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I thought episode 8 was really strong, and this was obviously a step down.

I'm obviously a bit annoyed that David Anders solid run came to such an abrupt end, literally minutes (story-wise) after we'd seen him play his hand.

I'm not sure it's so much that they didn't like where it was headed, just more that they'd laid the first 8 episodes out, then they started thinking about the next 8 and they don't see where Josef could take them. They could up with a great cliffhanger for him, and it's "where does he go from here?", "hmm, not sure, lets just put the rods in the hands of 'proper terrorists', there easier to write"

Looking back at this episodes, man I should have hated it, the rods change hands twice effectively. They've tried to do "politics", which they never do very well. There's no President Hassan. But some how it was still entertaining, mainly due to cranky 'really don't give a sh*t' Jack who made me laugh on several occasions.

On the plus side, a nice convincing way to get Jack all in, although really did it have to be in the carpark again? we've had him almost get in a car like 3 times. But overall they dealt with that well, at just the right time, and i've gained a bit of respect for Hastings as he managed to ensure we don't have the same scene again in two episodes time.

Jack and Renee is always at the very least watchable. Starbuck and friends played out with some interest, although really Freddie, what was going on with his tone/accent in this episode, it's completely changed from the previous episode, I suppose he was trying to be "serious" but it just sounded like he was playing a different character. And also the chemistry between him and her just isn't there, they looked like they'd just had there first date as they chatted in the the car. But still, entertaining all the same.

Hopefully this is one of the dreaded "link" episodes, and not simply the standard going forward.

I had to use such a metaphor, but this really was like watching a man learning to walk again. So far they'd managed to stand up only to fall on there arse. In recent weeks we've seen him stand up for longer periods whilst holding onto the railings. This week he actually got some stuttering steps forward before suddenly bursting into life and pulling a knife out of his stomach and throwing it at the doctor.

That scene where it's suddenly, "oh this aint going anywhere, lets kill everyone!" is classic 24, worthy of any of the great episodes.

In a slightly more level head review, again this continued the pattern of most scenes I enjoyed, but they still not seem to hang together comfortably. It doesn't transition as effortlessly between scenes as I remember the early hours of day one doing. And it still lacks a certain amount of energy, it's not as quick off the mark as it used to be, although some of it my be an intentional plot to be more "thoughtful".

President Hassan's descent into madness is a nice angle, and the havoc it may wreak on the peace treaty. Although we as an audience aren't likely to care as much as we might seeing as we've only known the character for 7 hours, but Anil Kapoor really is giving it his best shot. President Taylor is just annoying really, the less we see of her the better.

Another thing which would be working better if we'd known them for longer is the whole "Russian Family" thing, it's not terrible, but really you need to build them. We'd known the Drazens to some extent for 15 hours before they started to do the mob family stuff.

Overall very encouraging signs, not many complaints, although sad to see Vladimir go, couldn't Renee have killed Taylor instead?

Guys is this really a reaction to episode 5 and 6? or a delayed reaction to 1- 4. I ask because while I agree with you generally I thought 5 and 6 a lot stronger than 1 through 4.

I really must start that alternate s8 thread, because I am kind of thinking of 1 & 2 as the s8 "prequel" and 3 - 6 as the opening four.

Anyway, I really need to watch some of these episodes again to rejudge. Unfortunately because i'm watching on sky player that makes rewatching tough, and until i'm more invested I don't think it's worth buying off itunes.

Again, I didn't watch these episodes in ideal circumstances thanks to stupid sky player. But that possibly masked just how disjointed these episodes where.

Basically I find myself very much liking individual element, individual characters and individual moments, and the amount I liked in these episodes was much more than in previous episodes, it's just the way it's all been strung together. The moving parts look so disparate that they feel like different episodes, different shows even.

The main plot is strong, and I have no problem with how slow it's developing, it feels like a proper slow burn story, and not simply stalling. But the stuff around the edges is very distracting. Not necessarily bad, but moves you into a different "world".

More thoughts later, but these episodes do very much feel like it's a-plot by this writer, b-plot by another and c-plot by another, and the script needs a going over by a decent script editor. Everything feels like a good first draft. Steve, would you agree?

Just finished watching episode 2 now. Don't want to go into too much detail right now since it's late, but even giving allowances for the manner in which I saw the two episodes (over two nights with each episode interrupted midway for stupid Sky Player to buffer the second half), it really hasn't grabbed me. There is definitely a spark of life there, but that just makes the bad bits harder to take.

The Good
- Jack in the first episode
- Acevada (informant) I thought showed some promise, and should have lasted longer.
- Buffy Husband has done remarkably well with the very little he's been given.
- Starbuck in parts.
- The futuristic CTU is an interesting idea, but they need to establish some rules fast about exactly how advanced they've gotten, or it will get old fast, if almost everything is solved quickly.
- President Hassan
- New York, what we've seen of it.

The Bad, everything else, but specifically...
- The central plot, wow, really not strong.
- Just generally I'm getting pulled out of the plot every 2 minutes because I see something and i'm thinking, "how dumb is that?", examples, so Both Presidents had a press conference in the middle of negotiations to announce they were negotiating, which the media already knew, and what they where discussing, which the media already knew, and that they where making progress, which the media already knew. The negotiations have no reality to them, they have no detail to them, hence I have no investment in them, so really nothing at stake then.
- While a futuristic CTU is a nice idea, it still has to look like a place of work. Not a nightclub. In reality I should barely notice what it looks like, I should be more concerned with what the characters are saying. So making a huge deal about how space-age and different the interrogation room looks is a MEGA FAIL.
- I could go on for a while, but lastly, how does a guy get to being CTU Director without having an ounce of investigative logic in him?, So this reporter has security files on her computer she shouldn't have. She denies downloading them. He might trying asking her, "Okay, what where you doing at the time the files where being downloaded?" Buffy Husband needs to send him packing and take over.

Generally not impressed so far, certainly not by episode 2, episode 1 had more of the good bits. If 3 & 4 don't pick up, everyone really is running out of time.

Well I guess I killed this thread stone dead

*bump*

At least that is my observation of American network shows. Obviously networks are always counting the pennies, but when it's a big enough concern that it gets an article like that, yeah it's hit the red zone and cost has suddenly become a bigger factor (almost the biggest) in whether the show will get renewed.

When it is the last season, I want them to go into the season knowing it's the last season.

It's so very hard to know when enough is enough, by wiping the storylines so completely clean each season the show doesn't have a sense of "drawing to a close" like some shows do as they enter there final years, knowing that the clock is slowly ticking and they start to move pieces slowly around for the last arc(s).

I fear 24's end could be very "sudden"

Honestly, it's what I thought would happen after the first season, but it'll be more difficult to do now. If they'd done it then, the real time format would have been the thing which stayed, everything else would have been up for debate and they could have thought "what would this situation and location be like in real time?", and so stead of international terrorism it could have been an undercover police investigation in Baltimore or other similar high intensity situations.

Now we have a hardset formula which as much as they try, they can't quite shake off. So if altered form means changes for changes sake then it would be a terrible idea, really if they are hoping for a longer term future for the "franchise" it needs evolution not revolution.

Just to revive this thread briefly to say that CTU: Provo the DVD set including....

...is available to download via bittorrent. Grab the torrent file at : www.24fans.com/CTU_PROVO.torrent and start downloading.