The Worst Night of Television
Last night was the worst night of television all season and maybe one of the worst in history. The finales of both Heroes and 24 didn’t live up to the slightest bit of expectations. Both disappointed on an exponential scale. But I can’t say that this didn’t come as a complete surprise to me.
The sixth season of 24 was the worst in the show’s history. I somewhat hoped that last night’s finale would make up for the lackluster season but it didn’t. In fact, these were some of the worst episodes of the whole season.
The first hour spent way too much time on two characters that I couldn’t care less about: Doyle and lil’ Josh Bauer. The only redeeming quality of wasting too much time on them was when Doyle got his eyes seared. Why? All because he couldn’t see what Jack saw.
The second hour didn’t improve much. Chloe’s pregnancy storyline was obvious and nowhere near enough to lure any interest back in her character, who was useless and boring all season long. Bill was back and in the field but this still wasn’t enough to hold me either.
The only good thing out of the finale was Karen Hayes, Tom Lennox, and Jack. Everything else was an utter crapfest. All in all, the finale felt a lot longer than two hours.
The final scene at the Heller beach house worked, to an extent, but was mostly awkward. Jack finally got to get some things off his chest in the form of a rant on James Heller. (Devane was steadfast as always.) It was a much-needed humble ending to a train wreck of a season.
Heroes was just as bad as 24 too. The buildup to this finale actually had me expecting something, anything, but it was as anticlimactic as they come. A lot of the pieces just didn’t fit and it felt contrived, to say the least.
The showdown with Sylar was comical, and not even a showdown really. But what was most annoying about the Heroes finale is that we were left in the dark on the fate of six characters: Nathan, Peter, D.L., Sylar, Parkman, and Lenderman. That’s too many. I’m sure most or maybe even all of them will be back next season with convenient explanations as to how they each survived.
I’ll be back for both shows next season but I don’t know for how long I’ll stay. 24 is rebooting away from Los Angeles and without CTU. If done correctly, it could end up being the best season ever, but if they somehow slip into the same routine by the fifth episode, I will have to peace out. As for Heroes, the sophomore season can be a killer. If that show is to survive, it will need to find its voice, again.