Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if next season we find out the mastermind behind some attacks are 90 year old nazi Germans from Hitler's guard.

They need to create a small, focused storyline.

For example, something like Training Day could work well in the 24 format. Or Die Hard. Or Saw.

Hell, at this point they could have the show be about Jack running an ultramarathon and it would be an improvement.

What frustrates me is it would be so easy for the writers to try something different and breathe fresh life into the series. But for some reason they won't. So we're currently stuck with this awful hybrid of season 2 and 4.

As for killing all supporting characters - don't get me started on having Tony survive the attempt on his life in Day 5, only to keep him in a coma for several hours, then revive him to kill him! What was that all about???

They might as well have killed Chloe last year. Her character is now as one dimensional as everyone else - including special guest star Jack Bauer.

Jack Bauer by himself out in the boonies.

Take the last 2 nukes in this Season and elminate everyone in the White House bunker along with CTU L.A.

Keep Jack, Chloe, Bill, Aaron Pierce and perhaps they can re-animate the corpse of Tony. Set them up in an isolated mountainous area filled with cougars to search for Audrey's killler, Behrooz Araz.

Mike Novick!

It's cool Mike has actually survived the mass killings, but his character was quite one-dimensional and pretty overrated. He started out as a great supporting character, but soon wallowed in his own mediocrity.

One thing, also, that I believe allowed seasons 1 and 5 to be the best was how they were set up from the start. There wasn't a crisis that needed to be resolved by ONLY Jack Bauer. Both seasons began with Jack Bauer enjoying his life. He was with family or people he cared about, and he was content. Suddenly, chaos starts happening, and it's PERSONAL chaos to boot. People he knows and love are either being targeted or being killed. All of the sudden, he is a man drawn into something much bigger than himself, and yet he cannot turn away nor ignore the threat. He must find a way to take action.

That's also why I think Die-hard works so well. John McClane wasn't sitting at his desk in the police dept, eating donuts, when he got the call to head to the tower to resolve a terrorist threat. He was attempting to enjoy his night at a party and got caught up in it. There was an element of surprise and a feeling for the viewer of, "wow, this COULD be me in this situation. How would I handle it."

How about a season of 24, before season one. it will give us a chance to revisit old favorites.

Bingo!! That's exactly the reason why I started watching 24 in the 1st place. Jack was just a guy trying to repair his broken family in Season 1 and everything he did afterwards was to protect to people he loved.

The writers screwed themselves by making the first 5 seasons so good.
Now they are out of new ideas.

It's hard to make 24 exciting unless the main threat has the potential to kill a lot of people or the threat is targeted at Bauer and/or people connected to him (i.e. co-workers, family members, President). Of course the problem is that all of these have been done before and we're already complaining about this season being a rehash of previous seasons.

After Season 5, I was actually thinking it would be kinda cool to have a prequel season that took place while Chris Henderson (Peter Weller's character) was still at CTU, back when he was a mentor of sorts to Jack. You could bring back several of the old characters like Nina, Tony, and George Mason, and fill in some of the backstory (Nina and Jack's affair, how Nina turned, Jack blowing the whistle on Chris and others on the bribery charges, etc.).

^^Exactly. That is actually a storyline I'd be VERY interested in seeing on screen.

I think killing Tony and Michelle (especially Tony) was a HUGE mistake. He was a GREAT character that could have produced a lot of drama with Jack in the future.

And why not bring Chase back? He was a terrific addition, plus it kept Kim in the storyline?

Anyway, all that to say it's just not been the same without Tony.

Let's not get crazy here. We don't need more of Kim. Kim and her complete disregard for making intelligent decisions was the weak link in the previous seasons.

Well, I'm not saying I liked Kim. But I think the producers did. And I'd personally love to see Chase return. But I'd like to see Tony more.

Some things I would do next season:

1. Dump Howard Gordon as showrunner. IMO, he's probably burnt out and fresh out of ideas. He's the man responsible for approving or co-writing alot of these bad scripts.

2. As mentioned many times, shoot the show outside of LA.

3. Don't hire a huge cast for next season. Maybe keep 5 regulars and make everyone else guest stars.

4. If your going to do the whole "War on Terror" plotline, do it right. Read the damn paper, watch CNN. Stop reading Cold War books and 80's spy movies for your villains.

I have to wonder if this is financially feasible. It seems like the show often requires hundred of extras during the course of a season. Isn't that most cheaply handled doing everything in L.A.?

Jack contantly saying "Damnit, there's not enough time!" is brilliant and funny at the same time. On the other side of the coin is the "within the hour" shit. We get it, every major plot point has to be at the XX:59 mark. We don't need constant reminders within the show about this lame plot device. And apparently it is the only part of the show dealing with the time aspect at all anymore.

We got yet another one last night. The VP to the cabinet and Biscuit.

When will CTU have Gredenko in custody and Fayid's location? - within the hour
When is Fayid set to launch the nukes? - within the hour
When is the nuke set to reach its target? - within the hour
When will two characters I give two shits about reenact Tony & Michelle's kiss? - within the hour.

Not every episode has to end on a cliffhanger. Throw us something exciting at the :30 minute mark. Shake things up a bit so that when there is a cliffhanger it actually means something.

^^Good points.

It's 1000% financially feasible to shoot outside of LA. Look at Prison Break for example. Season 1 was shot in Chicago, Season 2 is shot on location is Dallas, Louisiana and Florida. Someone at FOX obviously greenlighted the $$$ to the producers on that show. Thus, why can't they do the same for 24?

I think they should set the show in Space or something.

Didn't someone say that part of this season would be filmed in L.A? Part of it could be budget concerns. Prison Break might be on a whole different production value budget. No one on that show is a "huge star." Sutherland, though, I believe is making a ton of money. So it might just not be feasible money wise--but I don't know how it breaks down for FOX.

Another reason might be characters. If you set the show in NY, you either need a completely new cast working in the "NY CTU" or you need a reason why certain people like Buchanon got transferred over, and that probably ends up seeming silly.

Regardless, I do agree the show should ideally be moved out of L.A. If not for all of season seven, at least part of it.

YES.

More snatches.