24 - Season 6

24's sixth and most recent season brings the same brand of entertainment, although there are some very noticeable chinks in the armor this time around. There are just some things characters do for the sake of drama that simply don't fit in a believable world, even one with someone as ridiculous as Jack Bauer running around. Semi-evil bureaucrats and politicians who mess things up for the reasonable people have always been a part of the show, but they're really getting over the top at this point. It's one thing when you kill an ex-President to cover up your conspiracy (although it's still horrifying), but killing the current President just to push through your racist anti-terror policy is insane. And the Vice-President, while played well by the always enjoyable Powers Boothe, is another nut, with his insistence on a nuclear retaliation with no real justification whatsoever other than adding conflict to the story. There is a newfound emphasis on romance subplots at CTU, which mostly come off more amateurish and high-school-level than they have before.

The people behind the scenes aren't the only ones to sigh about, as the people with guns make some strange choices as well. Jack has to turn against an ally, but the whole encounter seems contrived. A new arrival apparently has a shady past, but turns out to be a decent guy, and what actually happened is never even mentioned again, and with what happens it's unlikely he'll appear, so what the hell was the point of that angle in the first place? Why do the terrorists who infiltrate CTU kill the first person to identify themselves as Director, when they needed the real Director a few minutes later? And I'm sorry if it's a spoiler, but what the hell was Gredenko thinking? He had a signed immunity agreement, so why did he tell Fayed the truth, have him CUT HIS ARM OFF to disable the tracking device, and then betray him three minutes later anyway? Why did CTU give Fayed a gun with REAL BULLETS right after they tricked him using blanks? The show was still entertaining most of the way, but hopefully the change of scenery (Season 7 will be the first to mostly take place outside of LA) will do the writers some good. Too bad the strike delayed it by a year though.