I really want the time I spent watching a marathon viewing of 24 back, with an apology from the creators for not only wasting a chunk of my life but for making such a hackneyed mess of what had the potential to be landmark television. Anyone who tries to sell you on the idea that this creative train wreck is any more than the usual television pap probably has all of Manimal on tape.
The first episode, "12 - 1am", is as good as most critics and fans seem to believe. Using the approach of several parrellel story threads unfolding in concert, it seems possible that the writers have stumbled onto an approach to make their gimmick of the show progressing in "real-time" work while also being able to keep up the tension.
Yet, as the show progresses it becomes apparent that that bit of innovation is the only truly imaginative thing about the show. Bit by bit, the usual parade of bad tv details begin to add up and you soon realize just how unique an actual innovative show like "The Sopranos" is - and why its on HBO and not some adle-brained network.
Their first mistake was going with Keifer Sutherland for a character who really should look 40 (he was 35 when they shot this). He just doesn't have the presence to pull off being both the head of a Federal task force and the father of a 17 year old daughter. Yet, everyone reacts to actors differently. Fair enough.
What's harder to dismiss is the steady stream of over-used dialogue recycled from countless action films, roomfuls of stock characters without any real semblence to anyone other than stock characters taking ups space in the background and a plot so desperate for attention that it never trusts the audience's faith, relying instead on a mounting deluge of convuluted plot twists. This is the type of show that having cool looking sets takes priority over them looking in any way functional or realistic.
In the end, the problem with the show is that it wants you to think it's smart entertainment, while asking at the same time for you to not think too deeply about it.
The first episode, "12 - 1am", is as good as most critics and fans seem to believe. Using the approach of several parrellel story threads unfolding in concert, it seems possible that the writers have stumbled onto an approach to make their gimmick of the show progressing in "real-time" work while also being able to keep up the tension.
Yet, as the show progresses it becomes apparent that that bit of innovation is the only truly imaginative thing about the show. Bit by bit, the usual parade of bad tv details begin to add up and you soon realize just how unique an actual innovative show like "The Sopranos" is - and why its on HBO and not some adle-brained network.
Their first mistake was going with Keifer Sutherland for a character who really should look 40 (he was 35 when they shot this). He just doesn't have the presence to pull off being both the head of a Federal task force and the father of a 17 year old daughter. Yet, everyone reacts to actors differently. Fair enough.
What's harder to dismiss is the steady stream of over-used dialogue recycled from countless action films, roomfuls of stock characters without any real semblence to anyone other than stock characters taking ups space in the background and a plot so desperate for attention that it never trusts the audience's faith, relying instead on a mounting deluge of convuluted plot twists. This is the type of show that having cool looking sets takes priority over them looking in any way functional or realistic.
In the end, the problem with the show is that it wants you to think it's smart entertainment, while asking at the same time for you to not think too deeply about it.