Mega Derived

I’ve finally caught up with the first five episodes of Season 6 of 24. It’s hard to write about 24 when a season is just beginning. I should know, I once wrote that Day 3 (which eventually turned out to be duller than dishwater) was shaping up to be the best season ever when I was only four episodes in. So, take all of this with a pinch of salt, and be aware that future episodes could quite easily destroy everything: Day 6 is shaping up to be the best season ever. The action operates in bursts, reaching occasional climaxes before dipping into a lull where fleshing out the story takes precedence, giving life to a plot that is stretched out beyond ludicrous; an overly sensational yarn that, quite frankly, baffles as much as it entertains.

Day 5 concerned itself too much with the moral grey. The eventual villains motivation wasn’t quite juicy and evil enough to satiate the basic hunger of an action-craved audience. It’s back to basics for Day 6, where the bad guys are so archetypal they’re close to becoming a parody of evil itself. But this is where 24 works best, thrusting you into its fictional world where there is no grey, only extreme good meeting extreme evil and both sides going to extreme measures to try and take the other out. The plot becomes a family affair of soap opera proportions where the histories and relationships are woven around the grand nuclear theme in order to squeeze out the juiciest plot threads. When Jack is kicking a terrorist - complete with C4 jacket about to detonate - out of a commuter train, the adrenaline rush is immense. This is what you came to see.

24 works best with a simple story and simple plot twists. The action takes care of the rest. This is what Day 6 is providing us with, and what Day 5 was lacking. Of course, when I look back on this post in eighteen episodes time, I’ll probably take back everything I’ve said and declare the whole show a pile of jibbering bollocks. That’s what I seem to do every other season. Especially Season Three. That one was the worst.