24 Season 8 episode 20 (Dana Walsh’s execution) placed #17 on The Futon Critic’s “50 Best Episodes of 2010″.
17. “24: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.” (fox)
(originally aired: may 3, 2010)
Dark isn’t exactly a new territory for “24″ – just Google Jack Bauer and hacksaw – but the show’s waters reached some new depths in this episode, which saw Jack anoint himself judge, jury and executioner of Dana Walsh over Renee’s death. Her usefulness in finding her co-conspirators exhausted, Jack – rather than turn her over to CTU – simply opts to murder her in cold blood. Wow.
BuzzFocus has awarded Jack Bauer with “Best Action Hero” in their “Best of TV 2010″ awards. Here’s what they had to say about our favorite action hero:
Best Action Hero
Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), 24
Fact: Chuck Norris wears Jack Bauer pajamas. After personally saving America’s butt seven times, Jack Bauer wasted no time springing into action in Day 8, this time saving New York from a major terrorist attack. And just when he was ready to retire for good, he lost yet another love, Renee Walker (Annie Wersching). The result? Bauer went absolutely berserk and singlehandedly saved the day…again. And he gets a special helping of props for putting Dana Walsh out of her misery. When it was all said and done, he was able to escape and disappear into the shadows, presumably until Fox approves on a viable movie script.
Reader’s Choice Winner: Michael Western (Jeffrey Donovan), Burn Notice
TV Guide sure likes their 24 – the series finale placed on their “best episodes of 2010” list, the final scene was one of their “unforgettable moments“, and now this Dana Walsh scene is one of their “top moments” of the year:
24‘s Jack Bauer Silences Dana Walsh (Finally)
It’s always good to see Jack Bauer take down the bad guy, but it was especially rewarding for fans when he finally put double agent Dana Walsh out of her misery. After trying to sabotage the CTU the entire season (and becoming one of the series’ most despised characters), Jack finally corners Dana and shoots her dead despite her plea for mercy.
Since several people have asked me, here are all six of the deleted scenes found on the 24 Season 8 DVD.
There aren’t any audio commentaries for the deleted scenes this time around, so there’s no way to know why these scenes were cut. Most of them were probably removed for time reasons. [click to continue…]
Since I posted all the stories praising the series finale, it’s only fair that I post a differing opinion too. Cinema Blend is listing the 24 series finale as one of their “Biggest TV Disappointments Of 2010″ and here’s what they’ve got to say:
Jack Bauer’s Dismal Ending – 24
The season finale of 24 wasn’t bad. It resolved most of the issues for the season and even delivered on a few big moments, including Jack almost being executed and a very touching final conversation between Jack and Chloe that surely made plenty of die hard 24 fans tear up. Did the finale leave a window open for the movie? Sure but as a series closer, Jack should’ve gone out in a blaze of glory, either buried in medals for his acts of bravery or just plain buried (because some great stories have to end that way). Instead, 24 ended with Jack all alone, injured, grieving and a wanted man who now has to go into hiding. Potential movie or not 24 deserved a better ending and so did we.
Entertainment Weekly’s Lynette Rice talked to Howard Gordon about the 24 movie being in limbo (which he first revealed to AssignmentX two weeks ago).
“As far as I know, it is in suspended animation,” Howard Gordon, the longtime executive producer of 24 who is also expected to produce the big screen version, told EW exclusively. ”There is talk about re-approaching it. I understand (director/producer) Tony Scott is meeting with Kiefer to talk about ideas. People are still talking about it.”
“I was disapppointed [Fox] passed on the script but I’m certainly hopeful that the movie will get made at some point,” he said. “Anecdotally, I’ve heard from people who are really missing the show and I do think there is more life in Jack Bauer.”
24 Season 8 episode 22 with Jack Bauer (or Darth Bauer/Iron Jack as fans called him) donning black body armor and kidnapping Charles Logan made the list of TV.com’s year end top 100 moments of 2010 list. It came in at a very nice 20th place.
20. Jack Bauer’s assault on Logan’s motorcade
24‘s final season provided one of the most OMG moments of the series when one-man wrecking crew Jack Bauer, outfitted in the sweetest black assault leotard ever, went ballistic on Charles Logan’s vehicle procession.
The 24 series finale came in at number six on TV Guide’s “Best episodes of 2010″ list, beating out the Lost series finale (which came in eighth place) among others. Here’s what they had to say:
6. “Day 8: 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.,” 24
24‘s final hour ended on a complicated note — President Taylor realized the grave error of her ways, while Charles Logan went down for good. But it was Jack, hurt, spent and forced to go on the run, whose predicament was both familiar and bittersweet for those fans wanting closure. His tearful goodbye with Chloe — appropriately via video screen — broke our hearts.
Jack’s final call to Chloe O’Brian in the 24 Series Finale made TV Guide’s #14 unforgettable TV moment of 2010. “For a year that had a lot of big finales, that was definitely one of the best ones,” said entertainment journalist Jim Halterman. “It perfectly tied up the series and of course left it open for the movie.”
What can make you smell more manlier than Old Spice? 24 The Fragrance: Inspired by Jack Bauer of course! As the official product description states, the man behind 24 The Fragrance “is masculine and self assured” – you bet your ass he is! But don’t fret ladies, for there’s also a version for you available in unisex (pictured to the right).
For a limited time ScentStory are offering a free 24 t-shirt with every bottle of 24 The Fragrance purchased. All you have to do is send them a message immediately after purchasing from their Amazon Store. T-shirts are available in small, medium, large, and extra large.
TV Squad has written a farewell post to popular shows that have ended their run this year including 24, Lost, and Law & Order.
There have been shows that were perhaps more culturally relevant than ’24′ during its nearly decade-long tenure, but few, if any, were more culturally reflective.
Now, what does “culturally reflective” mean? That doesn’t mean that ’24′ was a somber think-piece of a drama. Far from it. What “culturally reflective” means is that it held up a mirror to what was going on in the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 world more directly than any other program on television. Other shows such as ‘The Wire’, ‘Battlestar: Galactica’ and even ‘Lost’ explored life in a post-9/11 in more metaphorical terms, but the political landscape played out much more directly on ’24.’
’24′ wasn’t an intentional response to 9/11, but it did debut in the aftermath of it. As you might recall, its actual premiere was delayed because the first episode featured a massive plane explosion. That plane didn’t crash into a building, but there was enough worry about people drawing comparisons between one and the other than Fox delayed the show a few months in order to lessen the parallel.
Happy Birthday to Kiefer Sutherland, who was born on December 21, 1966 – he turned 44 years old today!
Kiefer was the man responsible for 24‘s massive success over the past nine years. The dedication he showed to his work was unmatched – he’s easily the hardest working actor in television. Thanks for all the memories Kiefer!
You can see him next in That Championship Season where he will be making his Broadway debut as “James Daley” and the upcoming Lars von Trier film Melancholia.
Here’s the final remaining segment from the “Eight Days” special feature found on the 24 Complete Series box set, this one called Memories and Moments.
The producers of 24 share their favorite scenes of the series and tell stories about working on the show – collaborating with the military, the shows popularity in the White House, and more. This feature runs nine minutes and is a great watch.
Check out my 24 Complete Series review for my thoughts on the box set and videos of the other bonus features (Jack Bauer: Evolution of a Hero, Presidents, Friends and Villains, Goodbye, Chloe’s Arrest, and more). You can buy the 24 Season 8 on DVD on Amazon – it’s also available on on Blu-Ray.
24 Season 8 Blu-Ray, DVD, and Complete Series box set
The picture quality is excellent on both the Blu-Ray and DVD and presentation is really nice as usual, with fancy animated menus playing brief scenes from the episodes on that disc. Unfortunately if you’re a first time viewer these fancy menu backgrounds may spoil certain key moments (such as Kayla’s kidnapping) for you before you get to see them unfold in the episode.
I’m not going to bother reviewing the plot of Season 8 since I assume most people reading this have already watched, so I’ll mostly focus on the extras in this review. For the final season of such a monumental television series like 24 you would expect them to go all out and produce a fantastic DVD with tons of extras celebrating the series long run. Unfortunately that isn’t the case and this ends up being the weakest 24 DVD release yet.
