It took about three minutes for me to get hooked on the original 24. That obsession lasted multiple seasons–one of which I binged over the course of two days. two days to watch 24 episodes. Yeah, it was that good. The new one is not. The new 24 is limited, with a hero who lacks the depth and violence of Jack Bauer and a B-story that is about as close as it gets to blacksploitation in the modern TV era. The story follows a young special forces/JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) soldier as he works with the CTU to thwart a terrorist threat. Yeah, boiler plate. The way a story like this avoids being rote is to have compelling, compassionate characters who have lives beyond the story that need to be addressed through the story. Unfortunately the lives in this story are weak. The lead character doesn’t have much of a life outside of his military service. We know that he has a wife and that he has a drug dealing brother. Both are highly involved in the storyline, and the two of them also have a past relationship, which impacts the story in borderline salacious ways.
The B-story is quite literally high school level. There is, however, more intrigue in that than in the rather obvious ‘deeper plot’ of the main story. Unless they do something really fast to jumpstart the thinking part of this series, 24 might just be 12.
Some Thoughts:
- The term ‘honeypot’ is compelling. I feel like I have a story living in that term.