24: Season Three
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Movie Reviews of 24: Season Three
Movie Review: '24' Season 3 Is Most Tense Season Yet
Summary: 5 Stars
'24' Season Three is a tense-filled, adrenaline-fueled thrill ride that is better than its second season, which saw Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) preventing a nuclear bomb from being set off in Los Angeles. In this season of '24', Jack is dealing with a biological threat and is the head of field operations at CTU, where his protege Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale) is having a secret relationship with Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert), who went through unnecessary suspense in the previous season. Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) and Michelle Dessler (Reiko Alyesworth) are married, President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) has a new love interest and a brother working for him, and new characters Chloe and Gael are introduced.
I can't give you more than a basic plotline without spoiling the surprises and shocking twists this season churns up, so here are the highlights:
1) The main plot involving the biological threat is always exciting and produces some of the most suspenseful and tense episodes in '24' history.
2) The unpredictability factor of '24' reaches new heights this season with the deaths of a few major characters. Perhaps the most unsettling moment in '24' history occurs in this season when Jack has to choose whether or not to sacrifice someone he works with in order to save millions of lives. The scene plays out unexpectedly and is nothing short of riveting.
3) Sherry Palmer (Penny Johnson Jerald) and Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke), fantastic villainesses from seasons one and two return to play a part in the day's events. Their character arcs are never dull and give some episodes a powerful edge.
4) The acting is terrific in this season. Keifer Sutherland does a fine job at keeping Jack Bauer as a man on edge personally and professionally. James Badge Dale does an excellent job as the calm and collected Chase, offering the perfect counterpoint to Jack's anything goes way of dealing with terrorists. The best acting of the season is done by Reiko Alyesworth. Her work in the midseason episodes is brilliant and shows the complexities of her character when she is faced with life or death situations. Alyesworth's work was definitely deserving of an Emmy nod, but she never received one.
5) The last episode of the season is very exciting and ends in an unexpected way. It is a very personal ending, one which the audience will appreciate after taking into account what has gone before in the character's life.
6)The quality of the sound and picture is terrific. The action sequences look very well-done and polished.
'24' Season Three is better than season two and almost matches the powerful first season, in that the biological threat plot goes on the entire 24 hours, never letting up. What makes Season Three weaker than season one is that the main plot takes about four episodes to really start, due to many subplots which slow down the pacing of the story. Those flaws aside, '24' Season Three is one heck of a roller-coaster ride, providing the viewer with a most twisted plot that only the writers of '24' could devise.
Movie Review: Best 24 yet
Summary: 5 Stars
Season 3 of 24 focuses on a threat of a virus being released into the city of Los Angeles as well as other major population centers. As usual, Jack Bauer is on the scene to stop the bad guys. Because so much of the entertainment value of the show comes from the twists and turns of the plot, I won't reveal many of the specifics but there two major story arcs that should be familiar to those who have watched the first two seasons. First, there is Jack and the other CTU agents who are racing against time to stop the terrorists from releasing the virus. Then there is President David Palmer and his administration that are fighting various potential scandals at the same time they deal with the virus.
The first thing that a viewer notices about this season is that the pace starts off a bit more slowly. It's not dull by any means, but it is definitely less frenetic out of the starting gate. The good part of this is that the writers have also eliminated the flaws that were evident in the last third of the first two seasons. This season is the first that felt like the story had been thought through to the very end with solid pacing throughout leading to a good climax in the last episode. I found this a welcome change from earlier seasons where it seemed that all the good ideas were used up early and increasingly preposterous ideas ruined the story at the time when it should have been building to the big finale.
Jack's character is generally much more under control than we have seen previously. He is still willing to go further than most men would, but he no longer seems to be driven by constant rage or a death wish. I found this change a welcome one. Kim Bauer is also improved as the amount of time she spends as a prisoner/hostage is radically reduced and she even proves useful at times in her new role as a CTU computer analyst. The performances of the villains were quite good, especially Joaquim de Almeida as Ramon Salazar. He brings a combination of charm and ruthlessness that is just right to make him a bad guy you love to hate.
The biggest low point of the season was the soap opera swirling around David Palmer's presidency. This is a man who was shown to be very principled in the first season, but since then he has consistently done the wrong or immoral thing any time he's been faced with a tough choice. His judgment is so consistently poor that I found myself no longer pulling for him and hoping that he would be brought down by the scandal of his own actions. It's a shame, because Dennis Haysbert has terrific presence and the writers did not need to insert all this cheap melodrama into the story.
I've only watched the first three seasons so far, but this is clearly the best one to date. The story holds together much better from beginning to end, and a lot of the worst plot contrivances that plagued the first two seasons have been done away with. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a thrill ride television series. There are many twists and turns and it makes for quite a breathtaking experience.
Movie Review: 24 Season 3 (DVD)
Summary: 5 Stars
Maybe I'm the only one who waits until the autumn (or winter) to see the latest season of 24 rather than trying to catch it every week. But ever since Fox fell into releasing recently broadcast television seasons immediately on disc, it makes a lot more sense to do it this way, even with TiVO. With a show like 24, that approach makes even more sense. What other show out there can boast that one entire season is one complete story?
And what a story it is. As the third worst day of Jack Bauer's life begins, he's struggling with a drug habit he picked up as part of his deep cover mission to bring a drug lord with terrorist connections, Ramón Salazar, to justice. He's just found out his daughter Kim has been secretly dating his partner Chase, a man just as devoted to his work as Jack is. And Salazar's brother Hector has just had delivered a body infected with a deadly virus which he threatens to release in L.A. if his brother is not released immediately.
As with previous seasons of 24, this plot soon transmogrifies into something slightly different, and by the time the day ends, the deadline to a different sort of threat is approaching. Unlike previous seasons, this one retains far more of its original threat through to the very end. Also, in seasons one and two, storylines were left hanging in the air, and plot contrivances too farfetched to go anywhere abounded (spontaneous amnesia, anyone?). Season three has far less of these difficulties, while it also continues the 24 tradition of making sure the audience knows that no one, repeat, no one is safe. Jack Bauer doesn't die this time, but a few hairy moments make you wonder if that's what's going to happen - and meanwhile, some people you'd never expect to die do exactly that. I'd tell you who, but if you haven't seen this season yet, then you're in for something good. Make sure you have a comfortable chair, lots of snacks, and a full day to kill. You'd need all three (plus a strong bladder) to enjoy this properly.
Once the "day" is over, there's all the commentaries (full of spoilers, and some of these just aren't that interesting to listen to) as well as a seventh disc full of bonus material. While the "24: On The Loose" minidoc isn't as lengthy as last year's season finale behind-the-scenes featurette, there's at least far less of director-producer Jon Cassar's bitching and whining to endure. The "Biothreat: Beyond the Series" documentary is downright scary, while the "Boys and Their Toys" special effects featurette is pure popcorn. The best bits, however, are the season four teaser and promo. A rarity for 24, the teaser is a six-and-a-half minute mini-film taking place three months after the events of day three and a few hours before day four begins. Not only does it provide some much needed backstory for the upcoming season, it results in the fantastically unbroadcastable Jack Bauer line, "I can find my own f*ckin' job, Erin." Call me juvenile, but that alone is worth the seventy euro/dollars!
Movie Review: Not Enough Hours in the Day
Summary: 5 Stars
Set your watches, hark ye the cuckoo clock, for something bad and cliffhanger-ish doth happen at the 59th minute of every hour.
You'd think the characters of 24 would've cottoned-on by now to the remarkable synchronicity in their lives. Nothing happens by chance in the gritty, increasingly overblown universe they inhabit - if something's going to go wrong (and you can bet that it will), chances are it'll happen but a whisker before that bleeping digital clock marks the hour.
Such is the beauty of this show. On 24's watch, a whole years' worth of excitement is crammed into a single day - and, dammit, we'd feel shortchanged if it were any other way. But, after Season Two's vertigo-inducing rush through Islamic terrorism, nuclear bomb blasts and what-have-you, the latest installment threatens to offer little but diminishing returns.
After a slightly humdrum opening flourish, though, Season Three turns out to be a bit of a humdinger. Those who grumbled through the weaker moments of the preceding series - Kim's meandering escape-the-psycho road trip, Sarah Wynter's bland turn as Kate Warner, the revolving cast of ever-more-inept baddies, etc. - will be relieved to find that a lot of the chaff has been excised this time around. The path towards Season Three's denouement may be no less gnarly than the ones 24 has trodden before, but it's less given to pointless detours and... sorry, awfully mixed metaphor there, but you get the point.
Anyhoo: there's lots to recommend. Kiefer Sutherland is never less than utterly compelling as the gruff, increasingly haggard Jack Bauer, and he's given plenty to chew on this time around (his final scene, in particular, should melt even the hardest of hearts). Mind you, he's got some worthy foils to contend with, too: Sarah Clarke is back again as Nina Myers, but she's all but blown off the screen by Joaquim de Almeida's screen-chewing turn as Mexican druglord Ramon Salazar, not to mention charismatic Brit badboy Paul Blackthorne as agent-gone-bad Stephen Saunders.
Elsewhere, we get all the political shenanigans and snatched-from-the-jaws-of-hope plot twists you'd expect - many of them surprisingly vicious (suffice to say that the roster of regular characters has diminished significantly by the end). The producers clearly had a lot more money to play with, too: some of Season Three's action scenes rival anything your average Hollywood flick could throw up.
It is, of course, not without its failings. As David Palmer, Dennis Haybert has to shoulder the burden of some pretty implausible plot devices, and - it must be said - doesn't do it particularly well. More tellingly, a fair amount of (you'd think) pretty important baggage is shed willy-nilly by the screenwriters along the way - anyone who gets to episode 24 with but the foggiest recollection of the first one might find themselves wondering how the hell anyone is still standing, let alone performing at 100%.
But, well, that's just 24 innit?
Movie Review: Season 3 - Far Superior to Seasons 1 & 2
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the season of 24 that most shines.
I reference events from Season 1-3 in this review, but I am as vague as possible, so much that you won't even recognize them unless you've seen them.
If you are reading this, you're probably already into the show, otherwise why would you be starting with Season 3? Since you're already a fan, I don't have to tell you that Seasons 1 & 2 of the show were exceptional, both had their strengths in different regards. But as a hardcore 24 fan, and as a filmmaker, I must say that Season 3 includes some of the most brilliant writing and acting you've seen in the series yet.
I'll start out by challenging some of the complaints fans have had with Season 3. Some say that the season is uneven and inconsistent in the story. While it is true that many of the central storyline and conflicts are focused on and then quickly (within 6 or so hours) resolved, it is exactly this that makes the season so great. You have to remember that each season of 24 is about 18 hours of footage, that's about 9 movies worth of action and plot in one storyline. You simply have to introduce and resolve major plotlines repeatedly, otherwise the overall story will seem dull and lackluster. I will admit that one of the twists did leave me feeling cheated, but it only adds to the drama.
And 24 has always been a true drama, reflective of Shakespeare's great tragedies. Both include over-the-top drama and deal with issues such as betrayal, death, and most prominently inter-family relations. Remember the scene from Season 2 between Jack and Kim when Jack is in the airplane? Probably one of the most emotionally powerful scenes in television history, but unfortunately Season 2 didn't have another knockout scene like that. Season 3, however, is full of outstanding performances and dialogue like that. If you don't at least come close to crying at least 5 times in this season, you're a liar.
If you never really liked a particular character in the previous 2 seasons, I guarantee your opinion will be turned around with season 3. Paul Schulze and Penny Johnson Jerald (played as Ryan Chapelle and Sherry Palmer, respectively) give absolutely mind numbing performances here. And these great performances are only facilitated by the superb writing in this season. Not only is the dialogue razor sharp, but the questions that arise from each character's actions are truly amazing. Questions like is it worth it to kill one man to save thousands, do the ends justify the means, etc. All questions that Season 1 or 2 have handled before, but Season 3 truly takes these issues and hurtles the drama full speed in your face.
It is my opinion that Season 3 is far and away the best season in the 24 series so far. You will not find the kind of amazing writing and jaw-dropping performances more consistently in any other season.