It finally happened. Someone stopped Jack Bauer.
It happened on Friday. March 26 at approximately 4:44pm. If we were watching 24 and it went to commercial break, that's the time that would appear on the screen, and in the "death tradition" of the show, it would almost certainly have been a silent clock.
Executive producer Howard Gordon and star/e.p. Kiefer Sutherland both decided it was time to pull the plug, even if NBC was reportedly circling the show as a possible pick-up. There's so much irony in that statement. NBC created the disastrous Jay Leno Show to SAVE money on the high cost of scripted shows, particularly dramas. Then they consider picking up one of the most expensive shows on television. (They're all smoking crack in the NBC executive suite.)
So after 8 years--8 DAYS really--Jack Bauer and friends (and enemies) come to an end in May of this year. At least on the small screen. The long-rumored 24 movie is moving forward, written by Billy Ray (who wrote the excellent movie adaptation of State of Play last year, from the BBC mini-series). According to Sutherland, the final episodes of this season will set up the movie, which quashes any possibilities of going back in time and doing a film with Tony, Michelle, and the first (real) President Palmer.
I always thought 24 would end with a bang, not a whimper. To me, there was only one possible ending to the series and that was Jack Bauer's death. Despite being the hero of the series, he has to pay for all of his sins at some point in time, no matter how many times he saved America and the world. Sutherland says their intent is to create a "definitive end for Jack Bauer," but I don't see how that's possible if they're setting up a movie. Producer Gordon says they go to "a very definitive, very complex place."
But any movie is at least 2 years off, I reckon, and asking a fickle viewing public to remember that "definitive end" is asking a lot. I'm sad to see 24 go, but not as sad as I would have been if it ended last season, which was a great one. Season eight...not so much. Even though there was an extremely interesting plot twist at the very end of last Monday's episode--one I didn't see coming at all--this year is still a "meh" one as far as I'm concerned, victim to the schizophrenic nature of the show's casting: sometimes it's wonderful, sometimes it's bewildering and annoying. This year it's the latter.
And that silent clock thing they pull when someone dies? Well, it's not exactly true here. 24 will live again on the big screen.
Well... Two things.
#1. When I finally "pass on", I take comfort in knowing my 5,000+ volume cookbook research library will be left to a person or an organization that will appreciate it... and it will remain as one library and never "split up". I can't imagine leaving anyone an ipad.
#2. There is something about going into that room, my room, and closing the door. The total silence (do to the sound deading the books provide) and the smells (old and new). I hope your ipad comes with a big pair of thick earmuffs and one of those tree-shaped air fresheners (book-scented of course) to wear around your neck.
May the force be with you.
Posted by: Melanie Preschutti | March 30, 2010 at 12:11 PM