Amph 24: The Jack Bauer Power Hour (and Spin-Offs)

Say what?

 

First lines
Operator: Identify!

Victor R.: Victor Rovner requesting permission to transmit.

Operator: Log in. {Pause} Permission granted.

Last Line:
Chloe: Shut it down.

 

Eh, sounds like a bit of a reach to me.

 

I'm watching Season 8 in real time right now, and I have to say how great the season flows when you watch it all at once.

 

I Believe in Yesterday

My connection to 24 is an odd one. I routinely rank it among the greatest television shows of all time and it catapulted Kiefer Sutherland to the ranks of my favorite actors. And it is the only television show that I have ever watched as appointment viewing, ie. Rearranged my schedule in order to get home in time to catch the new episode. As a child of the DVD era, I see little of interest in this kind of viewing, but with 24, I felt I was watching something significant and important unfold and I wanted to experience it with my fellow tv watchers.

What makes this odd is that all of the above applies to only the first season. I managed to make it all the way through the first season of 24 missing only one episode, though I did have a truly terrifying near miss when plans spiraled out of control on me on the night, of all nights, when the SEASON FINALE aired. By the skin of my teeth, I made it in and saw justice arrive for Dennis Hopper yet again as it happened, thank God.

But the grueling energy required to watch a TV show with that much dedication just shattered me. I actually hadn?t anticipated a second season; by the end of the first season, the writers were already stretching and it struck me as more of a one time event than a regular old television series. So, I let the show drop off my radar, though I?ve been vaguely aware of things like the time jumps between seasons and such. Most spoilers I?ve stayed away from; since this isn?t a show that one can watch in syndication or randomly, I haven?t seen a full episode of 24 since the season finale of Day One.

Why haven?t I watched it on DVD? Beats me. I?ve always intended too, but kept putting it off. Well, no more.

On the 24 wikia, I?ve found what amounts to a timeline. It?s non-specific, since the show refuses to be pinned down to any particular years. However, it includes, not only the series, but the novels, comics, games and internet only mini-series that have been released as tie-ins to the series itself.

And so, I am to correct a deficit in my obsession. The first season of 24 was one of the greatest seasons of television I?ve ever seen, the final two episodes making one of the finest two parters in television history and Sutherland?s performance, in particular in those final two episodes just about turned my idea of acting on television upside down.

Why so many timeline projects from me, you ask? Well, it?s a way to motivate myself. I want to watch all of 24, but without a project to drive me, I?ll just trickle through them at some unspecified date in the future. But when I find a timeline for a universe that a legitimately want to work through, it?s an easy way to start myself on a project I?ve been wanting to do in one way or another anyway.

I hope all you 24 fanatics will join me on my journey through this universe with your comments, though hopefully mostly spoiler free since I haven?t seen much of the show. I hope, most of all, that you enjoy my ramblings.

So, according to the timeline, we start with a novel; so, I've rambled enough; let's get started!

24 Declassified: Trinity (2008) ? John Whitman

<img src="http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/7/9780061431197.jpg">

*It should certainly be noted that when I first got this book from the library and glanced at it, that I thought Jack was charging into battle wearing a tank top. Which does sound like something he?d do.

*The book opens with a brief blurb about the history of the CTU. It was founded in response to the first WTC bombing in 1993. Despite rough treatment from other security agencies, CTU eventually established supremacy in the field of domestic terrorism.

*In response to 9/11, several early missions from the founding days of CTU were declassified.

*THIS IS ONE OF THOSE MISSIONS!! NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE PERPETUALLY LATE!

*So, the novel opens with a two page prologue, wherein a plane blows up in the s

 

CHAPPELLE: We need him like a hole in the head.

Ok, I laughed

 

John Whitman's irony goes all the way to eleven.

 

Great review. I never got around to reading a lot of the books, but I did like a couple of the ones that I did read. If you really want to stay spoiler-free, I'd stay away from the official 24 website and 24 wikia. Even episode guides of season one episodes may spoiler episodes from season eight in the trivia section.

 

Thanks for the spoiler respect. I feel like I don't totally have the right to ask for it since this is your thread I'm sort of co-opting for my reviews, so I especially appreciate it as something perhaps not exactly within my bounds to ask for. I do hope to fill you guys in on some of this stuff; I bet a lot of people never got around to reading these things, but that doesn't mean you won't be interested to hear what they're about. And once I hit things you have read, definitely jump in with your thoughts. I think this'll be fun. Oh and Quest, if you want an Almeida spin-off, you'll really love Vanishing Point when I get to that one; Tony gets all the Bauer Power moments in that one, despite not being Bauer.

 

I'll probably generally be posting once a week, but here's an extra one.

24: One Shot (2004) ? J.C. Vaughan, Mark L. Haynes, Renato Guedes

<img src="http://www.kiefersutherland24.net/ResearchOneShot.jpg">

*So, this was the first 24 comic book to be published. It along with two of its follow ups, Midnight Sun and Stories, has been collected in a TPB, creatively titled ?24.?

*So, this is supposedly Jack Bauer?s first day with CTU. It begins at 10:00 AM.

*It starts with Jack on the phone to Teri, briefly explaining to her that he?s going to be out of town overnight.

*Then we move to Richard Walsh showing Jack around CTU. Walsh was talked about a lot in Trinity, but he never actually appeared, so this is his first appearance.

*So, then Walsh introduces Jack to our standard pre-season one CTU cast: Nina, Tony and Jamey.

*Of course, Jack already met all three of these people in Trinity. So that appears to be a continuity error, but then, as I said, Walsh wasn?t actually in that book, so it strikes me that Walsh may just not be aware that Jack has met them all previously and, out of respect for Walsh, no one brings it up.

*The art, I must say, is very good. The likenesses are mainly spot on.

*So, the plot here is that a high ranking IRA terrorist has turned herself in and is prepared to give a lot of information about her former associates. They, of course, are trying to kill her. Jack, of course, is assigned to protect her. She, of course, is incredibly beautiful and svelte.

*So, Moira, the IRA defector, explains to Jack that she just got tired of all the killing. She then drops a pretty great line that about sums it up: ?I?ve spent literally every day of my adult life trying to kill some of my countrymen because they believe in Jesus the wrong way.?

*Well, yeah, when you put it like that, it DOES sound kind of stupid . . .

*So, Jack, along with four other agents, installs Moira in an out of the way cabin in the desert. Tony, Nina and Richard Walsh do various computer related things.

*A team of IRA killers arrive to take out Moira. Two of the team members are, of course, incredibly beautiful and svelte women.

*So, soon, two of the agents, acting as perimeter guards, have been killed and Jack and the remaining two agents find themselves barricaded inside the cabin as the five IRA killers skulk around outside.

*There?s a running gag where Moira keeps asking Jack to let her out of the handcuffs and he keeps refusing. During an assault on the cabin, however, the baddies pop a flash grenade, momentarily blinding Jack and Moira grabs his arm and aims his weapon for him, shouting, ?shoot? at the appropriate moments.

*After that attack there is a moment of silence and then there?s a simple shot of Jack, stone faced as usual, extending a key ring; ?The key to your shackles is the little one,? he says simply.

*The baddies use a bazooka to blow up the cabin, killing one of Jack?s two remaining sidekicks, but Jack, the one remaining agent and Moira manage to escape.

*During this fracas, it?s revealed that Jack has only one shot left in his gun.

*That?s actually a rather clever pun; I hadn?t expected the title to actually tie to the story. Being as this was the first 24 comic, I figured it was called One Shot just to indicate that it was its own disconnected story. And, of course, that is, I guess, part of the reason it was called that. But it?s also a fairly effective joke.

*CTU has sent a chopper out to back up Jack, but the IRA killers, now reduced to just three, thanks to the gun battle at the cabin, shoot it down with the bazooka.

*Jack?s little team swings off at a gas station to try to contact CTU (they can?t use their cells because they?re being jammed). The baddies show up and launch a missile at the gas station.

*The fourth sidekick disappears from the story at this point, leading me to assume that he is killed, though the story never says one way or the other. Which is odd. The other three agents have all been sh

 

That is a clever use of "one shot."

This is an interesting project. Though I have to imagine that since one of the most frustrating parts of bad 24 episodes is when the show repeats itself, adding the extra material is only going to exacerbate that. Still, it's nice to see the good quotes you pulled out of the novel so I can get all the good bits without having to actually read it. Thank you for being the guinea pig, good sir.

Were the novel's chapters broken up every hour, on the hour?

 

Excellent, sir. As stated above, my guinea pig status is a big part of why I do this. Enjoy my reviews.

And, yes, the novel is broken up into 24 chapters, each one covering an hour. Though there's a lot of fudging.

 

Nightfall (2007) ? Mark Haynes, J.C. Vaughan, Jean Diaz, Debora Carita

<img src="http://www.joecorroney.com/downloads/24NightfallPoster640x480WP.jpg">

*So, we have some continuity issues with this six issue comic series. This book opens with a title card telling us that the events of this book take place two years to the day before the California Presidential Primary day that is the focus of season one.

*The problem is that Jack is very definitely still with the C.I.A. at this point and not with CTU. However, we have Jack deciding to join CTU at the end of Trinity, the first book we read for this thread. That book very explicitly takes place seven years after the first World Trade Center bombing and before 9/11. It definitely takes place in 2000.

*So, if Jack joined CTU in 2000, then Nightfall had to also happen in early 2000, I would think, which would place Day One in 2002, which is possible, I suppose.

*Regardless, Nightfall should be the very first thing you read in the 24-verse, being one of only two works, Trinity being the other, that focuses on Jack while he is still in the CIA.

*This one opens at 6:00 PM ET with David Palmer, still a lowly Senator, talking to Mike Novick who has been more or less hired, as we?ll gather later, to help arrange Palmer?s Presidential run. As the scene opens, Palmer gets a call from the President; Operation Nightfall is a go.

*Palmer then calls Robert Ellis, currently in a CIA safehouse in Belgrade. Ellis was seen, briefly, in Season One also. Ellis calls and relays the information to Jack, currently in a plane above the target zone with his five man team.

*So, the book does its dead level best to make you know who?s who on this team, but just can?t pull it off. There?s Jack, Bill, Dave, Stephen, Al and Ronnie.

*Dave, luckily, dies immediately when his parachute carries him into a minefield. So you can forget about Dave.

*On page 9 of this book, Jack says ?Dammit? for the very first time!

*Also, the local time in Jack?s plot is six hours ahead of the Washington time, so his plot actually starts a little after midnight.

*Victor and Andre Drezen appear in a scene discussing the explosion in the mine field.

*This made me kind of snicker: ANDRE: ?There has been an incident, a death in one of the remote minefields.? VICTOR: ?Have you secretly joined Amnesty International??

*The book also annoyingly refers to everyone in Jack?s team as Savoy One, Savoy Two, Savoy Three, etc, thus making double sure that, though you know everyone?s name, you?ll never quite be able to figure out who is who.

*There?s this rather sleazy CIA guy named Webster who knows that the CIA is running some kind of op and he?s trying to figure out exactly what it is. Is he a significant figure in later seasons of the show?

*Jack and his team meet up, a little after three in the morning, with their contacts, David and Anna, a pair of nationals who will help Jack meet up with an inside source in Drezen?s camp that will help them get within striking distance of Drezen.

*So, now, yes, there is a David to keep track of again.

*Some Serbian military shows up and there?s a massive and very poorly drawn gunbattle at the contacts? cabin around 4 in the morning.

*The art is strange; sometimes the likenesses are quite good; sometimes, from other angles, they?re terrible, so much so that you can?t even tell Jack apart from some of his men. And the action is occasionally sort of inspired, but mostly just very stagy.

*Back in Washington, Sherry Palmer is introduced as David is pulled away from a fundraiser party by Mike. She is, as you might guess, rather not happy about David leaving the party. This is like Season One flashback.

*Also back in Washington, Tony Webster of the CIA meets briefly with Richard Walsh and Christopher Henderson of CTU in what amounts to a very brief cameo for them both.

*There?s a weird extended scene of Andre and Victor meeting with some terrorist from Libya that basically has nothing t

 

The 'Charles' that you refer to is a very important character later in the series.

Regarding the date, the only problem with the 2002 date is that it isn't a presidential election year. That and a 24 trivia book says that the beginning date is March 2004. But the writers have tried not to put an actual date on things so any starting date between 02-04 is most likely good.

 

Actually, as we'll discover as we continue through the EU, that is only the very first of several horrible problems with the dating of the first season.

 

Is there some kind of subliminal long-distance foreshadowing going on with Palmer being in a book full of dying Davids?

Yeah, Charles has gotta be a reference to a certain future character. One of the show's best, in fact.

Holy cow, just occurred to me "Stephen" must be the Stephen from Season 3. Too bad he's apparently indistinguishable here.

Aaaand this post is of essentially no use to Rogue at this point.

EDIT: Oh hi guys. Yeah, the years things actually take place are really really problematic, especially with the early stuff.

 

Yeah, I mean with the later seasons the difference between whether the year is 2015 or 2017 doesn't really matter, except that means Jack is like 54 or something in Season 8.

 

This, actually, is a huge problem for me. I don't like going into Day One knowing that Jack is some sort of incredible superhero already. I mean, the point of the show, at least for me, in the first season was that horrendous montage at the end of the season finale that showed Jack from the first episode with his family and you just realize, "God, one single day can frigging destroy you." I mean, he has to just be a more or less normal person at the beginning of Day One or that season really loses all its . . . moral urgency?

 

Which is of course, why the books aren't part of my personal canon. I mean, I think it is nice that they don't have larger threats than the show, and keep down to small assassination threats, but still. It does take away from the first season when you truly believe that Jack's been going through hell for the first of many times. I mean how can you look at when Jack breaks down at the end of the day and says to Teri: "I promise you that everything's going to be okay. It's just been a really, really long day" and not believe that this is the first time ever that he's been pushed to this limit.

Hell, most of the cast feel this way in Seasons 2 and 3, with Jack and others complaining how tired they are. And the end of Season 3...this has to be only the third time Jack has gone through this, or else he wouldn't have given that reaction to the day.