The 24 Bum

This is the second night in a row that an iconic television show has ended it’s run, I’ve got to say the last episode of 24 was so much more fun then Lost. While Lost kept you on the edge of your brain, 24 almost always kept you on the edge of your seat. I will always consider the first season of 24 as one of the best full seasons of television…….ever!

Kiefer Sutherland has been part of my pop culture almost my whole life. Sure it was nepotism that helped him get a leg up in Hollywood (we all know dad Donald), but it was roles in such movies as Stand By Me (Ace), The Lost Boys (David), and Young Guns (Doc) that put him on the map. Sutherland has been a mainstay in film in television since, but it was 24 that finally gave him an iconic lead character that fit him perfectly, and earned him an Emmy, Jack Bauer.

As Jack Bauer on 24 he fought family, friends, and enemies foreign and domestic, pretty much anyone that got in his way of upholding his beliefs. Sometimes it seemed as if it was him against the world, and he was the only one that knew the right thing to do, and would get the job done at any cost. His nobility and persistence to uphold the law and/or do what was right to reach his endgame was what made us all watch with bated breath as each second past while ….events occurred in real time. However, it was those values that put him in each of those nasty positions. It was Jack’s expertise that kept him one step ahead of everyone else. Jack Bauer was a victim of his own skills.

In the series finale Jack puts himself in a position set straight the events of the previous 22 hours. With his girlfriend murdered, and the government set to kill him Jack feels the need to expose a cover up and kill everyone involved to avenge her death, and the deaths of so many others. For the most part Jack has been alone on his missions throughout our 8 season history with him, but in the end even Jack Bauer couldn’t get to finish what he started without help from his friends, and it was President Taylor (played flawlessly by Cherry Jones) that was his final savior once she finally came to her senses. Jones told Newsweek magazine once that the model for her portrayal of President Taylor was based on a combination of Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, and John Wayne.

It was nice to see ex-President Logan (Gregory Itzin) finally get what he deserved, and take himself out like the coward that he was. It did seem apropos that he even screwed up shooting himself in the head. I liked the idea that he left himself alive with possible severe brain damage, kind of forcing himself to live as a prisoner in his own head.

There was only one thing that always bothered me about 24. For eight seasons I had to watch Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) gripe, and complain about everything. I think that is probably the only character that I actually wanted to take a bullet. Even when she was appointed the head of CTU this season she was still such a whiner.

I do have the say though that the last scene when she is watching Jack on the monitor you can tell that she knows that it will be the last time she will ever see him. It was kind of a sweet goodbye for us the viewers as well. Sure, there could be a 24 movie, but tonight was the end of an era of television unlike any other. This show by no means would have worked before the DVR. There are so many people out there that probably never could have made the type of commitment that 24 asked of them, pre-DVR, but it was the right show that came along at the perfect time. Goodbye, Jack Bauer. We will miss you.