FOX Passes on Both Potential “24” Series

’24’ perhaps went on too long for its own good. Redemption, Days 7 and 8, and Live Another Day all had great moments but as a whole lacked that alchemical spark that made Days 1-5 so extraordinary.

Was Joel Surnow stepping down as showrunner and handing it over to Howard Gordon one of their mistakes? Certainly ’24’s heyday, both creatively and commercially, was when Surnow ran the series and it seems the problems began when Gordon took over for Day 6 as sole showrunner.

I think the writers still had enough creative gas in the tank after Day 5 for one last great season had they chose the right premise… but another tired jihadis-with-nukes storyline was most certainly not it!!! Tony should have got a silent clock in Day 5 and remained dead. The last we should have seen of Cheng Zhi was a cameo at the beginning of Day 6 when Jack is returned to the U.S. instead of him becoming a cartoon villain as he became in later seasons. We should never have seen Jack’s wider family other than Terri and Kim. And Graem should never, NEVER have been made Jack’s brother… what the hell were they thinking???

In my humble opinion, Surnow should have stayed on as showrunner throughout the show’s tenure, the series should have ended after a great sixth season, and then a three-hour theatrical movie would follow two years later to end the franchise on a high note.

The ’24’ franchise is dead, over, finished… don’t try to revive it, we don’t want a zombie version of what was once a truly extraordinary series… it ended as gracefully as could be expected.

Let it (and Jack) rest.

‘Nuff said.