The first few seasons were engaging and suspenseful even if you knew that Jack would always prevail. Best of all, it wasn't dumbed down for the average viewer, and the technology babble wasn't totally ridiculous. The violence and never-ending need for torture seemed to fit in a George W. Bush led, post-911 world. It was a morality play turned inside out. It was in-your-face fiction in search of non-stop thrills, though the real White House was rumoured to use it as a paint-by-the-numbers playbook for fighting terrorism.
Okay, so the series sometimes reached too far. Jack's daughter joining the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) as an agent was a real stretch. And of course the terrorists always have an almost unlimited supply of resources and backup plans, not to mention the ability to recruit at least one key employee of CTU.
But the true decline started last season (two years ago as a result of the writers' strike and Keifer's stint in jail). My theory is that the writers were already on strike. Perhaps the original writers left. Or ran out of ideas. Or forgot that dialogue should at least resemble what the actual characters might logically say, rather than using it to explain the convoluted plot.
This season, '24' has officially jumped the shark. The attempt to be politically correct in this year of Obama, while retaining some of the trademark Bauer edginess, is laughable. The characters have become caricatures of their former selves, Chloe doing little else than making faces, and Tony returned from the dead with a perpetual scowl that couldn't be cured with a massive dose of Zoloft.
Meanwhile, the producers attempt to wring every last penny out of the series. Every time a cellphone rings now (which is quite often), the viewer is treated to a closeup of the Sprint logo. Granted, we were used to seeing the Apple logo on the computers, but this new trend is blatant beyond any measure of taste.
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