We were all big 24 fans once over here, but very-very-very quickly the show began testing our loyalty. We weren’t fans of Season 3 until about six hours in and we still want to pretend like Season 6 never happened, James Cromwell be damned.
24 hit some roadblocks after that.
Just from our memory:
-Season Six did so poorly that Fox sat down with the writers and told them to shape up.
-Season Seven was originally supposed to take place for 12 hours in Africa, have a 12 hour off-camera break then continue in the US for an additional 12 hours. This plot was scrapped and the show’s production delayed as the writer’s rebooted.
-Season Seven will take place in Washington DC where Jack Bauer is on trial for something-or-other. The CTU set was exchanged for an FBI set and Janeane (heh) Garofalo was hired as an FBI agent. Just when we said the show was jumping the shark, the announcement was made that Tony Alameda will come back from the dead, proving that the show jumped the shark last season.
-Keifer Sutherland drove drunk and went into jail for 48 days over Christmas.
-24 announces that Season Seven is on hiatus until further notice.
Now, co-creator/executive producer Joel Surnow has left 24 completely.
Why does this suck? Because Surnow and other producer/co-creator Robert Cochran are responsible for all the good 24. Cochran’s contract expired recently, but he’s staying on.
Surnow’s contract wasn’t up until April 30th, but the producer got released early since the series is till on hold. Surnow’s name will remain on the 8 episodes of Season 7 that have been produced.
The problem is that Surnow’s statement in The Hollywood Reporter says:
As for his departure, Surnow said it was hard to leave the show that had been “a life- and career-changing experience” but knowing that “24″ was in “the capable hands of Howard Gordon…”
If Chuck Norris can boost Mike Huckabee’s Iowa candidacy, can you imagine what Keifer Sutherland’s political power would be if Jack Bauer didn’t go out in a drawn-out shimmer of suckiness?
Sadly, it looks like Season 7 is going to deliver a lot of suckiness.
