So, who liked the first four episodes, who hated them, and who's wondering why I'm posting this a week before the TV airing? (the first four episodes are floating around the bittorrent sites)
I have to give the 4th episode's ending the obligatory "wow." it deserves. However...
...VERY MINOR SPOILERS...
The theatrics of 24 have lost their intrigue to me. I'd rather re-watch episodes 1 and 2 than watch an action-show-turned-political-comentary. I don't like what they've turned CTU into, or the personnel squabbles there. I don't like that every other phone call involves the President. I'm rabidly anti-authoritarian, but I can't stand watching a TV show flog the civil liberties horse to death.
Intrigue would be okay, but the constant bureaucratic squabbling at CTU and in the President's inner circle has to go.
I'm sick of seeing ordinary families being dragged into the midst of things. If an "ordinary family" shows up, they'd better be connected as more than a neighbor of a terrorist. The Warner family in season 2 was brilliant, for instance. I'm not watching 24 to get a reality show fix. I don't want to watch some father unravel and kill someone under the threat of losing his family, only to get dropped by the script soon afterwards.
The soap opera stuff at CTU needs to go, as well.
I think the studio/director realizes they can't generate the kind of intrigue they did the first few seasons, so they're forced to stick ordinary neighbors in hostage situations, have relationship bickering in CTU, and fill most of the rest of the time with bickering in the President's office. The few remaining moments of violent shock seem to keep viewers happy, and the studio is banking on that.
