Watching 24

Just an update about how things are going with the new point system here at Watching 24.

Like I said before, with permission from Jess at Apropos of Something here at Watching 24 we’re going to do a fun point system throughout the upcoming season of 24.

First thing to announce is the title for the feature: 24 Character Countdown. During the season I will be giving and taking away point for all the main characters depending on what they do. Each character will start with 100 points and then depending on how they act and what they do their points will go up or down.

The logo for the feature should be up in the coming weeks. If you want to see how the point system works with Lost, please go on over and visit Apropos of Something. Of course the whole scoring system is completely objective, but I’m sure we’ll all have fun with it, I know I will.

The folks over at TVSquad have a great story.

It seems that Jennifer Aniston loves 24, so much so she put her name in for the running as one of the guest appearances. Producer Joel Surnow, did one of the smartest things ever, and turned her down. He also turned down Ben Stiller, saying that they were “too recognizable. They’ll take you out of the reality.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Surnow’s decision. 24 is no place for Aniston or Stiller. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ben Stiller, and when he guest starred on Arrested Development as Tony Wonder, I almost died laughing. But, where would Ben Stiller fit in at 24? As a quirky terrorist? I don’t think so.

Aniston would’ve been an awful choice for the show, period. Bring back Mia Kirshner (Mandy) that would work.

Some spoilers for PREVIOUS seasons lay ahead.

Well, it’s that time of year again. Grab a piece of paper and a pen, make a list of what you want, and hope that you don’t get tube socks again.

But, for me I’d like to make a list of what I’d like to see happen in the upcoming season of 24.

1. How did we get Jack back from the Chinese? The first thing I would’ve listed, if I didn’t know better, was that we get Jack back from the Chinese. Since we know that happens, I hope that it isn’t some ridiculously unbelievable reason. Also, I would like to know, how the Americans know that Jack was actually captured by the Chinese. It’s obvious that the new President Palmer knew Jack and so when this new crisis arises it’s a no-brainer that he’d want Jack back in play. But, I’m really hoping of a good believable story on why the Chinese gave Jack Bauer back.

2. Revenge Jack is back. This is something that I actually wished for a long time ago, when I first started watching 24. During the end of the first season there’s a scene where Jack feels/thinks like he’s lost everything. Like he doesn’t have anything to live for, and just goes in guns blazing. It’s one of my favorite 24 moments. Something that’s happening in this season leads me to believe that Jack is going to pull out the little number of “stops� he has left. When Jack is out for revenge, he’s a hundred times more dangerous and deadly. Numerous sources have claimed that this season will be more about Jack saving himself, rather than the country as a whole.
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‘Tis the season for award nominations to be announced.

24 has been nominated for 2 major categories.

Best TV Series–Drama
24
Big Love
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
Lost

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series–Drama
Patrick Dempsey, Grey’s Anatomy
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Hugh Laurie, House
Bill Paxton, Big Love
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

For a complete list of the Nominees, check out the Golden Globes Website.

Former child star, and NYPD Blue alum Rick Schroder is set to join the 24 cast this upcoming season.

How does everyone feel about this? Schroder overall isn’t that bad of an actor. He was decent on NYPD Blue, which scooped him out of his “child-star” obscurity.

What I find interesting is the amazing resemblance Schroder has compared to James Badge Dale who played Chase in the second. Schroder is said to be playing a field ops agent, just like Dale did with Chase.

Schroder now joins a cast of Powers Boothe, Chad Lowe, and James Cromwell.

What are everyone’s thoughts on this casting choice?

TV nowadays is very different from what it was like in the late 80’s or early 90’s. 15 years ago it was the age of the sitcom. You remember TGIF? Family Matters, Full House, Step-by-step, and even that crazy show called Dinosaurs. That was the TV of yester-year.

Today the “one-couch-sitcom� is all but dead. Serial dramas like Lost, 24, and The Sopranos rule the airways. So, what happened to create the television landscape we see today?

Back in 2001 the first season of 24 premiered. It was a modest hit. Then the DVD came out which started selling like mad. In an interview with IGN in 2002 Kiefer said that the DVD sales, for 24, in the UK actually knocked Lord of The Rings out of first place, something totally unheard of in the TV/DVD world.
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My friend Matt gave me an idea a while ago to review the past seasons of 24.

I own all of them, and my girlfriend hasn’t seen any of them, so we’re going through all of them before season 6 premieres. It’s quite the feat, but we’ll accomplish it.
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With season 6 of 24 just a little over a month away, I’ve come up with a grand idea for a new feature to implement when the new season rolls out.

Actually, I cannot claim the idea as my own, but I can claim the fact that I have received permission, and well wishes from the person with the original idea.

Jess, over at a wonderful blog called, Apropos of Something does a feature called Lost-Vivor where she keeps track of points won or lost by the characters based on how good, or bad they are doing. Of course this whole scoring system is up to the actual person doing the scoring, but it’s fun none-the-less.

I emailed Jess a few days ago and asked her if she’d be terribly put-off by me doing my own version of the game, but 24 style. She said she loves 24, and can’t wait to see how the point system works out with the show.

Here’s an example of how Lost-Vivor works:

So, please stay tuned. The logo for the feature will be unveiled a little later on.

EDIT: Sorry for the choppy lettering on the screencap. I still can’t figure out how to make a nice screencap show lettering very well, but you get the idea.

Check out the actual link for more details.

MSNBC has a story about how Former President Palmer, Dennis Haysbert, loves his role on The Unit.

Last season when The Unit debuted I really tried to get into, I really did. I loved Haysbert as President Palmer, and his Allstate commercials demanded my complete attention. But, I felt like The Unit fell flat.

I must be the only one that thinks this, because it’s become quite the hit over on CBS. But, I just didn’t like it at all. I watched the first four episodes before I gave up. I felt like the whole “group of wives” storyline was filler. It just never seemed natural to me.

Anyway, I will always remember Haysbert as President Palmer.

How many of you are fans of 24 and The Unit? How do you feel about The Unit and it’s suggestive title?

In response to the controversy my last article, about the 24 season 6 prequel, caused I’d like to clarify a few things, and respond to a few of the comments.

Konig wrote:

So are you against ANY products being used in the show? I mean c’mon, how many times do you see black Chevy Suburbans/Tahoes being used during the season?

I’d like to respond to this comment by saying no I’m not against product placement. We’ve all pretty much grown accustomed to seeing a Cingular logo or Cisco phone on 24. What I had a problem with in the prequel was that the prequel itself didn’t add enough story to the overall 24 storyline to make me forget or dismiss the shiny new Rav 4 under the tarp.

During the season we end up seeing tons of Fords, RZR Phones, and countless Cingular logos when service is lost on Jack’s phone. But, for me I’m thinking more about the season than the product in front of me. Because of the prequel’s length and unwillingness to show us anything new or informational about the storyline it just seemed like an extended commercial to me.
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Should 24 keep making the ‘prequels’ that they use for special features on the DVD’s? After watching this one I’m going to have to say, no.

I’m a geek for anything relating to the upcoming season 6 of 24, and I was pretty excited to see the prequel, but alas it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Truthfully, and pathetically, it seemed more like a Rav 4 commercial than an actual 24 affiliated prequel.

The video:

7 Months Later…

Jack is being held by the Chinese. They’re trying to get information out of Jack by torturing him. As we all know torture doesn’t faze Jack, which is why I guess they have been at this for the past 7 months.
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Yahoo! TV has rolled out their new beta design and I really like it. It has every show imaginable on it. Here’s the page dedicated to 24. It has videos, pictures, everything you could want. Check it out.

Check this out! Just some more stuff to get you hyped about the upcoming season.

I found this video on YouTube. It’s a great teaser trailer. There’s a few different scenes in it from the original trailer.

Like the part where the Chinese Diplomat says “Jack Bauer is no longer China’s enemy.”

I’m really interested on what went on there to make it so Jack could be returned to the States. How did the States find out he was captured by the Chinese specifically? I can’t wait!
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I’ve been hearing rumors around the internet, and it’s sounding like FOX is going to be selling the first 4 episodes of this upcoming season on DVD the Tuesday after the Sunday/Monday four hour season premiere.

To tell you the truth I’m not sure what FOX is trying to accomplish with this. If it’s an effort to try and curb the bittorrent crew out there, I just don’t see it working.

The disc is going to cost $14.98, which is a little under half of what you’d pay for the entire DVD once it came out (Amazon always sells pre-oder DVD’s at a very discounted price).

I think it’s an innovative idea, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t understand the overall thinking of this plan. This will not stop the bittorrent people out there. And are the networks REALLY worried about bittorrents? The amount of people that actually have a Tivo or DVR and use those to skip commercials seem to dwarf the amount of people that know how to effectively download and use bittorrents.

I’ll be interested to see what sort of numbers they put up after this. Like how many sold. It’ll be interesting.