Finally started rewatching Season 2

[catch22girl]

I couldn't sleep and I've been wanting to rewatch 24 s2 for a while now. But, I have to say the thing I love the most? You can pick SCENES in an ep to rewatch! I love these DVDs! Okay, I do have some deeper commentary - LOL.

Rewatching it, I was amazed at how even though I watched Jack a)shoot an unarmed man, b)break someone's ankle, c)kill three other men, d)threaten several people, e)completely ignore the fact that everyone at CTU ALSO has family and then finally f)shoot a dog -- I still love and adore him. There aren't many characters that could get away with all of the above and STILL have my sympathy and respect.

However, it comes down to what I think separates 24 from all other spy shows and why it's so entertaining and engrossing. Drastic times call for drastic action. Since the first scene of the season is of a guy getting tortured for information, it's clear that no one in the show is going to have clean hands. 24 is about making not only tough choices, but no win choices. Nobody's innocent. However, 24 is also a show where everyone does eventually get "judged" for their decisions or has to face their own demons. Palmer's actions might not be entirely correct, but he is judged for them later...anything that Jack does is totally negated by what happens to him later in the season and the threat is so much larger than the life of one person.

I think that if season 2 was about saving Kim or something without the bigger threat to a million+ people it would be sort of difficult to justify most of Jack's actions - heck, even a threat on a President's life might not justify it.

I really do believe that season 2's theme was "the ends justify the means". Whatever it takes to achieve your goal - you do it. Even the villains showed the truth of that statement.

The reason, however, that it's a great show is because the audience can see each person's side. We see the ruthlessness of the American government and their methods. We watch people decide who lives and who dies. The two main villains are a)people who love America and think it's in trouble and b)people who hate America and want to see it destroyed. Yet, the first group is willing to kill a lot of people to achieve their goal. There is no right side and 24 is one of the few shows that is willing to show the dangers from both domestic and international terrorists who both believe they're in the right. In 24's world, both are really used by a third side who doesn't feel much one way or the other and is only interested in power and money.

Our hero kills without immediate remorse and Mason, the man whose death we mourn later in the season is a deserter and then has to make the tough decision to let someone die so others might live. Yet, the acting and the writing keep us both interested and invested in the outcome.

However, one interesting thing to me, is that although everyone else's families are in danger, everyone else could die, Jack has tunnel vision when it comes to Kim. Now, granted, we all saw CTU totally fail at protecting Teri in season one, but it is interesting that no one at CTU ever wonders why he's allowed to warn his family and they are not. It's not a plot hole exactly, but it does lead me to think that maybe, Jack has no confidence in their ability to stop the bomb from going off.

After S1, Jack has lost all faith in his ability to stop bad things from happening. After S2, he's realized that it's not his fault. So it'll be interesting to see where season 3 takes him.

I'm also just impressed by how the show made me think that Reza was dangerous and never even hinted that there might be another explanation. Even though I know that Reza is innocent and Marie is the dangerous one, in those first few episodes it's almost impossible to believe.

I also have to admit that I like Kate in the first few episodes! I do, you totally sympathize with her point of view and fear for her safety. It's only when she became a designated "love interest" that I started to get annoyed with her, greatly greatly annoyed.

Totally shallow romantic comment - Tony and Michelle are SO cute together. After the bombing when she thinks he might be dead and then later when he's upset that he'd let Paula die too...and she touches his back, so much tension, just...great. You can totally tell that she wants him too, even from the first episode.

Comments

[annakie.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with everythig you said.

About Kate -- I've never really made up my mind on whether she pisses me off or not. On some level, she does. But, they could have made it a lot worse. At least they just *hinted* at a possible romance. I really have to respect that there wasn't any real big romantic "moment" between the two of them, especially a kiss. Now, it got kind of close at Kate's house with the hug, but I thought even that was well done. I would have been ticked if there was a kiss, or an "I love you" or something, you know? I think what really did annoy me was that commercial they played before I believe the 1a-2a episode where what's his name wanted Kate to take him on the family airplane.

I know a lot of people were upset about Teri dying and felt like Jack should still be mourning her, but kind of forgot that he'd been mourning her for nearly 2 years, while we'd only been mourning her for like 5 months.

Also, I just kept reminding myself how that morning, Kate woke up thinking the most traumatic thing that'd happen to her that day was watching her baby sister get married before her. A few hours later she was instead kidnapped, watched a man get tortured to death, she was tortured and slightly maimed -- very close to getting shot, had to go undercover, thought she watched the one person she trusted kill a child, found out her sister was evil and plotting to kill a few million people, had to be a translator for a language she was unsure of, was nearly killed by said sister, watched the first man she sort of had interest in in a long time fly off on a suicide mission, was pulled out of CTU for unknown reasons, almost turned over into the hands of someone she was fairly sure would kill her by Jack, got shot at multiple times, had to kill a man herself, had to be an impromptu nurse for a dying man, watched ANOTHER man die, ran away from more people who wanted to kill her, watched a friend get beaten up and left for dead, got kidnapped, let the kidnappers into her house, was nearly raped, and watched Jack kill her kidnappers.

Now, that's what I call a bad day. But, despite all this, she still even annoyed me slightly. Just not nearly as bad as most people. :)

[catch22girl]

Well when you put it that way ;)

But, yeah, I liked there was no huge romantic moment -- but hey, that whole baby sister getting married thing seemed pretty traumatic the way Kate was acting - lol.

That's true, I think what bothered me is that she was the one person who didn't get that whole "ends justify the means" thing and kept trying to act as the show's "conscience" instead of letting people do what they needed to do -- it wasn't until later that she finally accepted the idea.

I remember being very thankful for the phone call during the hug :) Ohhh that commercial - that's just FOX publicity totally missing the point ;)