24 Jumping the Shark

This season of 24 has been pretty absurd. It was bad enough they had David Palmer’s brother as president, but the usual tropes they trotted out have become rather stale. Now, it looks like the show’s creators have got the message the fans have been sending.

After peaking in the ratings last year, Fox’s thriller “24” has been getting dumped on by seemingly everyone in this, its sixth season. Critics and fans alike are aiming tomatoes at the stage, carping about the soapy and repetitive plotlines that unspool Jack’s unlikely familial past, tiresome romantic triangles in the security bureaucracy and endless bickering among Oval Office advisors.

Last week, with a fresh episode designed to lay the groundwork for what the creators promise will be a typically suspenseful finale next month, “24’s” ratings in the key young-adult category swooned to their lowest level in more than three years, with a total audience of just 10.4 million, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

More than one-third of viewers have bailed since the special four-hour season premiere that aired over two consecutive nights back in January. And if that wasn’t enough bad news for the series, last week “24” was one of the prime-time shows that the Federal Communications Commission singled out in urging Congress to curb TV violence.

The vox populi protests have not escaped the attention of the show’s producers, who promise that some big changes are on the way for Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and other regulars next season. There’s also speculation that something else might be at work in accounting for viewers’

They need to get away from presidents in crisis stories and focus on stories that are more believable. They also need to stop relying on the same tricks to keep the story going.  CTU also needs to seem a lot less dysfunctional. 

I am one of the 1/3 that stopped watching after the first few hours this season. The main reason is that 24 was on opposite HEROES, which seemed fresh and exciting compared to 24 which, as you said, was pulling out all the same tricks we’ve seen time after time. I figured if this season was any good I would watch it on DVD. Now it sounds like I can save my time and money.

Posted by Paul T  on  05/02  at  02:09 PM

If it wasn’t for my Tivo, I would probably be watching Heroes instead, also. I watch them both.

I think you hit it on the head. A lot of viewers went to Heroes.

Posted by James Hudnall  on  05/02  at  02:15 PM

I know it would never fly on network television because it’s too risky, but I always thought it would be a good idea to completely change the cast of 24 every season while keeping the “24 hour” concept. For example if season 1 was about Jack Bauer saving the president in LA, season 2 would jump to someone else who has 24 hours to accomplish some other heroic task, maybe in a Guatemalan jungle. Maybe he would even cross paths with Jack if viewers demanded it. A story like that could go anywhere and would always stay fresh if the writers were any good. That way NO character’s survival is guaranteed.

Or, like Conan O’Brien suggested, maybe it could be someone sitting on their couch eating cereal for an hour.

Posted by Paul T  on  05/02  at  03:33 PM

So how many other cites got nuked in addition to Valencia, CA?

Posted by Macker  on  05/03  at  06:41 AM
Page 1 of 1 pages

<< Back to main