You would be hard pressed to find a bigger 24 fan than me...and all I felt toward this is a resounding "meh."
I have no issue with a different lead other than Jack Bauer. I would've loved to see Yvonne Straviski's character carried on, or Tony, or Renee (if she weren't dead). But there is just nothing interesting about the new guy. I don't even know his name. He is just so dull and generic.
Everything about this show is. Its like the writers took every 24 trope they could think of, threw it at the wall, and are just kinda hoping something sticks. Which, in fairness, is what the writers did in 24's later seasons. But in later seasons that was okay, because the viewer was, by that point, invested in Jack and Chloe. People forget, season 1 of 24 was a fairly small and personal story.
Here, there is nothing pulling the viewer in to it. I have no connection with these characters. I don't care if there is a mole in CTU because I don't know this iteration of CTU. It won't be effective for there to be a mole amidst a bunch of people I don't know. Season one of 24 slowly pulled back the veil over the mole. It built connections between the audience and Jack, Nina, Tony, and Jamie. It gave the viewer stakes about who the mole is. Here, it can be virtually anyone and it means nothing to me, or Eric for that matter. He doesn't know these people. There is nothing personal driving him (unlike season 1 with Jack).
As a result it all just feels, meh. I suppose what I am getting at is, this feels like an episode out of season 4 or 5 of 24, by which point the characters and stakes are well established. Instead of starting small and world building, giving the viewer insight into the new players and their roles, we have just been dropped in at a midway point with the writers just assuming that the brand would compensate for the lack of character development. And its kind of hard to care as a result.
I know Sutherland liked to say the format was the real star...but watching a Bauer-less 24, I gotta disagree. The format may have been the star, but Jack was what connected the audience to the world. This show is proving that slapping a generic knock off into the same story and format does not replicate the results.
). Almost his entire team were wiped out, and he and his wife were attacked at his home. If that's not personal motivation to leap into action, I don't know what is.
That guaranteed me watching the next ep.
