When the series 24 first premiered a few seasons back, I thought it was the most brilliant thing that’d been on television in a long, long time — the conceit that each hour-long episode represented an hour of “real time” was clever and fresh, the suspenseful tone was pretty consistent, and even the plot of that first season was relatively realistic (if somewhat burdened with the “one damn thing after another” flavor of old cliffhanger serials, which, in a sense, is exactly what 24 is). It was also great to see Kiefer Sutherland, an actor I’ve enjoyed since his early roles in the 1980s, land a steady job and some critical respect.
However, I decided early on that show was something of a one-trick pony; after all, how many incredibly intense 24-hour crises in which the fate of the nation hangs in the balance could a single counter-terrorism agent realistically find himself in? One, maybe two in a single lifetime, but after that it would start getting harder and harder to accept that what we’re watching is “real.” Disbelief will only allow itself to be suspended so far. Call it the Die Hard 2 effect.
