Jack Bauer Calls it a Day for Good
As a prime-time network TV drama, it was unique, with each 24-episode season covering 24 hours in the life of the tireless counter-terrorism agent played by Kiefer Sutherland.
Even so, it's time to call it a day, according to Howard Gordon, 24's head writer and executive producer, who has been with the series since its inception in March 2001.
"Everything has its beginning, middle and end," Gordon said in a recent conference call with reporters. "I think there was a moment there, in the sixth season, when it might have seemed it was of a certain time, because of all these negative associations with torture policies, and other stuff, I think, was unfairly attributed to it. But I think the seventh season successfully rebooted the show, and answered some of those criticisms, and levelled the playing field again, so we could just tell a good and exciting story."
Now, though, it feels like the right time to run down the clock once and for all, Gordon said.
"One of the most telling aspects of Jack Bauer's character, and one of the things I think has been a good part of the show, is that we never press reset," Gordon explained. "Jack is a character; you feel the accumulated scars of his experience and the weight of his actions over an eight-year period. Whatever happens to him, whatever joy he may allow himself - such as the possibility of human contact with his daughter and her husband and his granddaughter - it doesn't discount what has happened before."
In other words, Jack Bauer has simply had enough, Gordon suggested.
"I don't think Jack is ever going to recover from what's gone on. It just keeps adding to the weight and complexity and darkness of his character. The character has never gone happily ever after; that's just not in his wheelhouse. The show is ultimately a tragedy, and we have to play that and honour that."
A 24 feature film is possible, Gordon confirmed, though not certain, because the Fox studios' movie division is an entirely separate entity from the television division. In any event, a 24 feature film will do away with the real-time conceit, and will tell its story in more conventional movie terms.
"The reason to do a movie, really, is that Jack Bauer is just a great character. The 'real-time' conceit is a huge part of the show, I understand. But I think that Jack Bauer, as a character, has got sufficiently broad and strong enough shoulders to carry a movie on his own terms. Our contract with the fans is to keep it interesting and keep it exciting. With (the TV show), even when there were moments that felt somewhat preposterous or strained, hopefully, they were always interesting, even if you wanted to yell at the TV at times. As long as you're yelling, we're happy."
Gordon says his favourite moment in 24, out of 192 hour-long episodes over eight seasons, is the one that comes at the very end.
"Obviously, you haven't seen it yet," Gordon said. "But when you do see it, I think you'll see why I say that. It obsessed me for a while, this notion of what is going to be the last image. What's the last second in a real-time show? I think possibly it has a little more weight than any other moment of any other season finale. For me, that was something I was really very, very happy with."
Gordon believes the culture is no different today than when 24 first aired, in the fall of 2001. 24 is not retiring because times have changed.24 is calling it a day because, as trite as it may sound, its time has come.
"I think the appetite would have been there to keep going, if there was another story to tell. But Jack Bauer's story has a beginning, a middle and an end. And I think we've just come to the end, that's all."
24 ends Monday, May 24 on Global and Fox at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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