24 (A.K.A. The Jack Bauer Power Hour!)

I watched an episode the other night since my parents watch it. All I can say is that I'm surprised this has lasted for 8 seasons, especially since Fox have canceled two great Whedon shows: Firefly and Dollhouse. (Amongst many other cancellations.)

I wish I could un-see season 5 and watch it again for the first time.

I wouldn't call 24 crap, but it's criminal that a show like 24 has been allowed to carry on for 8 seasons when Firefly wasn't even allowed to finish its first season! Thankfully Dollhouse was given 2 seasons, with the finale being shown in a few days. In fact, Dollhouse is one of the best TV shows I've seen in a long while, right up there with Battlestar Galactica. (If you ever do get round to watching it, don't be put off by the first 4 or 5 episodes. Fox stuck their noses in and wanted completely self-contained episodes so that audiences could start the season without having to worry about a story line to follow! After those few initial episodes, it really kicks off.)

Do. It's worth your time! Just bear in mind the first few episodes are self-contained (thanks to Fox). They're good, but nothing as good as the show eventually proved itself to be.

The fact is 24´s retings have been very solid and stable during the years. Last seasons have averaged a total of 10-11 million viewers per episode. That´s much more than other TV shows (Heroes, Dollhouse, Terminator, Fringe, etc) that are already cancelled or about to be. For an eight year show, to keep those ratings (seems that season 8 will be no exception, as the first five episodes have reached those 10-11 million viewers per episode) is reason more than enough to be still on production. Even Lost´s ratings have decreased (a lot) through the years (and there has been only 5 seasons so far).

You can look at it two ways:

- it is a big drop if you keep in mind its budget: we are talking loosing 4-5 million viewers in only 4 years in a VERY expensive TV show.

- .... but not enough to call it a huge drop if your plans are to finish it in season 6.

Fox are still very stupid to cancel a show like Firefly and keep The Simpsons going for 20 seasons, regardless of money. That's why I hate them: they're in it just for the business and don't care about the art. I know they're a studio and that's what they're meant to be like, but it still pisses me off.

How is it stupid? How could it ever be sensible for them to keep paying for an expensive show which nobody watches but stop paying for a cheap show which lots of people watch? They're not the BBC, if they don't maximise ratings then they'll go out of business.

A commercial enterprise which is only out to maximise return for its shareholders... whatever will happen next?

If people had watched the cancelled shows, they'd still be going. It's a shame, if a good show doesn't get to carry on, but there wouldn't be any shows at all if the production companies were willing to take losses on things just because of a tiny (but devoted) audience. For the "higher" arts like theatre and classical music, nothing makes any money at all, but those things can continue because of enormous handouts from wealthy individuals who like them, which isn't the case with tv. If I was in charge of Fox then Arrested Development would currently be in its seventh season, and me and the other six people who watched it would be ecstatic, but Fox itself would probably be bust.

They're responsible for a large percentage of the shit and rubbish that gets out on american tv for sure. Their news especially are abominable.

I love Jack's terrible glasses.

But otherwise that was just another completely pointless filler episode and the only plot that actually developed was Jenny's/Dana's looser boyfriend crap.

I pray that Lost isn't shit. I really do.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26967

I say bring it on. The show is too formulaic now and a movie could bring some fresh ideas in.

This season is sooooo slow. We've been sat at the same warehouse for three - THREE - episodes in a row now. Unless Jack is on screen I often find my attention wandering and I was playing on my phone throughout most of the episode.

I'm not a fan of this episode, and a LOT of what Jack did bugged the hell out of me.

- Him getting stabbed was the most shocking part of the episode, but after immediately pulling the knife out HE GOES AND COMFORTS RENEE?!

- He hears a noise outside and just assumes it's CTU. He walks out there COMPLETELY UNARMED and suddenly shits himself when he realises it's the Russians. WHY WASN'T HE CAUTIOUS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!

And perhaps the #1 stupidest thing Jack has done:

- He hands himself over to the Russians on a whim and WITH NO BACKUP PLAN. They could have just shot him in the head right there and then, and he wouldn't have been able to do shit. What was that Jack?

Finally, we're in for some Jack torture:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php … amp;ref=nf

And we all know the results when the torture comes to an end.