TV Weekend: 24: Redemption
Kelsey McNeal/FOX
Once upon a time there was a plan to shoot season 7 of 24 in Africa. In between then and now, the idea was scotched, for reasons I'm not completely clear on. What we have been left with is 24: Redemption, a two-hour movie / season 7 prequel that airs Sunday on Fox. In it, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is working at a school in a fictional African country—on the run from a Congressional subpoena over alleged acts of torture, and in expiation of various sins in his past. When the school is attacked by rebels who want to conscript the students as child soldiers, Jack springs into action to save the kids.
There's not much to recommend the movie, but it does suggest a scenario for why the original season 7 plan was scrapped:
INT: WRITERS' ROOM, LOS ANGELES
WRITER 1: But can Jack get a cell phone signal in the middle of the rain forest?
WRITER 2: Don't worry about it. So he calls Chloe, and asks her— [The door opens, interrupting him.]
WRITER 3: Hey, guys. I just got the DVD of Blood Diamond. Want to watch?
INT. WRITERS' ROOM, LOS ANGELES, TWO HOURS LATER
WRITER 2: Oh. Crap.
[Silence.]
WRITER 1: Well... Can we get a TV movie out of it at least?
Similarities to already-made movies aside, Redemption does suggest a step forward for 24: hopefully, the show has realized—after the ludicrous season 6—that it can't keep trying to top itself with bigger and bigger terrorist threats, and instead needs to focus on taut, smaller-scale thrillers. But by taking 24's real-time format and scaling it down to two hours, the movie never gains momentum, partly because it also has to introduce characters and conspirators for the real season 7 (including new Prez Cherry Jones) and its conclusion feels rushed and forced.
At best, it's a tantalyzing but skippable promo for the season that begins in January. But 24 has not redeemed itself yet.
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1
James, I've gotta ask, coz I'm a little confused by the post- so, did they nix the shooting on location in Africa idea because their conflict diamonds story had already been done or because of supposed high production costs as the TV Guide article you linked to suggests?
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The latter reasoning is dubious at best--there is no cheaper place IMO to shoot a movie or TV series than Africa if you know how to 'work the terrain', and I say this from experience. My personal favorite location is an absolute treasure, famous for the first Brangelina tabloid pictures and giving America (at least half of ) an exotic president-elect.
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I'll watch 24:Redemption but thanks for the heads up on expectations.
Oh btw, any tid-bits on TNT's upcoming 'Leverage'? -
2
@bzdesk: The Blood-Diamond-similarity explanation is a joke. (There is actually no diamond trade story in Redemption, but the treatment of the child soldiers storyline is very similar.) The expense theory is TV Guide's; I have no idea if it's valid, but I believe, for instance, that The CW actually saved money shooting the short-lived Life Is Wild there. Short answer is I dunno why that plan was killed.
Didn't much care for the first ep of Leverage I've seen, which I thought way overrelied on predictable elements of the heist/con show formula, like the Ocean's 11 / Hu$tle cool-jazz soundtrack.
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3
But 24 has not redeemed itself yet.
well, casting Cherry Jones as President is all the reason I'll need to watch 24 this year...
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4
Short answer is I dunno why that plan was killed.
the way I see it, either Jack spent half the show above the atlantic ocean flying from Africa to DC (and when it comes to movies you've already seen, the "terrorist on a plane" scenario is the action equivalent of "meeting cute"), or the show winds up being filmed in a whole series of exotic (and increasingly expensive) locales in Africa, Europe and/or Asia.
You were right about the show -- unremarkable in the extreme -- and I got the sense that what we saw was actually a condensed version of the first three hours of the show.
One other thing that really annoyed the crap out of me (and which you probably didn't notice since you watch commercial-free screeners) was that the show went well beyond mere "product placement" to egregious and direct support of the shows sponsors -- Hyndai Genesis and Cisco.
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5
I gotta say -- I enjoyed having Jack Bauer back in my life, killing bad guys, surviving torture, and snapping necks with his legs.
I like Cherry Jones as the new President, but I'll miss the Powers Booth growl...here's hoping he (and Peter MacNichol) stick around. I could have done without the entire drugged out employee discovering the bad files thing, though. And it must be said -- Jon Voight has the possibility of being the most cartoonish villain on 24 since Season One and Dennis Hopper (wow, what a horrible accent).
By the way, as a friend of mine noted -- doesn't the previews of the new House make it look like an episode of 24? And not just because Zeljo Ivanek (24 Season One bad guy!) is taking Princeton Plainsboro hostage...
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6
Did anybody else notice the camera man dressed in black and the director standing next to him at the 1 hour and 30 minute mark of the show? It was when the children were running into the woods to take cover from the helicopter. They ran right into the camera man. Very poor editing. If you have it on HD Tivo, check it out. It's pretty funny.
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 8 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 9 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 10 hours ago
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