I think you make an excellent point about the fall-off from the beginning. I mean, everyone was driving around LA as if nothing had happened. Traffic in the region is awful on the best of days (and a long-running joke on 24 that it doesn’t exist). But after a nuke goes off? LA would be an absolute traffic nightmare. And the farmer’s market and liquor stores would stay open? I don’t think so.

There were a couple of excellent episodes in the middle, but credulity was strained far past the limit this year. 24’s always teetered on the edge of the cliff of credulity (can i trademark that phrase?), but this year they dived off and splattered all over the ground.

What especially disappointed me was the fall-off from the incredible beginning. The show started from the point where others stopped—terrorism and a nuclear explosion. The nightmare happened, but after about 5 episodes that horrifying background vanished and the 24 became another season of drivetime LA with barely any sense of the chaos of a nuclear explosion. The writers couldn’t face the real consequences and drama of a nuclear assault.

As others alluded to, the show will never recover from the absense of Tony and Michelle. Jack badly needed a foil, a sidekick, and Tony was that. With him gone, Jack is a rudderless torpedo. He killed Curtis, Bill Buchanan is good but out of the picture. Something needs to change, and it had better not be more Ricky! Ricky! Ricky!

However, the plot hole, dangling threads, etc were quite annoying. As annoying as Karen Hayes and Milo…
Season 4 is my favorite and hopefully the producers/writers will draw on it for the season 7: plot, story continuity, and TONY!

This season definitely had its moments, though. The four-hour premiere “event” was excellent (though we never did find out what the U.S. gave up to get Jack back, did we?) and there were a few episodes somewhere in the middle that were absolutely outstanding. And the episode where Jack kills Fayed was off the charts.

I agree with many, though — the season suffered most from a lack of Jack (and his sack!).

And Jeff — I actually cheered Milo’s death. But Curtis’ death totally shocked and saddened me. Don’t forget about that.

I really feel like 24 has denegrated to being just another stupid tv show on network tv.
Sorry to be so blunt here, but I’m just really upset with this season (and most of my friends and coworkers now too) and refuse to be apologetic to a show that in my opinion took a colossal dive this year.

A lot of people had always wondered what a season finale of 24 would be like if everyone just kind of wound down, had a cup of coffee, and talked things out. We got that, and I was actually pretty blown away by it.

Man I’m going to miss you these 24 conversations… And Tony.

There are so many more plotlines from past seasons I could name that to me seemed more realistic (even by 24 standards) more exciting and just flat out better then anything that happened this season.

I think like any show, it boils down to the characters. I think the 24 producers have shot themselves in the foot by just becoming entirely too trigger happy in killing off characters. It’s one thing to let fans know that anybody on the show is expendable. It’s another thing to just arbitrarily kill off characters just for the sake of it.

I think the sopranos is a good example of this balance.
Up until last episode the core group, of tony, christopher, paulie and silvio has been there from start to finish. Yet was anyone really shocked when chris died last week? The sopranos have managed to keep people on edge with the characters but still able to keep them around so the fans have some kind of continuity.

During the first few seasons there were characters that we developed attachments to like your tony’s and your david palmers and even that weenie chapelle who was annoying but still a strong character. They blew all these people away and i think they finally suffered this season from a nearly complete turnover of the cast. And there was just no chemistry between them and the storylines were really awful to boot. Kiefer is an amazing actor but even he wasn’t good enough to make this season respectable.

Anyways, that is just my two cents. My honest opinion is that I’m very skeptical of 24 next season. I’ll give it a shot in the first couple weeks, but im not going to keep investing the time this type of show demands without an immediate display of improvement next season.

I feel like it’s the end of the school year and we’re all going to summer camp.

But you can rest easy, knowing you’ve converted a “Tony is dead, get over it” fan into a “Tony’s alive — just accept it!” fan. I am officially on the bandwagon and I know, just know we’ll see him again.

Copy that?

Now that we’re heading into several months of nothingness, I think this season needs to be properly buried as an overall disappointment. Think about it- a nuke went off in suburban LA, Jack Bauer’s brother and father were revealed to be in leaue with the terrorists, and someone almost killed the President. These are stunning events on paper. Where were the thrills? Once in a while we got a great moment or two. But overall, there was no energy to this season. Here I am, trying to sell newbies on the show this year and I feel like I’ve led some folks astray.

I think the biggest fault of this season was the lack of Jack. Keifer is the reason the show is compelling. Why is it whenever he gets more than a 5 minute long scene, the episode becomes that much better? He’s Superman without the cape. He fascinates us as an audience. Jack Bauer IS 24. More Jack, please.

And Rickey… oh Rickey, I felt so angry when I realized Tony wasn’t coming back. But that coda with Heller was the real deal. Bill Devane is not working enough. He wore a v-neck sweater with AUTHORITY. I only wish I can one day match that sort of presence.

The problem is that if you watched last night expecting Tony to show up (which I totally did) it kind of ruins the episode. As a stand alone season finale I thought it was solid however. The last 10 minutes were awesome in my opinion.