After the first ground-breaking season (my review can be found here), I wondered how the show would “evolve” after one major death and another pretty big twist. I am happy to write that the second season of 24 might have been even better than the first one. I was so close to calling it one of the best seasons of any TV show of all time because it was a mostly exhilarating ride from the very first episode until the very last one, however… I had a few issues with this season. And they mostly revolve around one character and one character only – Kim.

Look, I have nothing against Elisha Cuthbert. Quite the opposite, I did like her character in season one, and she can be quite easy on the eyes, especially when the show seems to be finding reasons for her to wear revealing outfits no matter what. But, this season, her character not only annoyed me, it downright stopped the show within its tracks each time she appeared on the screen. I believe there are two reasons for this.

The first reason is apparent – her storyline has nothing to do with the second’s season main threat, the nuclear bomb. Rest assured, she gets told by Jack to avoid Los Angeles, but that’s pretty much it. Kim’s character starts this season as baby sitter who happens to babysit a girl whose father “might” be one of the most despised dads to ever appear on film or TV. So, for the first couple of episodes, every time we break away from the main storyline to check on “what is our Kim up to now”, we can mostly see her running, screaming, hiding or all of the above from this psycho “dad”. And for the rest of the season, her character is all over the place, from a random encounter with a doom prepper to facing the consequences getting bailed by the CTU.

The second reason her storyline didn’t work is that the writers didn’t know what to do with her character. The thing is, I don’t blame Elisha for any of this; she was simply doing what was on the paper. The problem was with “the paper” – you could tell the writers tried their hardest to make her problems/story make sense during this nuclear storyline. And what was supposed to take off the edge a bit, give us (the audience) a chance to breathe for a while, has turned into this messy, screamy subplot that honestly made me hate Kim’s character. And I have to repeat myself; I had no issues with her in the first season despite in spite of her character getting into precarious situations too. However, they were at least somehow connected. I am watching season three right now, and they actually incorporated Kim’s character into the show in a better way. Is what she is doing now 100% logical, and could I see her being where she is? No, but you know what? I am more than willing to overlook a few things if we stay away from Kim always having to be saved.

And that’s a shame, as otherwise, the second season was great. Everything from the nuclear bomb to it actually going off to the consequences, the whole masterplan behind it, the morality of (now) president Palmer being questioned more than ever, all of that I liked. Was the show really wild at times? Sure, but that comes with the territory, as 24, I think, is every American’s wet dream. The secret agents go solo/against the system for the most selfless reasons only. The government where no matter where people stand (politically), they all have principles and know what is right and what is wrong. And everything pretty much works out in the end, bad guys get punished, and people who (again) went against the orders (albeit with good reasons) aren’t punished; serve it with steak, hot dog and cheeseburger on the 4th of July, because that is ‘Murica, baby. At least in this show.

I am starting to question whether this show gimmick (real-time events needing to have 24 episodes per season) will ultimately lead to 24 always being “almost amazing” and never “truly amazing”. Because if you think about that gimmick for a bit longer, you will start to see why we need to have many different, often annoying side-lines (like with Kim in this season) because the showrunners had to fill in 24 episodes. And sure, the current streaming binge trend isn’t perfect by any means, but in this one instance, the shows we’ve had over the past 10+ years are much better because they don’t have to meet any quotas. They don’t have to have this gimmick that might be eye-catching, but it also makes it almost impossible to make one kick-ass season of a TV show where every storyline matters. Well, I still have six seasons ahead of me, so who knows? Maybe, there is a season of 24 where I will feel like there was nothing wrong with it. So far, nothing yet, but the second season was almost there.

Overall, the second season of 24 was intriguing, and if it wasn’t for some obvious filler episodes/storylines, it had the potential to be indeed something special. Sure, there is nothing that ground-breaking if you take it apart; it is your “typical” level of “conspiracy behind every corner” plot that gets stretched into 24 episodes. But it’s stretched effectively; the season took some turns I didn’t see coming, and I had a good time with it. It will be interesting to see what is coming next.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke