Coming after the amazing third season, Season 4 was probably the weakest 24 season yet due to a weaker cast, poor villain, and general lack of any noticeable high points.
Season 4 felt like a drastic reboot of the series at the start, as it has pretty much completely overhauled the cast. Kim, Tony, Michelle, David Palmer, and Chase were all gone, with the only ones remaining being Jack and Chloe. As a result, the season introduced a lot of new characters, however this is where its problems began, as Season 4's cast was not all that compelling. Audrey and James were likeable enough, but the gang at CTU was just plain annoying at times. Edgar was obnoxious, Curtis was dull, and Erin Driscoll was so consistently hatable I was glad when they wrote her out halfway through the season. Eventually, Tony, Michelle, and David Palmer did return as the season went on, but it felt like too little too late. If you want to reboot the cast to your show, you need to make them stand on their own without needing the original cast to return and save it. There were some good cast members, however. I will always love how understanding Bill Buchanan is of Jack, and President Logan is a very memorable and important character. Even more, Chloe got some awesome character development that helped her become one of my favorites in the cast.
The first six episodes of Season 4 were actually really good. It served as a solid, self-contained arc as the Hellers were kidnapped by terrorists as Jack Bauer was on a race-against-time to save them. It was tense, exciting, and culminating in an awesome setpiece as Jack stormed the terrorist's base guns blazing. However, from then on, the season focused on CTU's attempts at stopping the terrorist Marwan, who drags the show down a lot even with the fairly solid sideplots like Tony trying to win back Michelle, Logan adjusting to being president, and the conflict with the Chinese consulate. Marwan lacked any relationship to the characters like Saunders had, and his personality was just plain dull. Even worse, he spent the season consistently avoiding capture, which left me feeling burned out by the end.
Thankfully, while the main storyline suffered, the season did have a lot of solid and enjoyable episodes that left me engaged:
7am-8am: This was a really good season premiere, despite my misgivings with the new cast. It did a solid job of introducing the new cast and making us care about the Hellers, so once the shocking ending where they got kidnapped happened, I was engaged and excited to see what would happen next.
11pm-12pm: This episode was an absolute joy to watch, being a self-contained story about Jack Bauer trying to keep the "nuclear football" out of Marwan's hands. It was fast-paced and entertaining from start to finish. This was also the episode where Logan was made president, which would prove to be very important in the coming season.
1am-2am: Arguably Chloe's finest hour, this episode has her be sent out into the field for the first time, and it culminates in her shooting a terrorist through the window of a car with an assault rifle. In case that wasn't badass enough, David Palmer is back!
5am-6am: A strong bookend to Tony and Michelle's character arc this season as Tony is the one taken hostage this time. It's a very intense penultimate episode that finally gives Mandy some time in the spotlight, and makes her out to be a surprisingly serious villain.
6am-7am: This was probably one of the weaker finales for me, but I'd be remiss not to mention it, as it manages to pack in an insane helicopter battle with Marwan, a crazy cliffhanger that has Jack faking his death, and that emotional final conversation between Jack and David Palmer.
Overall, Season 4 was definitely the weakest season thus far, with a dull main plot, a weak villain, and a pretty bad cast. However, the solid character development and entertaining sideplots helped it stay relatively entertaining throughout.
3/5 Stars
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