24 (TV Series) Day 8: 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (2010) User Reviews

Brilliant Ending

[sam_3 · 9/10 · 6 June 2010]

It came to a brilliant ending, yet again.

The principle intact: i.e. whoever comes close to Jack, whether with enmity or love, gets killed.

Chloe finally gets the well deserved "thank you" from Jack.

President Taylor, well she was as predictable as she could be. Only reservation would be the treating of President Logan, who should suffer more! I hope he comes back again, with his cunning brain intact! I want to see him do darker evil, and suffer pain : )

For me, the pivotal point in this season was the moment when Renee got killed. I think this was the bravest turn the story teller made in allowing Jack move beyond. After being betrayed, hurt, damned, so many times, it takes quite a gravity to get Jack move forth. Without her death, the story would have looked so superficial in terms of story line, inconsistent with who Jack is (or has become), and lacking in sensation. I am sorry we aren't going to see Renee any more (and please don't revive her on that "Lost" island!), but I look forward to whatever is forthcoming.

"Lost" writers should see these series, and learn how to write properly!

Jack is a tragic hero. He lived a tragic life. This episode rocked. The End.

[bradley_mathwiz_317 · 9/10 · 9 February 2013]

Spoilers ahead! Jack Bauer was always designed to be a tragic hero. He is brave, strong, and committed to protecting his family, friends and country. However, his patriotism comes at a cost. He has had to sacrifice many, many lives in order to save the day.

Day 8 turned out to be one of my favourite seasons, because they finally dared to let Jack lose. Although Jack manages to avoid crisis after crisis, Jack ultimately fails in his goal to save Hassan. So, the show started with an assassination plot and beautifully ended with one. But, Jack has now finally reached his breaking point and has given up.

When he left with Renee, I felt like "this is how the show could end for Jack. This is his happy ending." And when she died, I could only see a dark future for Jack. The last 8 episodes were an intense thrill ride, where I didn't know who would live and who I would lose themselves. The final episode allows President Taylor to acknowledge that her pursuit of peace was lost and that she has become her own villain. Jack, similarly, decides to put revenge aside in order to remain true to his friend, Chloe.

The finale was beautiful and thematically true to the show and I believe that anyone who disagrees did not understand what the show was really about. It was about a flawed man who was put in terrible situations (albeit sometimes the same ones lol) but who managed to put his life on the line for others. My only complaint is that I am one of those who thinks he should have died. To have Jack finally be at peace, after everything he's done, would have made the show complete in my eyes. He was a tragic hero who should have died because of his patriotism.

Goodbye Old Friend

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 13 July 2019]

I would have to put this series in the top ten of all the dramatic series I've watched. I was convinced Jack would be dead at the end, but despite all the carnage he managed to live. Most of the bad guys seem to get theirs except for the Russian president (too big a fish). Chloe is consistently an amazing character, with her autistic being and her wonderful competency. The President fell into the trap of all mortals, letting ego and pride go to her head. Everything is on a slender thread in this kind of milieu and there are just too many variables to hold together. I was satisfied with the ending but felt sad it had to end. I'm sure Kiefer Sutherland had to be tired of playing the same character, even in a masterfully written show.

The final season?

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 14 July 2013]

These comments cover the entirety of season eight not just the final episode:

This; the eighth and apparently final full season of 24, opens with protagonist, retired CTU agent Jack Bauer in New York preparing to return to Los Angeles with his daughter and granddaughter… then an old contact, who is badly wounded informs him of a plot to kill the president of a Middle Eastern country shortly before he is due to sign a historic treaty that will stop nuclear research in his country. Jack takes this information to CTU New York and soon finds himself back in the game. He must try to find the killers before they can strike but inevitably as the investigation deepens the threat increases dramatically and the city come under threat from a dirty bomb!

It can be argued that if you've seen one season of 24 you've seen them all as they share many plot details… there is the constant escalation of the threat, the way that as soon as the apparent head villain is identified it emerges that there is a greater villain above him and there is somebody within CTU who is working for the bad guys… I don't think this matters though; it is clearly a winning formula. One may be expecting twists to occur but when they do it still comes as a bit of a surprise when we learn just what is going on and the plot moves at such a pace there is little time to notice any possible plot holes. As expected Kiefer Sutherland continues to do a great job as Bauer and Mary Lynn Rajskub makes a welcome return as Chloe O'Brian who has conveniently transferred to New York. Another welcome return is Gregory Itzin who plays disgraced former president Logan with more than a hint of Nixon in his performance. Of course not everybody has been in earlier series; notable new arrivals include Anil Kapoor, Katie Sackhoff and Freddie Prinze Jnr; they and others put in solid performances. People not familiar with the series may be a little surprised at just how brutal it is at times with our hero routinely torturing and even murdering people he believes stands in the way of protecting the city or his desire for justice. The series also shows the US in a surprisingly negative light as very senior politicians collude to cover up anything that will derail their plans including muzzling the press, covering up murder and even threatening a war to bully another country into signing the treaty. The final scenes provide a fine conclusion to a great series while not removing the possibility of further outings for Jack Bauer.

I've enjoyed the series from the beginning and found this season to be up there with the best; certainly a step up from the previous season; I certainly hope the promised season nine happens even if it is going to be shorter than previous outings.

Perfect ending for Jack

[Bauer_124 · 10/10 · 25 May 2010]

First of all, I heard that Jack may be killed off at the end of 24. Thank God they weren't dumb enough to do that.

I believe this was the perfect end for Jack. Obviously he wasn't going to live happily ever after and after everything he's been through, being killed by just some guy with a gun would have been unfitting. The end of season 7 would have been the fairly acceptable time to kill Jack off. If you look closely at every show, you'll find flaws, not all seasons of 24 are as good but come-on, it's the best show out there. Anyone who doesn't agree is welcome to mention a better show.

Simply put, "24" is the best thing that ever happened to television (unless you're a "sex and the city" fan and 24 just isn't your kinda show).

I look forward to the 24 movie.

Jack rules

Day 8: Not the strongest season but it does all you expect in a professional and effective way (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 7 July 2010]

It was around the episode 18 mark when I learnt that this season was to be the last season and, to be honest, I was not overly upset or shocked. Long running shows either become too expensive to produce or just become stale shadows of their former selves that viewers start switching off. Happily, although season 6 drifted close to the latter, Foxs motivation appears to be more to do with the former reason because season 8 repeats the steady hand approach of season 7 in delivering the goods in the way the show always had without being as awful as season 6 was. With season 8 we see Jack about to retire back to LA, as he reconnects with Kim and his new granddaughter. However an old informant finds Jack with information over a planned assassination over visiting President Hassan, in New York to sign a historic peace treaty spearheaded by US President Taylor. Although his intentions are to deliver the informant to CTU and catch his LA flight, Jack is convinced to stay temporarily in a day that will see him getting deeper and deeper in a threat that involves Russian criminals, nuclear material, terrorists and the usual threats from within.

Having watched this far, one knows what to expect from 24, since most seasons deliver variations on the same plots but yet also manages to make it work. Season 6 was the only one so far where I really felt that the formula had been pushed to breaking point and that most of it was poorly written and close to being silly. Not everyone agrees with me on that and I think part of the reason is that season 6 is not hugely different from the other seasons in terms of what it does although the overall plot and the various twists were just not as good, and this is a show that relies heavily on forward motion and twists. When it does it well, then the laughable plot devices or jumps in logic sort of get lost in the jumble and all the viewer really remembers is the ride and whether it was good or not. Season 8 mostly delivers a good ride, despite having the usual devices in play and some side-plots that appear to be there only to kill time or misdirect attention.

As an example, if you had asked me about Dana's plot before the double agent reveal, I would have said (with all other viewers) that it is a dumb plot going nowhere and just filling time. After she is revealed the pace just makes you forget about this and also the fact that for the remainder of the season that bail bondsman is rotting in a vent in a meeting room. Likewise other bits make no sense or are just left behind when they have outlived their usefulness, but mostly the show is good enough in the moment to keep you from wandering back too much. The final four episodes perhaps faltered back to the problems of season 6 where Jack Bauer was the centre of everything and there is too much of Jack as some sort of unstoppable terminator style machine, but by this point it was perhaps forgivable. I'm not sure if the timing for the announcement that the series would not be renewed had an effect but I didn't think the finale was as strong as the series (and season) deserved. Plans to do movies or other vehicles with Bauer certainly prevented anything drastic or final being done with the character and, while good it didn't have the thrills I wanted from it.

The overall production of the show is as high as ever; it all looks great and feels like a Hollywood movie in terms of delivering action sequences and locations in convincing ways. The cast match this even if they are mostly in well-worn characters that we have mostly seen before with different names. Sutherland does his usual performance but it is hard not to enjoy it and he is not yet a caricature of himself (not yet). Rajskub returns doing the same but the plot means she doesn't work as well as she previously did. I liked Jones here, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Itzin do his Nixon performance again. Rounding out the Presidents, Kapoor is good and used well to provide twists and turns. Sackhoff and Prinze are solid but mostly their plot threads are weak and neither do more than the basics that we have seen before. Beyond these everyone else does good turns in familiar characters - some well-known faces provide some distracting TV connections (Battlestar Galactica being the most obvious). Wersching is not as good but still pretty good – she deserved better than to be clumsily sacrificed as a plot device.

This final season is not the best of the series but it is up to the standard of the show generally. The usual red-herrings, twists and "filler" narratives are there with the usual problems in terms of logic etc but its main strength is its pace and the way the writers keep you pretty much caught up in the moment to minimize the impact of these weaknesses. Those who have watch the series this long will enjoy day 8, while it is also engaging and enjoyably OTT enough to make the casual viewer go back to the start and see what the fuss is about.

Awesome ending!

[ximiteee · 10/10 · 2 May 2015]

The first impression from the beginning of season 8 was like:: "What the hell is this?" "Why they did this with CTU?" "This is not 24".

But then the action starts and everything starts to make sense. The season gets better every episode. And what can i say about the last episodes? When Renee dies Jack activates the "rage mode" and everything becomes personal. Simply awesome!

The season ends with Jack Bauer better than ever.

I think the series had a great ending("24: Live Another Day" it's a mini-series).

9/10 for the eighth season.

Please ignore any English errors.

Freddie Prinze Jr was the best thing in this season

[StephanieGBU · 9/10 · 18 August 2021]

Some of the story line was frustrating but I guess it served the show. I liked seeing the show's regulars still/back with it. I particularly enjoyed seeing Freddie Prinze Jr in a developed part.

Full season review

[AmericanDude · 8/10 · 26 October 2021]

The season itself got bad towards the end but jack being jack saved it like he always does seeing jack run away at made me sad. The president this season done really nothing, this season was strong at the beginning but fizzled towards the mid and end, I know this season wasn't going to be as strong as season 7 or even 6 but it holds its own against other "bad" seasons like 2 or 3. All and all this season was sub par but should be ranked towards the middle of the row of 24 seasons.

24- One of the Best Shows in recent history concludes..

[CAMACHO-4 · 7/10 · 25 May 2010]

24 was a very unique series, it had a perfect mix of action and mystery that kept us watching every week. Very few shows were able to do what this series did. One basic story line was presented at the beginning of each season, but due to great writing and acting we never really knew how it would end.

The greatest thing about 24 was that it was like watching one hour installments each week, of a well crafted movie studio quality action film, that can be compared to The Bourne Franchise and any Tom Clancy novel.

The greatest thing about this last season was how raw it was. It had many shocking moments I did not see coming, most notably President Hassan's brutal execution. Another great element was Jack Bauer's rampage of bloody justice. It was great seeing him take out the bad guys, it was reminiscent of a 1970's action film kind of like Death Wish. The scene when he storms President Logan's limo was probably the greatest sequence in the show's recent history.

I have to admit that the last season did have some very predictable twists, like the Dana Walsh story line. But given that, the show was on it's eighth season and I do understand that after all that time it would be hard to come up with something that hadn't already been done on the show.

Overall, the 24 series finale was so much more satisfying then the Lost series finale, which I have to say was very disappointing. At least with 24 we got to see the show end on a good note.

The best thing about this show being over is that now we get to see Jack Bauer on the big screen, a full feature length film is in the works.

Weird character development messed up season 8 for me

[kaspercmhermans · 4/10 · 3 August 2020]

Season 8 had some good parts, but I also got some problems with it. Mainly the storylines of Renee and Jack don't add up for me. First Renee. In s7 we learn that she at first is loathed by the way Jack sometimes tortures his suspects. She is horrified by most of his actions. This season it is told that years before s7 she was undercover with some Russian mobsters. She was abused herself and I guess based on what we get to learn about Laitanan I think that see has seen some terrible things during that undercover period. Ofcourse, there is a difference between seeing a criminal or an agent using violence like that. But it still feels weird that she - of all the agents Jack ran into during his years - had the most problems with his actions. I was a big fan of Jack and Renee their arguments in s7, but after s8 they somehow feel less believeable.

The bigger problem for me is Jack's storyline in the second part of s8. We start the season with a genuine happy Jack. He is with his daughter and granddaughter. He finally has a normal life. He gets sucked into one last task, just before they leave for LA. Then, when he and Renee are pretty much done with everything in NYC, Renee gets killed. Ok, I get that Jack had growing feelings for her and therefore is upset and angry. But let's look at the facts. Renee had been ignoring his messages between s7 and s8, so this was only the second time they were ever together. Literally all the interactions they've ever had, we've seen them on screen. I just don't buy it that Jack then just goes on a suicide mission like this, knowing that he jeopardize his happy future with Kim and Teri, just to revenge a girl he didn't even really know; he couldn't even answer basic questions from the doctor about Renee. Even more important: He even endangered Kim and Teri by his actions - as he seems to realize himself in the last scene - that's some outrageous spudity from the character Jack, since keeping Kim safe and happy always had been his number 1 priority. And that shouldn't have been reduced after she kinda saved his live at the end of s7. He even seemed to be more reckless and ruthless than Tony in s7. And Tony literally had lost everything: the love of his live, the woman he was married to and had known for years, and let's not forget his unborn son. They made a mess out of it and for me that is a huge dissapointment.

Nice end scene with Chloe though, some nice politics and Logan is someone you love to hate. Great work on that part.

Season Eight

[zkonedog · 7/10 · 4 July 2019]

Besides "LOST", "24" (before this year) was the only other TV drama I had been able to give 5-stars for every season. Unfortunately, Season Eight didn't quite live up to that billing, what with a prolonged stretch of dry episodes to start the season and a resolution that seemed more of a film set-up than anything else. This final season is still entertaining television, and at its best is equal to any of the previous efforts, but it started to show some serious cracks in the veneer this time around.

Without spoiling too much of the story arcs for season eight, this cycle begins with "Grandpa" Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) once again being sucked into government/political espionage. Once fully on board, Jack is saddled with such priorities as preventing the assassination of a crucial foreign dignitary, tracking down a shipment of nuclear fuel rods, and finally undermining a government conspiracy that just may prove to be his ultimate undoing.

What really hurt this season right from the get-go was two-fold: 1. Uninteresting use of Bauer for the first 12-15 episodes or so (little palpable drama; instead just fights or shoot-outs); and 2. Two new characters, Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), fail to invigorate the proceedings, and instead actually bog things down with an inane side-plot that doesn't really lead anywhere.

Only about half way through the season, when the primary plotline emerges and an "old friend" (a very popular recurring cast member from previous seasons) adds some much-needed plot intrigue, does the season really start to take off. Plus, Jack's relationship with Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) is also fleshed-out quite a bit, leading to some tense emotional drama that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Unfortunately, the season comes to a head an episode or so before the big finale, and thus goes out with a bit of a whimper instead of the much-anticipated bang. Perhaps the writers/producers can't be crucified too heavily for this, as a feature film was already announced to be in the works, but it seemed as if the goal was more "wrap up this sub-par storyline" than "provided a whizz-bang ending to an incredible show".

On a side note, the acting this season is still as compelling as ever. Prinze Jr. and Sackhoff's characters got a little annoying, but other than that it was one incredible performance after another from such vets as Mary Lynn Rajskub, Cherry Jones, and the "late-season special guest". The on-screen chemistry between Sutherland and Wersching is inspiring as well.

Thus, although I am saddened to see "24" leave the airwaves after eight grueling, emotional seasons, I am glad that it is getting out of the game now that some serious cracks formed in the structure of the show. This eighth season, when really rolling, was as good as anything previous, but too often it lacked that "punch" that characterized the earlier material. I will look forward to a potential motion picture (or franchise) to give the Jack Bauer character a much more deserving send-off.

To Love or Hate This End?

[Killa42 · 5/10 · 25 May 2010]

If you've seen the show up to this point than there are no spoilers.

When Renee died mid season, I lost all hope for the show. Her death was a cheap tactic made by cheap writers to continue the season and send Jack on a mid season rampage. It was clearly random and very un24isk. After begging that Russian to shoot her and the sheer buildup of that character, it was clear her death was not planned then, and that she was intended to be developed further. Instead, she was senselessly killed, thus used as a ploy to draw the suckers in. She didn't even get a cool death like Mason. The Jack's cursed card is once more played and used like the cheap tool that it is. This season was like when they add a hat to a doll and resell it as a new one.

It was a blend of all of its predecessors without having its own unique place within the awesome saga that was this series. Hassan is a foreign David Palmer, Renee is now Teri, Jack's on the run again and instead of Asia wanting him dead, it's Russia. After Hassan died, the show ran out of gas and there was zero originality.

I only watched the last half of the season to see the outcome and just like the death of Renee, nothing was surprising, but rather less than what I as a fan that watched every episode expected. Including the lesser seasons 6 and 4, in each season before this one there were surprises that were well written and it was fun to watch.

Nothing after Hassan's death was 24isk, by that I mean original aside from the last minute, which was memorable but in no way redeeming to the season as a whole. The show turned into a huge regurgitation of all the other seasons. It was all cheap and poorly written including this finale. Hate is a strong word, I was disappointed in the season, the series finale, and the writing of the last 12hours. I did not hate it because 24 will forever be a show that I cherish and will always remember.

And whoever says that if you didn't like it you're not a fan; for one that is a blanketed statement and for another, you don't know Jack.

The end...is it?

[iamazad24 · 26 May 2010]

I am a hardocre 24 fan like a lot others. Been watching the show for 4 years.Season 8 was something from which I hoped a lot, and probably have also gained some. From my conscience Jack Bauer should not have done all those killings that we saw in this season. The writing that was put to the show could be much more realistic. The cancellation of the sign by the president could be much more earlier and did not have to be so dramatic after watching the video made by Jack or the pen gifted by President Hassan. However, the end is an end. I hate that I will not be waiting for any more of this series.

I hear that there will be a movie... looking forward to see it. I think there should be xbox 360 games involving this great series...

Fizzle

[rlda-38329 · 6/10 · 6 June 2021]

Overall, this series was great. But after streaming them all again, one can see the writing was subpar the last couple seasons. Overacting and unbelievable action tainted it..really sad.