Steven King's Review on 24

[Zeonic Freak]

With the new premiere coming up in 2 days, heres what writer Steven King wrote on 24... with praise...

http://www.fox.com/24/images/24_stephen_king.pdf

[mookie75]

I always picture Stephen King gnawing his hand off watching Lost, which is basically like a TV version of his stuff, except actually done well.

I agree with him about the implausible threat of the last season of 24, which lost me, as usual, after about four episodes with its preposterous science fictional technology.

I've learned from several issues of Entertainment Weekly that Stephen King is indeed a fan of Lost.

Of course, as a long time King fan who has read all but three or four of his books, I have to resent the "it's like a version of his stuff, except actually done well" crack. I've spent many, many years reading and I still find that many of King's characters rank at the very top of my list of favorites. Roland of Gilead. "Stuttering" Bill Denborough. Ben Mears. Johnny Smith. Charlie McGee. Jack Torrance. I could go on and on if I keep looking at my shelf. He brings them to life in a way that I rarely see duplicated. And I've read many of the "classics" of the literary world. Every time I pick up another of his books and think "this is the one that I won't like," I wind up proving myself wrong. This happened most recently with "Hearts in Atlantis." I was leary of it because it focused on the 60s and I know King has shown a leftist side in the past. There was a period in the middle of that book when I was truly irritated by those 60s college students, but by the time I reached the end and shared the moment between Bobby and Carol (and Ted, from a distance), I was immensely glad to have experienced it.

However, this is all off topic, so everyone feel free to ignore it. :p

[mookie75]

What I said was, "like a TV version of his stuff, except actually done well."

Every TV adaptation of King's work has been like sub-infomercial quality crap.


Ahhhh, now on THAT I can agree with you.

You know what I'd like to see? A LOTR-scale movie adaptation of The Dark Tower story. If the right director took the reins, that could be truly awesome.

Ok, this time I promise to stop going off topic. ;)

[Zeonic Freak]

Ok, this time I promise to stop going off topic. ;)

...ah, i dont care, it gets people in my thread.

Waiting for the new season of 24 is like Cartman waiting for the Nintendo Wii... well, maybe not as bad though.

[Hanshotfirst113]

I always picture Stephen King gnawing his hand off watching Lost, which is basically like a TV version of his stuff, except actually done well.

I agree with him about the implausible threat of the last season of 24, which lost me, as usual, after about four episodes with its preposterous science fictional technology.

What preposterous SF techno?

[Riku]

I always picture Stephen King gnawing his hand off watching Lost, which is basically like a TV version of his stuff, except actually done well.

You're joking, right? Lost, the show that's been on for like three years, that has this stagnating, decrepit plot that goes nowhere (unless its a circle), and barely answers a single question and yet STILL keeps piling on characters, questions, and mysteries from thin air!?

Please tell me you're referring solely to production values and not writing. 'Cuz that's just all kinds of wrong IMHO. And even then, that's not fair, because 70's and 80's production values =/= today's standards.

The more recent SK stuff, yes. But not the older stuff.

On topic: Uh, yeah, I totally don't watch 24. But, um, yeah. Good luck with that new season and all.

[Bird Boy]

Guys, stay on topic please. I don't care if the thread creator doesn't care, this thread isn't made for Stephen King's reviews of LOST or the state of LOST.

-BB

[Zeonic Freak]

Guys, stay on topic please. I don't care if the thread creator doesn't care, this thread isn't made for Stephen King's reviews of LOST or the state of LOST.

-BB

Guys, Bird Boy is a good example on this thread, you should listen to him...

Ah, 7 more hours left till the premere...

[mookie75]

Guys, Bird Boy is a good example on this thread, you should listen to him...

Ah, 7 more hours left till the premere...

Yup, better to let a thread die rather than let it go off on a more-or-less civil and natural side conversation.

*sits back and waits for all the 24 fans that probably aren't coming*

[Temple Fugate]

Yup, better to let a thread die rather than let it go off on a more-or-less civil and natural side conversation.

*sits back and waits for all the 24 fans that probably aren't coming*First, it's better to let this thread die AND make ANOTHER thread about the desired topic which the old thread was veering into. Second, a lot of 24 fans probably don't want to be spoiled, since King's review undoubtedly goes into detail about episodes that have not aired yet. I bookmarked this thread to revisit tomorrow after the premiere is over.


Well, in his review linked in the original post, King mentions the magic nerve gas Sentox from last season. There was also the silly device in season 4 that could somehow seize control of every nuclear plant in America and trigger reactor meltdowns.Well, the impossible technology is the biggest thing next to "How can Jack get across town in fifteen minutes?" which we must suspend our disbelief for. But if Stephen King can fall in love with Lost (I too have read his glowing reviews in EW), he can accept the liberties 24 takes. Obviously he realizes this himself.

I will postulate that 24 takes place in the near future. (Since the time frame of each season skips farther and farther ahead. In six years on the air, 24's timeline has extended nine years since the first season.) So any "impossible" technology has the possibility to exist. It's still contrived, I will grant you that.

But the whole cougar thing. Yeah. Let's just agree to pretend that never happened. ;)

[mookie75]

First, it's better to let this thread die AND make ANOTHER thread about the desired topic which the old thread was veering into.

That's seems like a contradictory position to take since so many on this board are so totally anal about things like unnecessary thread creation, thread "necromancy," veering off-topic, etc etc.

The only problem I have with this solution is that people are already involved in the discussion at hand HERE. If you create a new thread you run the risk of losing people during the transition. Yes, you can post a link and say, "come over 'here' to resume this," but it seems pretty pointless when people aren't coming out of the woodwork to talk about the original topic anyway. Heaven forbid that any of us should have to read a little bit of interesting side conversation.

Well, I guess I'll just keep doing my best to participate around here without causing too many situations where the mods feel they have to run in like the guards in some prison movie, firing wildly into the air in an attempt to quell whatever situation they think is going wrong.

I shouldn't bother with this argument anyway. I know that many will rise up against me on this. If there's one things there's no shortage of on the internet, it's people who know better than you. ("you" being "me" in this case, but otherwise simply "you" in the general not-pointed-at-anyone-on-this-board sense.)

[Master Moron]

Guys, stay on topic please. I don't care if the thread creator doesn't care, this thread isn't made for Stephen King's reviews of LOST or the state of LOST.

-BB

But, he talks about Lost in the article...

Anyway, I don't get what the big deal about the cougar is. After hearing everyone make a huge deal about the awful cougar plot, I figured they'd have like, a four episode cougar plotline or something. But, I recently bought the season 2 DVD and was surprised to discover that the cougar got like, less than a minute of screen time.

[David Lucas]

It was really more of a huge uproar over the ridiculous plotlines Kim kept getting into during Season 2.

Going into the bomb shelter with the crazy guy, staying there for wayyyy too long, then getting caught in a bear trap, then the cougar, then the 7-11 guy with the gun....it was just too much. 24 usually has one of those per season, like Teri getting amnesia in Season 1, but this was too rapid fire for even us hardcore fanatics to deal with. So we complained.

And you know what happens when people on the internet hear a genuine complaint that also sounds extremely funny about a widely acclaimed television show.

Everytime I say "I can't believe Kim got attacked by cougars." it still makes me laugh a little inside. So it got widespread popularity among the masses.

It really isn't that big of a deal, we just couldn't take Kim anymore. When she went to CTU, she still got into ridiculous plotlines, but they panned out decently. Her walking into Tech I where Tony and Jack's spy for the Salazars turned out to be ok because he was a good guy. The whole baby thing with Chloe didn't suck so much because it ended up being Chase's kid.

And her almost getting gunned down by Nina was ok because it gave Jack his most chilling moment in 6 seasons of the show.

So was it ridiculous? Yeah. Was it as big as everyone makes it out to be? Nah. I still say she's behind some of this crap though.

I mean, come on, Henderson was a main villain, he took care of Kim while Jack was "dead", and Kim lost both parents to the U.S. Government.

Speaking of LOST, I just bought Season 2, and I'm off.

[Temple Fugate]

Actually, Temple, there's minimal spoilers in King's review -- as a suspense writer himself I suspect he didn't want to spoil anything.

Either way, you can feel free to read it after tomorrow night, since he'd only seen the first four episodes at the time he wrote the piece.

As a side note, King himself brings up Lost in the 24 review, as well as several other recent serial television dramas and what they did or didn't do well in comparison with 24.Good to know. Thanks.


The Fox announcers on this morning's game could barely contain their glee at a plug opportunity when the Seahawks/Bears game was tied at 24 points with the clock ticking away on the final minutes... :DMy old 24 VHS tapes (which I keep to record over every time a new season starts) have the post-game shows from 2005 and 2006's football games. I haven't taped over those parts because I love hearing them shout "TWENTY-FOUR! JACK BAUER!" as the 24 Premiere countdown clock ticks to zero.

About the cougar...no, it wasn't a big thing at all, and that's part of the reason why it was so big in the fan circles. The cougar was used exclusively to keep us hanging over a 4 1/2 minute commercial break. The instant we come back from commercials, you see the cougar stalk away, and at that moment all the fans that had waited, excited to see how Kim would escape, realized they were just had. I can only imagine the widespread devastation that would have occurred had the cougar been used as an episode-ending cliffhanger.

The cougar basically represented ALL of Kim's ridiculous plotlines throughout season two, as David Lucas explained. We focus on the cougar because it was the single most ridiculous, most unnecessary plot device Kim's ever had to deal with. (Or, in this case, not deal with.)

[Lutochris]

Actually I thought the crazy bunker guy came by and found Kim, and shot his gun into the air scaring the cougar away.

[Temple Fugate]

No, the cougar just walked off. Soon afterward, the bunker guy found Kim, freed her and led her to his cabin. It wasn't until he let her go a couple hours later that he gave her the gun, instructing her to fire shots into the air to scare the cougar off if it reappeared.

I finally read the review, and I must say I liked Stephen King's approach to the show. He makes very fine points about what elements of 24 work to its advantage as a serial drama. (I particularly liked his überseries idea.) However, he also points out the show's disadvantages well enough to reassure us he hasn't thrown his critical eye out the window.

He also called to light one of the aspects of the show that's often taken for granted now, and that's how everybody gets tortured at the drop of a hat. I think this was best displayed in season four, when they use sensory-deprivation to torture Heller's son. The legal and moral dilemmas were tossed back and forth by the CTU crew, but then Heller stepped in, raising an understandable fuss that his son was tortured. That is, until he finds out they had a semi-decent reason for it, at which point he decided to press his son EVEN HARDER. What a show this is, huh? :)