24 - Third Season DVDs 4-6 - All Good Things Must Come To An End

Aug

11

24 - Third Season DVDs 4-6 - All Good Things Must Come To An End

≡ Category: Action, Drama, Essential, Movie Reviews By Country, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action
Director: Various
Year: 2003

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

Never fear. The title of this post doesn’t mean that the 2nd half of season three sucks. It refers to the fact that the creators of 24 have an uncanny sense of when a certain plot thread has run it’s course. No fewer than three major characters bite the dust this season, and do so in provocative and satisfying ways.

In fact, the creators of 24 do an excellent job of keeping the viewer deliciously off balance in general. Like the second season, the third season is bisected into two separate but equal storylines. The writers continually find ways to surprise us, but almost never at the cost of betraying the characters they’ve developed (I’ll tell you about a minor exception in a minute).

Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) is still trying to deal with a bio-threat to Los Angeles, but from an unexpected angle. The main villain actually has intriguing reasons for potentially killing millions of people, but that angle isn’t explored as much as I would have wished. Perhaps it’s too much to ask of the 24 folks to delve into complicated political issues. Heck, what I am talking about. 24 is basically a reactionary, fear-mongering show. It’s all about stopping people from hurting the good ‘ole US of A, and damn the consequences.

One of the special treats of the third season is the plethora of impossible ethical dilemnas 24’s creators come up with for many of the characters, especially Jack, but also President Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), and Ryan Chappelle (Paul Schulze).

The way Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), the neurotic techie at CTU, is developed as a character is quite a treat. One of the more rewarding throughlines for this season is Jack’s relationship with Chase (James Badge Dale), his possible future son-in-law.

The series continues to maintain it’s quality in terms of writing, direction, acting, and production values.

At one point, I thought there was going to be a major lapse in quality. The folks at CTU, who are normally surreally quick and competent, conveniently make a incredible operational oversight, and based on knowledge of how characters have been used in the past, I thought I knew where the story was going. As it turned out, I was being played. The writers were luring me into believing one thing so they could sucker punch me. It worked, but it was a bit of a cheap trick.

So, it wasn’t a huge flaw, but the fact remains that the CTU staff behaved out of character. That’s the biggest complaint I have.

Again, the folks in charge of 24 continue to expertly manage expectations. In the first two seasons, the finale had a huge surprise at the end. In the 1st season, it was a shocker. In the 2nd season, a cliffhanger. And the big surprise at the end of the 3rd season? The big surprise is there is no surprise. The producers refuse to fall into the M. Night Shyamalan trap. Which doesn’t mean that the 3rd season doesn’t wrap up in spellbinding fashion, because it does. Only a churl would complain.

We’ll see how long the creators of 24 can keep this up, but for now, I’d stack up 24 for entertainment value with just about any theatrical feature that’s coming out these days. And this for the equivalent of twelve movies a year. Wow.