*** may contain spoilers ***

After catching the first season of 24 on DVD [which is on sale at the Future Shop for $29.99, great deal!], I was hoping to eventually get the second season somewhere, as the first season was pretty wicked. Although I thought the whole instant amnesia part was prett lame. Supposedly it was based on director's Stephen Hopkins' real life experience, but it still seemed pretty farfetched to me. Anyhow, the Mystery channel was playing season 3 from the very start, so I thought what the hell, I'll watch that even though I haven't seen season 2 yet. Having watched the whole thing, I thought it was pretty good! There was a lot of humour in it, although I'm not sure if it was all intentional or not. There were so many soap-operish elements going on, it was kind of ridiculous. I thought Chappelle would eventually make the comment that "this place is like a goddamn soap opera!", but he never did. And it was kind of funny that hardly anybody seemed to obey Chappelle's orders, are all government agency's this dysfunctional? Over 24 hours, doesn't anybody get hungry, tired or have to go to the washroom? Not on this show. The presidential side of the show was pretty lame, but the CTU stuff more than made up for it. Had some good twists and turns in it too, they had me fooled with the Gael fake-out and the Chappelle hit. [I thought it would turn out to be fake!]

So I really liked Season 3, and I thought I'd continue on to Season 4, expecting the same kind of fun, suspensful entertainment. Ugh, am I ever disappointed, so far at least, I'm up to ep 7. All the old characters' are gone except for Jack and Chloe. Well, there's also the new president, but he ain't no David Palmer! All the new characters suck, I mean really suck. I hate Jack's new girlfriend. I hate the new head of CTU, Driscoll, not just the character but the actress who protrays her, Alberta Watson. She's horrible, seems to deliver all her lines through clenched teeth and it looks like she's reading them off a teleprompter. And I hate Heller, protrayed by William Devane, every moment he's on screen is pure torture. All the new CTU people are uninteresting. I also hate Heller's son Richard, whom CTU [and his dad!] seem to have no problem torturing for information, even though they only "think" he might be hiding something. And all the political BS they've injected into this show is just so irritating. Season 3 had a bit of this but it was easily ignored, Season 4 bangs you over the head with it so much it's impossible to ignore. This season has no suspense, no humour, it's mostly garbage so far. The terrorist family is about the only saving grace, they are so evil, they're actually a hoot to watch.

After hating this season so much, imagine my surprise when I go to the TWOP forums and everybody there seems to love it! Weird. And I hear this season is getting great ratings as well. Go figure. Oh well, I still have Season 2 to catch up on, and who knows, maybe Season 5 will be better. David Fury of Buffy fame is supposed to be a writer on next year's installment.