Comments on: TV Weekend: 24: Redemption

By: licienced1970

licienced1970 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:27:32 +0000

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.

By: Chaddogg

Chaddogg — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:42:28 +0000

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...

By: plukasiak

plukasiak — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:31:27 +0000

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.

By: plukasiak

plukasiak — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:07:00 +0000

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...

By: James Poniewozik

James Poniewozik — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:54:30 +0000

@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.

By: bzdesk

bzdesk — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:42:15 +0000

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'?