24: Season Seven
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Movie Reviews of 24: Season Seven
Movie Review: 24 - Season Seven
Summary: 5 Stars
I hadn't watched one episode of "24" during its first six seasons. That was until this year when the seventh season of the Emmy Award winning show made its long awaited premiere (the seventh season was suppost to have aired last year but was pushed back because of the writer's strike). The Fox network moved one of my favorite shows, "House, M.D.", from Tuesday nights to Monday nights and aired right before "24". So I got my first taste of this action packed series, and after viewing all of the episodes of season seven on DVD, now I'm hooked. The seventh season of "24" was the best TV series of the 2008-09 season. Yes, it was even better than the two current TV shows that I watched: "House, M.D." and "Desperate Housewives". And I plan to go back and catch up on the first six seasons which I haven't seen yet.
"24" follows the adventures of Federal Agent Jack Bauer, who through the first six seasons has stopped bombs, viruses, assassination attempts, etc., and has saved hundreds of lives in the process. Each season has played out in real time in a twenty-four hour frame of a very bad day for Jack and everyone else involved with what's going on. I got to see this play out for the entire seventh season and it was fascinating, not to mention scary, exciting, thrilling, suspenseful, and spectacular, usually all at the same time. But what really made season seven of "24" so special is the talented acting, writing, and directing that came together. There was hardly a boring moment in every frame of all 24 episodes.
The plot of season seven deals with terrorists attacking the nation's capital, usually with the aide of people on the inside who you think are good but turn out to be bad. Make that very bad. There are so many villains that I couldn't keep track of them. And there are moments where you don't know who the characters can trust. From the early episodes with endangered airplanes in the sky to the middle episodes with a terrorist attack on the White House to the later episodes with Jack Bauer fighting for his life after being exposed to a lethal toxic gas, I was really amazed at how good this season of "24" was. This is TV drama at its finest.
The acting is first-rate. Kiefer Sutherland was already a big movie star when he made the switch to the small screen in 2001 when "24" made its debut. But this show made him an even bigger star. Sutherland, who has usually played bad guys in the movies, got a chance to play a good guy and even though I haven't seen the first six seasons he must have been really good right from the start. He won a Golden Globe in 2002 and an Emmy in 2006 as proof. And I'm sure he'll be in the Emmy running again this year because in season seven he's brilliant. Also brilliant: Cherry Jones, who made her "24" debut in season seven as female U.S. President Allison Taylor. Jones delivered powerhouse performances in many of the episodes, and if she doesn't receive an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series this year, then it will be proof that the Emmy voters don't have any brains. Not only does she deserve to be nominated, I think she should win. Great acting gets big awards, and Jones did a great job this season. I'm alreadly looking forward to seeing her again in season eight. The other supporting actors did terrific work too. From series regulars Carlos Bernard, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and James Morrison to series newcomers Annie Wersching, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Gunton, and Jeffrey Nordling, as well as special guest appearences from Oscar winning actor Jon Voight, everyone does a great professional job here. The acting is not the only strong asset of the seventh season of "24". The writing and directing is excellent as well.
Don't miss the seventh season of "24". It's television drama at its best.
Movie Review: My Review of 24: Season Seven DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly, I feel that Season Seven may have been the best season yet. Of course I have my complaints about it, and I'll run through my complaints quickly:
1: The story of Season 7 basically pretended Season 6 never happened. Probably due to the critical reception of Season 6. But there was a lot more continuity from Season 5, and most of the major storylines of Season 6 were ignored.
2: Janis Gold, Janeane Garafalo's character: Janeane Garafalo can be an okay actress, but I don't think her performance was up to the standards of 24. Also, her character barely even did anything meaningful, other than a few fun exchanges with Chloe.
3, the biggest one: The ending of the season. It was exactly the ending I expected, and it left all the loose ends hanging. After such a strong season, anyone who wanted any kind of closure at the end will be sorely disappointed. I know 24 is kinda known for that, but not to the level that Season 7 had.
But all that said, Season 7 was still fantastic. As for what was good about the season, I don't even know where to start. The new setting, Washington D.C. was a great backdrop and brought something new and fresh to the series. The new actors brought in were fantastic. Everyone was talking about Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor, but personally I was more excited about the first gentleman Henry Taylor, played by Colm Feore. I've always been a fan of Feore and his storyline was very good. Renee Walker was also a great new character. I was also very excited by the returns of two of my favorite characters in the series, Tony Almeida and Kim Bauer, both of whom we didn't see in Season 6.
The villains were amazing. My favorites were Jonas Hodges (played by Jon Voight), Ike Dubaku and the aforementioned Tony (who switched between being a good guy and bad guy several times this season. With mood swings like that you'd think he was suffering from PMS or something). But the other villains were great as well.
I could go on and on about the greatness of this season. But I'll just sum it up by saying, you have to see it if you haven't. It was incredible.
As for the omission of the 7th disk, which usually has the extras, that wasn't too big of an issue. There are still extras. There's audio commentary for 12 episodes, as well as three featurettes (spread around with one each on disk 1, disk 5, and disk 6). There are deleted scenes as well, but not quite as many as previous seasons. Overall, they definitely could've included more extras, and just put them on disks 2, 3 and 4 where there weren't any. The 7th disk wasn't necessary.
Speaking of which, I remember when the first reviewers posted their reviews for this DVD, they all complained about the packaging. Because it wasn't the same as the older boxed sets and they omitted the seventh disk. But now that the DVD has been out for a while, people are actually buying it and noticing how great the packaging really is. It's really the best packaging job ever for a multi-disk DVD. This should be the way all TV series' are released on DVD. In fact, they should re-release all 6 previous seasons of 24 in this style of packaging. Just spread the special features among the 6 disks rather than having a 7th disk, like they did for this.
Overall, great season, great packaging. Extras could've been better, but that's a minor gripe. Definitely get this one from Amazon as the price (as I'm writing this), $22.99 is by far the best price you can find for a new copy. Just buy this with an additional cheap item (like a 24: Declassified paperback) to bump the price over $25 and get free shipping as well! Highly recommended.
Movie Review: One of the very best seasons !
Summary: 5 Stars
After the horrendous Season 6 on it seemed time for Jack Bauer to retire but hold on, Season 7 is just about as good as any I've so far. I'm not one to watch this show on a weekly basis, I'd much rather wait until the end of the year and watch all 24 episodes on DVD in less than a week: no commercials, no waiting days for cliffhangers to be solved. Sure, after such marathons you end up listening to the 24 theme and Jack uttering the words "previously on 24" in your dreams, but that's not so bad really.
THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT SEASON 7
#1 Jack's as great as ever, if maybe a bit more complex character with all the discussions about the evils of torture, hey, if in guessing, real life politicians batted 1.000 like Jack maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to allow it though that doesn't seem very likely. Anyway, Keifer is going to need a throat transplant from all the yelling sooner rather than later but it seem worth it.
#2 The excelent President Taylor, unquestionably the best 24 president since Palmer (not Wayne obviously). She's just like Hillary without the pantsuits. This fictional character is the best way to learn it was a good thing that Hillary didn't become president, after all, wouldn't it have been horrible to refer to Bill as "the first gentleman" like they mention here all season long ?
# 3 Good Tony / Bad Tony. Like most 24 fans, my stomach twisted when Tony's true nature was revealed but to my surprise the last few episodes I learn to accept it and the way the writers tied things up at the very end wasn't so terrible. To name Tony's resurrection as contrived is definetely an understatment but hey, maybe this means there is hope for Edgar fans all over the world.
# 4 Much fewer eye-rolling moments than in past seasons though it was hard to accept the best way the 24 writers could think of a White House infiltration is underwater. If you've ever taken the tour of the place, like I have, you may not remmember any bodies of water in the vecinity.
# 5 Oldie characters popping all the time: Aaron the no nonesense bodyguard and his ever present ear-piece-phone-cable. Chloe the most beloved insuferable TV character in history. Morris, the second one in that very same list.
Even Kim Bauer's participation wasn't that obnoxious !
My only complaint: one of the things I love most about 24 is how they bring good-unknown actors to their parts which really helps in the veracity department(see Agent's Walker and Moss, the evil technician who looks like an adult version of Agent Cody Banks, etc.) thus I hate "special star appearances" as the only effect they bringis making you think to yourself, Oh, there's John Voight !, Oh, there's Dennis Hooper !. This type of casting does not work, not on 24 for sure.
Movie Review: A Valiant Victory For 24
Summary: 5 Stars
Firstly, the long wait for this 7th season of 24 was well worth it. Keifer Sutherland and the cast and crew really pulled out all the stops with this newest day of terror. You start off immediately by finding out that CTU has been disbanded and it's 4 years from the events of season 6. Jack Bauer, played by Keifer Sutherland, is on trial for his various crimes and infractions built up by the previous seasons. But the trial is interrupted by FBI agent Renee Walker, played by Annie Wersching, saying that Jack is needed to help out with a priority situation. A rash of attacks built up to a kidnapping perpetrated by the supposedly deceased Tony Almeida, played by Carlos Bernard.
Now for die hard fans of 24, they'll remember in season 5 that Almeida was not given the traditional silent countdown usually given to a hero who has died. So fans were speculating that Tony would be revived in some way shape or form. In the meantime we do see reappearances of the following characters, mind you the character list includes the amazing actors who played them.
Bill Buchanan - James Morrison
-- Morrison provides audio commentary on an episode
Chloe O Brian - Mary Lynn Rajskub
-- Rajskub also provides an audio commentary
Morris O Brian - Carlo Rota
Now for those who have seen and bought the prequel movie, 24-Redemption, they'll remember the chain of events leading up to season 7. Keep in mind, it is not exactly necessary for viewers to have watched the prequel movie, but it does help in back story for events dealing with the white house and the new president played brilliantly by Cherry Jones.
This season is the most action packed, story driven, character driven, cliffhanger of a season that 24 has ever produced. You see new main characters, you see the deaths of multiple characters. I won't spoil too many details for newer viewers of the show. But we also get the inclusion into the villainy by two top notch actors, Will Patton and most importantly the incredible Jon Voight.
And you'll definitely get irked as I did at the ending of season 7. For that is the ultimate cliffhanger. Jack Bauer has made sacrifice after sacrifice to protect his country. He's lost almost everything he could have ever lost. And in the process of defending his country for day 7, he gets infected by a weaponized gas that has no known cure. Jack Bauer lays dying. His daughter Kim, played by Elisha Cuthbert, arrives to say goodbye to Jack. But Kim isn't ready to let her father go.
All I'll say no is that it'd better not take as long to give us the answers in season 8.
Movie Review: New Locale...Same Incredible Show
Summary: 5 Stars
In contrast to most critical and fan reviews of this show, I thoroughly enjoyed the sixth season of "24", yet did not get into "Redemption" at all. Thus, as I began the Seventh Season of perhaps the greatest TV show on TV today (LOST is about the only thing that probably beats it), I was a bit concerned about the quality of a season that would be building on the events that transpired in "Redemption".
Of course, in typical "24" style, I should have never doubter the writers and actors...I was blown away!
The seventh season opens with Jack Bauer in front of a Congressional Committee and on trial for torture. This provides the perfect transition into what would become a season of change for the show. Once Bauer finishes his business in front of the Senators who seem to be out to get him, he is called away to help an F.B.I. investigation in Washington. At this point in the show's timeline, CTU has been shut down for its reckless procedures, so the entire show has a bit of a different feel to it.
Of course, Jack Bauer's task eventually leads him into the thick of a terrorist plot against the United States, and thus once again he is "on point" most of the time, with action scenes and surprising cliffhangers that rival any previous season.
The true success of this season, though, was its ability to move the show into a new locale while still giving subtle nods to old friends. Renee Walker (played by Annie Wersching) and Larry Moss (Jeffrey Nordling) morph into very interesting F.B.I. agents over the course of the show, while Madame President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) more than holds her own in the tradition of David Palmer, Charles Logan, Wayne Palmer, and Noah Daniels.
Plus, old friends such as Bill Buchanon, Chloe O'Brien, and Kim Bauer (in perhaps the most emotional story-arc of the season) make return appearances, as does Tony Almeida (although his status as friend or enemy is tough to decipher).
Yet, as usual, the show really needs to be judged on the intensity/emotions of the Jack Bauer character, and the ability of the writers to inject genuine, thought-provoking political situations into each episode, and on both accounts this season succeeds with flying colors!
Thus, even if (unlike me) you found Season Six to be a major disappointment, have no fear about purchasing the next installment of the show, as even I will admit that it was probably the best season in a few years. The only other TV show I have ever given 5-star ratings to in every season has been LOST, and that's some pretty fine company.