Catching up with Kiefer
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- August
- 20
OK, first off, Adam was totally right regarding my reaction to the latest woes to beset our beloved “24.”
Thanks to Heather for stepping into the breach whilst I was off work last week. (I’d say it was a vacation, except that with two boys, aged 3 and 1, “vacation” wouldn’t exactly describe the week I had. Enjoyable, yes. Vacation? Not so much.)
On the one hand, what is wrong with these people? Season 7 premieres in January. Time’s a ticking. (How appropriate.) But some of the Blogs4Bauer folks and I already drew up a blueprint for Season 7; with Cherry Jones as the new prez, it would only take a little tweaking. And getting Dirk Benedict to join the cast would surely cost far less than filming in Africa would have.
On the other hand, maybe  just maybe  this is a good thing.
24 was getting a wee bit predictable with each succeeding season. Part of the problem with Season 6 was that it was primarily recycled plot bits from the previous five seasons, albeit with a few spectacular additions (you’ve gotta admit, any show that sets off a nuke just outside Los Angeles in the first four hours has guts. And I’ve blogged on other fantastic scenes previously – biting his torturer, the fight with Fayed and Chloe dropping a D-bomb, all examples).
But so much of it was predictable, and when it wasn’t predictable, it was just flat-out ridiculous, even by 24’s standards.
Maybe being forced to come up with something so totally new is a good thing. Maybe having to scrap and scrap and scrap plans for Season 7 is a good thing. Maybe.
That said, I have decided to blog on one of the most innovative shows of the past several years as a run-up to Season 7.
What show is that, I hear many of you asking.
That would be Season 1 of 24.
As many of you may not remember, I never saw Season 1. As I previously explained, the show premiered just a tad bit too soon after Sept. 11 for me to be interested in a show that was so Sept. 11-ish.
Though I’d liked lots of movies with Kiefer (The Lost Boys, anyone?) as a teen, he wasn’t enough of a draw to get me to watch it, either. Plus, a former movie star moving to the small screen reeked of desperation at that point. That’s become de rigeur in the “industry” by now, but it was relatively unusual at the time.
So when I saw it on sale this weekend for a mere $24.99, I took it as a sign and bought it. I’m going to watch an episode a week (more than that as we get closer to the premiere date so I can get all the eps in) and blog as if it’s a live show. I’m going to blog on it as if I’ve never seen an episode of 24 before, as if it’s new and fresh and exciting.
I suspect that, even though I know the main twists – Nina’s bad, Teri dies – and have seen snippets of episodes here and there (and even the alternate ending, where Teri doesn’t die), it still will be new and fresh and exciting. Jack was not nearly such a tortured soul back then. And he didn’t torture people nearly so much, either. He was just an anti-terrorism agent out to prevent the assassination of a good man who was running for president. He had a trouble marriage, a hot daughter and his friend, Tony, had a stupid soul patch on his chin.
But there was a certain innocence about Season 1’s Jack Bauer, and of its fans, too.
So join me this fall as I travel back in time, so to speak, and see how 24 all began.
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 2:18 pm by Amy Vernon.
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You’re going to love Season 1, I guarantee it. Especially seeing Bauer before all the awfulness he lived through.. it’s quite amazing to think he once had a semi-normal family life.
I know, Adam. I’m quite excited. It should be fun. And it’ll get me good and ready to blog on Season 7!