One of the great family activities we’ve had for the past year is watching 24 together. We got the first 5 seasons on DVD and finished about a week ago, in time for the new season.
Now for the last few weeks, it seems that we can’t watch TV without seeing some dumb commercial that gives away some key plot line for Season 6. It’s actually kind of amusing for the moment. We’ll be watching the Simpsons. Commercial comes on. We realize what’s happening. Simultaneously everyone goes into his/her defense mood. Hands over ears, run out of the room, singing The Marines Hymn at peak volume. Sometimes a brave soul (not me) runs at the TV and turns it off.
Now today, I’m in my office doing some dumb computer work wiith the radio on and I’m listening to a commercial for some show about !@#$%^&*() [can’t figure out how to do spoilers - wouldn’t have the heart to do it anyway] and at the END I realize it’s 24.
I think all spoilers for shows like that are pointless, which I’ve ranted about before. My wife and I disagree on this point. She stays tuned for the “Next week on…” for all the shows she watches regularly. My attitude has always been that I’m going to watch it next week anyway, so why do I want to have any aspect of it spoiled?
Despite that, I can’t say I’ve found the previews for the upcoming season to annoy me in the same way simply because it seems like forever since 24 was last on. It’s sort of exciting to be reminded that it’s coming back (and not just because I had an opportunity to see some of the new season being filmed a few months ago). But in principle, I’m on your side.
One particular spoiler that you may be referring to i.e., that Wayne Palmer is president is the sort of thing that will be revealed in the first 10 seconds of the first episode, so I’m not that upset. The “spoiler” on the front page of the LA Times Calendar section today (heck, based on the OP, I guess I’ll even box this) showing Jack Bauer being released from Chinese custody by a couple of Chinese agents, is also something that will be revealed at the very beginning of the new season. Although it has been fun to speculate on how Jack would get out of custody (somehow taking control of the freighter and crashing it into Madagascar, for example), and it’s a letdown to see that he’s basically just handed right back over.
I have some special knowledge of the upcoming season.
Kim will run around a lot. Jack will shoot at people. There will be a mole. At the height of tension, CTU will get an incompetent new regional director who wants Jack brought in, but that won’t happen because Chloe will cover for him. And the terrorists will attempt to execute a needlessly complicated plot.
I pray to the stars above that your first point just isn’t true. Are there actual, real live 24 fans out there that enjoy Elisha Cuthbert’s role on this show in the least?
The way I figure it, I’m gonna watch the damn thing anyway. I’m absolutely hooked. I also don’t try to figure out what’s going to happen next (though it’s fun to read the speculation here). So spoilers can only detract from my enjoyment of the show. So I’ve been running from the room for years when 24 commercials come on.
I heard the new season takes place two years since we last saw Jack. Each season is usually a few years after the last. Assuming the first season took place in whatever year it was aired, what year would we be in in the 24 universe? Somewhere around 2016? And why will they all be driving 10 year-old 2006 model cars that look brand new?
I’m going with moose and Canadians. I’ll leave it to SDMB readers to try to figure out how moose can be used as WMDs, and well, I’ve always like seeing someone invade Canada.
I’ll put good money that someone will get a body part wacked off.
Dude, save for the (awesome and long overdue) Casino Royale reboot, James Bond has been drinking vodka martinis and macking on 22-year-olds for over 40 years. Assuming that he had to be at least in his early thirties to make rank as a Commander in the RNR and an operative in the Double Oh section of MI6, he’s got to be easily into is Seventies by now. Besides, Bauer probably has enough brain damage from various concussions, drug abuse, death, et cetera that he’s just confused about what year it is, and as in Momento, that confusion is communicated to the viewer.
They ought to have a season that is all told in flashback, with the hours out of order. It’s totally cliche at this point, of course, but so is everything else they do.
If the producers really had any balls, they’d kill off Jack Bauer for real–or better yet, turn him into a quadraplegic–in mid-season and replace him with a new main character who has formerly been a side character.
