“24” is my guilty pleasure.
But I sure wish it had ended for good last night.
In real life, I’m a softie for human rights, civil rights and all rights of the oppressed. But on “24” I can satisfy my unrealize desire to kill, maim, torture, and this season, disembowel, all for the greater good. Jack Bauer is better than a video game. You don’t have to figure out how to use the darn remote controls to make him move. And when push comes to annhilate, Jack is more moral than we all thought. Last night, Jack couldn’t off Logan or Pillar when he had the chance. (Jack bit off Pillar’s ear, but he lived). Deep down, the good guys know what’s right.
Unlike “Lost,” where nothing in the previous 6 seasons seemed to have anything to do with the powerful last 10 minutes, at least there was a kind of unity to “24.” As in the previous seasons, the last episode fulfills the mission of the day. Among the highlights: Chloe shot Jack. Chloe avoided a full cavity search. Taylor gave in to her guilt over the cover-up. The corrupt peace accord was averted. Great. It was as it has always been for me, a tense, “stand-up-while-watching” TV experience.
But I really wanted it to “end” end.
And then I noticed, as the clock ticked like the last seconds in a game, the story arc wouldn’t give us much more than it had to. Jack is still alive, on the loose, and with a final wink, is off, a step ahead of the feds, the Russians, and millions of fans soon to be in hot pursuit.
So a faux finale. They had a chance to bring it all together as when Jack told Chloe how, when it all began, she came into CTU, and he never knew it would be her to have his back. But she did.
I swear I tried to pump out a tear just to play along. But after 8 seasons, I was dry.
Instead, I winked back.
Addendum: On his blog, Chuck Ross, asked if finale was a missed opportunity. Of course, I believe it was. The storytellers were victims of their “real time conceit,” and were trapped inside a box of their own making. The subsequent movie should be liberating, unless they rename the project “120.”
“24” made sense 8 years ago, when real-time was a buzz word. But why insist on the format now? Time for the next thing, or the next old thing.
SIM card disembowlements–in 3-D?
