Slick as season 1, but writing far less impressive
Hung Yu Ting | Huntington Beach, CA United States | 06/06/2010
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Season 2 of 24 as exciting as the 1st, with numerous twists and turns and edge of your seat finales. But unlike season 1 one where everything seemed to interlock with precision, the writing in the second season falls much shorter, both in content quality and believability.
The Kim Bauer sequences seem tacked on and totally unnecessary. Her scenes amount to nothing more than filler. The actress and her supporting actors are fine; it's the writing that is predictable and uninteresting.
Also, the general plot arc seemed to lead up to the bomb. The bomb and its countdown should have gone on to the end of the season. Having it as a mid-story Act Change was ok, but the post-bomb episodes lagged, as well as the fact that replacing a president 6 hours after a nuke goes off is pretty much a straight coup d'etat. None of the politicians in the meeting at the end ever even brought that up. How could you come out to the public the next day and say you de-seated the president in a private meeting 5 hours after the bomb went off?
Other things stretch the lines of believability:
1)After CTU is bombed, a governmental installation, it seems as if it's not a newsworthy event. No agent ever mentions a media circus outside the blast area, no one speaks of or to the press, etc. The viewer is in on the nuke, but according to the story, the people and press aren't. How is it then that a bombing at CTU didn't become the international news story that it would become it something like that really happened?
2) how many times can a person be about to be shot and the gun goes off, but surprise! it was Jack Bauer to save the day (or whoever else) and the person that got shot was the one who was going to shoot you. It happened enough that I noticed. After the Warner daughter got it, I thought, how many times can you dip into that bag?
But all in all, still a good season. Very watchable and fun. Great action, suspense, and touching on some themes still relevant as this never-ending War on Terror plods along. Now if they can only find some sort of soap operatic way to bring back George Mason. He was top shelf. Bummer he had to go.
"