drama -- but I don’t want to see them endlessly tortured.
From an entertainment/art side, I think this cliffhanger ending is needless and wrong. A season should tell a story, and a hero who struggles should be rewarded with at least a few days peace and happiness before going off to war again. Otherwise it is not entertainment, it is tedium.
From a business angle, this cliff hanger in no way makes me, or those like me, more likely to watch again next season. After all. It is not as if I really worry about the safety of this fictional character and need to tune in next time to see if he will escape….
I would watch next season if, when it starts, I feel like watching that much more TV, if I have the time -- and if I want to take this ride again. I can’t predict the first two factors, but I can guess at the third one now:
Nine months from today the adrenaline will be long gone, the roller coaster will have stopped. And before boarding again, I will try to recall enough about the ride to decide if I want to get on once more.
And if my prime recollection is "Oh yeah: this is the series that tortures its hero nonstop, that never lets up, that does not in any way reward the characters or the viewers" -- then I more than likely won’t set the DVR for 24 next year.
[Now that I think about it, this is why I did not watch the 2nd or 3rd seasons: after really getting into the first season, after caring about a man’s struggle to save his wife and daughter, I just hated the ending that had that wife killed in cold blood, out of the blue, as its last moment. That hateful nihilism lost me then and there. I never watched the show again because of that; until I tuned in last season because I was bored.... Next year I’ll take up a hobby instead of bathing in negativity again.]
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