THIERRY ATTARD'S DOUBLE FEATURE: 24

Showing posts with label 24. Show all posts

Saturday, 27 March 2010

24 UNPLUGGED

[15.10 - French Time] Fox confirmed yesterday that 24 will end with its eighth season and that CTU agent Jack Bauer’s final day on the network will conclude on Monday, May 24.

24 used to be an innovative show, with its "pseudo real-time" format and its split-screen borrowed to The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). But the fast-paced spy thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland was definitely four years past its date. The ultimate shark jump being the introduction of fictional country names which would have been acceptable in the days of the first seasons of Mission: Impossible but not now.

Interestingly the show started in November 2001, in the wake of terrible times it echoed and will finish in a world where what will certainly stay as 24's remarkable legacy, President David Palmer, is now a reality with President Barack Obama.

24 has a debt toward La Femme Nikita (1997-2001), the wrongfully underrated cable hit. Its first season owed a lot to the visual aspect of the Peta Wilson starrer and its paranoid climate. La Femme Nikita was adapted from Luc Besson's Nikita movie by Joel Surnow, who co-created 24 with Robert Cochran . The composer of 24, Sean Callery, worked on the USA show and the early designs of CTU resemble Rocco Matteo's Section One in LFN.

Kiefer Sutherland told Entertainment Weekly that producing a ninth season for another network, like NBC, was not an option because he and executive producer Howard Gordon were ready to move on. A jump to struggling NBC would have been anyway - to paraphrase the immortal words of Dr. Ian Malcolm - “the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas”.

At the conclusion of Season Eight, 24 will have produced a total of 194 episodes (including 24: Redemption), making it one of the longest-running action show in television history. A movie is in the works, written by Billy Ray (the US movie adaptation of State of Play).

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/03/26/24-to-end-this-season-film-version-in-the-works/

See also:

http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2010/03/another-day-in-paradise.html

Saturday, 13 March 2010

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

[11.00 - French Time] How would Dr. Ian Malcolm put it: "The worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas". Rumours give the likely to be cancelled Fox flagship show 24 jumping to NBC.

The network and 20th Century Fox Television appear ready to end the long-running hit starring Kiefer Sutherland after this season, the show's eighth (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016256.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1). And when James Hibberd asked Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment at NBC and Universal Media Studios, if she would rule out 24 as a fit for NBC she answered « I wouldn't rule it out. I wouldn't think it's likely, but I wouldn't rule it out » (http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/03/qa-nbcs-angela-bromstad.html).

The single thought of the troubled NBC picking up 24 looks preposterous regarding a season in hell epitomized by the Jay Leno primetime experience. As the excellent Robert Seidman points out on the TV by the Numbers website, « NBC needs to find its own hits rather than riding someone else’s long-in-tooth retreads into the ground » (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/12/ausiello-fans-the-will-24-move-to-nbc-flames/44788).

Then come the economics of the show and the economics in general but honestly 24 is four years past its date. Far more interesting would be a revitalization through a blockbuster movie (which seems in the pipeline).

Imagine Jack Bauer on NBC, forcing suspects to watch The Marriage Ref. Or a crossover between 24 and 30 Rock called 24 Rock, with Bauer replacing Jack Donaghy for a day. David Letterman would adore.

See also:

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/03/12/nbc-24-fox-jack-bauer/