From TVGuide.com:
I will go out of my way not to blurt this out, lest someone castigate me for spoiling. But when Fox's 24 launches Season 7 on Jan. 13 and 14 with a two-night premiere, a familiar (though unexpected) face will put in an appearance. "With CTU dismantled, the show's setting moves to Washington, D.C., where Jack Bauer faces trial for his actions in the pursuit of justice," reads the Fox press release. "Bauer's day gets off to a shocking start when former colleague Tony Almeida (played by Carlos Bernard), last seen in Day 5, returns after being left for dead by a terrorist conspirator in CTU's infirmary."
Say wha?! "Tony's uncertain fate... left the door open for his return," explains exec producer Howard Gordon. "And since there was no silent clock at the conclusion of his last appearance — the 24 tribute to a major character's demise — we always kept this as a possibility." Indeed, it was widely rumored (and, I believe, perhaps even filmed) that Tony was to resurface in the final seconds of last season.
Wait until you-know-who finds out that wife Michelle herself is alive, and working as a chaplain at ER's County General!
As Jonk points out in today's earlier post – this is so asenine and ludicris that 24 not only jumps the shark, but ties a rock to it's feet and drowns itself. How in the world does Tony survive in season five and NO ONE knows about it?
Sure season six totally sucked. We all know it. Will bringing Tony back, into a season that was delayed several different times due to re-writes, solve that? How does this jive with 24's fresh start? Still in America. Still related to a government agency. Still has Chloe and Bill. And now Tony. Wow. This'll feel like a brand new show! SOOOOO different.
I was all excited about 24 trying to put a stake in the ground and "start over," but this news definitely puts them back 17,000 steps.
So let's recap when we last saw Tony. He was dead inside of CTU.
How will this be explained!?! More moles? Tony was taken to be buried but came back to life? Even if he didn't die, NO ONE told Jack? And if they DID know, why wasn't he brought in when Graem and Daddy Bauer were running amuck in season six -- didn't Tony and Michelle's company have something to do with them!?!
Bullshit. I'll say it again. Bullshit.
Way to go Fox. Way to go 24. You're making a mockery out of yourselves.
Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.
38 comments:
C'mon now, Seth, it's not like we saw them drape a sheet over Tony's lifeless body.
Oh wait.
Taken from 24's official recaps (season five, hours 7-8):
"7:59 P.M.
Jack enters the clinic and finds Tony and Burke on the ground. Gasping his last breath of life, Tony tells Jack that he couldn’t do it. Jack clutches Tony’s head. Tony dies, and Jack cries with him still in his arms."
Taken from 24's official recaps (season five, hours 8-9):
"8:00 P.M.
As the medic workers wrap up Tony’s body, Audrey comes to tell Jack that Henderson has escaped. However, Chloe was able to decrypt a file on his computer and she found an intelligence broker named Collette Stenger who is a known associate of Bierko."
Seems pretty dead to me. Or maybe he was just cold.
You're kidding right? Please. 24 has been a parody of itself for years now. Not that this makes it any less entertaining. Anyone who paid any attention knew that Tony was gonna back at some point. There was no "silent clock" at the end of the episode he "died" in. A true fan of 24 knows what that means. Go find something else to bitch about.
Pat, with the help of some friendly folks at Wikipedia, let's review when the silent clocks have occurred, shall we?
Day 1: 11:59:57 PM
A silent clock marked the death of Teri Bauer and the final seconds of the show's first season. Although her death probably occurred minutes earlier, the audience finds out about it at this time.
Outcome: Death.
Day 2: 9:35:56 PM
A silent clock was displayed as George Mason departs CTU for the last time after handing the directorship over to Tony Almeida. Although he had not yet died from the effects of his radiation poisoning, the clock foreshadowed the inevitable. He would later die while saving Los Angeles from a nuclear bomb. This is the only instance of a silent clock not ending an episode.
Outcome: Death.
Day 2: 7:59:57 AM
In the final episode, a silent clock was accompanied by the strained breathing from President Palmer after his attempted assassination. This was most likely meant to leave viewers hanging, as Palmer reappeared on the show in the Day 3 opener.
Outcome: Not death!
Day 3: 6:59 AM
In the episode's final moments, Jack Bauer is forced to execute Ryan Chappelle. The clock's "tick-tock" sound was replaced by the sound of a train in the background.
Outcome: Death.
Day 5: 6:59 AM
Edgar Stiles, after looking for a missing CTU agent, was unable to get to a secure area before he succumbed to the effects of nerve gas that was released in the CTU air ventilation system. A horrified Chloe O'Brian looked on tearfully as Edgar fell. His death and the deaths of 55 additional CTU staff at 6:59 PM marked the fifth time that the silent clock was used.
Outcome: Death.
Day 6: 5:59:57 AM
In the season's final moments, Jack painfully breaks off all ties with his girlfriend Audrey Raines. As he leaves James Heller's house and gazes at the ocean from atop a rocky cliff in silent contemplation, the scene fades out on his pained face and to the sound of the crashing waves in the background.
Outcome: Not death!
As we can see, the silent clock has been used six times in six seasons, and one-third of the time it doesn't mean death! It is a device used to punctuate highly emotional scenes, often but not necessarily surrounding the death of a significant character. But, the silent clock was not used in the deaths of such main characters as Curtis Manning, Michelle Dessler, and, of course, Tony Almeida.
Pat, does this mean that Curtis and Michelle can come back, too, since there was no silent clock?
First time I've been to the site; it's pretty impressive, and it does seem kind of bizarre for Tony to have been brought back, but let me get this straight:
You don't like 24 at all, but watch it, keep up with the updates on the show, and even follow up on the side things attached to the show, like the director's blog, for the sake of running an anti-24 blog yourself?
Maybe I'm missing something, but don't you have any better ways of spending your time? I mean, frankly, I guess it doesn't matter, but...wow.
Anonymous, did you see the site description at the top of the main page? It says:
When I started watching 24's first season, it was a great show. Great concept. Great plot. But then, more viewers started watching, and the plots, writing, acting, all started to slip. It's still a fun show, but for a show that's supposed to be based in reality, it falls short in too many ways.
This is Seth's motivation for creating the site, and it's my motivation for visiting. I have seen every episode of 24 -- since the first minute of the first hour of the first day -- and I watched that first season about five times.
So...it's sad, quite frankly, that the show has fallen so much in the past several years.
We don't write because we hate the show (it isn't "Why I Hate 24"), but rather because we care and because the show sucks.
Anonymous:
I don't speak for Seth or any of the other people who frequent this blog, but I suspect they feel as I do about 24: that it is a once great show gone to shit. Even if there is some disagreement over where the show's creative high-point was (I vote for the last third of season 2, though I think the first three seasons have a lot of strengths), everyone here is united in being disappointed by the last two seasons. I don't think anyone here would care so much it were a show we'd never watched, or never liked. Not only that, the last two seasons have been so astonishingly, jaw-droppingly bad that they've made for good blogging.
And with all due respect to Jonk, I'd like to add on to his silent clock thoughts. The silent clock, in addition to amplifying emotional scenes, has also always been used to signify something sacrificial (Teri, George and Edgar's death, President Palmer's near-death, Jack's decision to go back underground).
It always seemed to me that Tony's death wasn't given the silent clock treatment not because he wasn't really dead, but because he died an ignoble death. He was seeking revenge, playing by rules Jack might have been prepared for but Tony clearly wasn't. There was nothing sacrificial, or even very sympathetic, about how he died. Or didn't die, or whatever it was.
Plus, if they used the silent clock every time someone died it would be really lame. This idea that he was never dead because the clock was not silent smells to me like some smarmy revisionist history.
Also, if they're going to re-write the rules of the show, why not bring back a better character? The show's downhill slide began with David Palmer's exit. Maybe he can be brought back to life.
If you forget about the idea that 24 is supposed to be based in reality, then it's a pretty awesome show. Seasons 1 and 2 were the most realistic, but then after that it kind of started to get ridiculous. Just think of what it is - a TV show. Nothing more, nothing less. Then it will be fun to watch. I'm glad that Tony is coming back.
Tony is my favorite character, but I'm not happy that he's coming back, because it makes the whole character ridiculous. The silent clock excuse is total bullshit, and frankly, I don't think the writers could make up anything more stupid than this. I'm really looking forward to the IDIOTIC explanation they will give us for Tony's return
Maybe something like
Tpmy: "Hey Jack, I'm alive, alright?"
Jack: "Tony, what the hell, dammit!"
Tony: "I had a bulletproof vest on me, so I was just in shock and the medics thought I was dead."
Jack: "Ok, dammit!"
Well people have faked their death in past seasons and come back. Drazen (Season 1), Saunders (3) and Jack (4) have all done it in the past, so I don't see what the big deal is. Tony was a big part of the show, so I'm glad he's coming back.
Season 6 was a drag after the nuke went off, but so was the second half of 2 (chasing the Cypress tape) and first half of 3 (chasing drug dealers). I thought 1 & 5 were excellent though. What I guess I'm trying to say is the show has had its ups and downs, not a continuous downfall from Season 1 like some have described. So the best may be yet to come.
Anyway, I enjoy the site and checking in every so often.
Thinking about this some more, I don't think this is so crazy.
I mean, Tony was shot in the neck in Day 3, and he was up 'n about and running CTU several hours later.
And in season 5, as a result of the car explosion that killed Michelle, he sustained severe head trauma (according to what the doctor/surgeon told Curtis) that required surgery to "stop the bleeding.
And then he was up a few hours later, checking his e-mail and finding out Michelle was dead and then avenging against Henderson.
So.... when you think about it, Tony's kinda superhuman. He's survived certain death almost as often as Jack. It ain't so crazy after all!
yeah, Tony has a history of recovering fast (but really, who on 24 doesn't?) but still... the did show us how the body was covered and taken away
It's not like the writers have asked to suspend all logic and reality. Tony is a great character. If they can pull off his remarkable recovery with any sense of logic, then they've done well. As long as he moves into the main plot and stays out of the ridiculous sub-sub-plots that landed him dead 3 previous times.
I agree that if they have found a logical, sensible, way of bringing Tony back then it might well be a good idea. The problem, as I see it, is that the character was, unambiguously, dead. The only logical way to follow that is for Tony to be a zombie.
What with the money being made from the Resident Evil franchise, it is entirely plausible that there was some variant of the T-virus in that syringe.
;)
Great blog, everybody sharing their views and coming together over 24. Either way, we've all wanted to be either Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne so many times!!! ;-p
I just wanted to say thanks for some of the awesome information (never knew about the silent clock phenomenon) and wanted to ask something:
Anyone ever though Michelle Dessler was a hottie? (kinda in a cute, sexy way!)
what would be funny is if Tony died in the s7 premiere episode and they gave him a silent clock.
Maybe Tony went into a coma when he was injected with the mystery syrum.
*serum, that is. Sorry, I hate spelling words wrong
Come on. The way Jack "came back" in season 5? The fact Tony seemed to have engineered that scenario?
I'll agree it's a little dodgy bringing him back, but if they do it right, it'll top his "here's another pointless just for shock value death in season five!!!!1" last scene.
your saying season 6 sucked, well.. i thought that day 6 was good, maybe not as good as others.. but still good..
some very interesting ideas have been put into this "why 24 sucks blogfest". Here's my take, 24 is the best show ever created... BUT... however, season 6 was completely recycled garbage and the idea of Tony coming back is severely retarded. The show did have its greatest realism in season 1, and although it has lost that realism slowly each season, it was still acceptable... until season 6 where Mr. Jack Bauer can come straight out of a prison camp and be able to run around for 24 hours straight looking as fit as an ox. Must have been one of those fitness club type prison camps.
I gave the show a pass on it's slipping hold of reality because it made things more and more exciting. This pass went as far as the rubber band of realness could be stretched. Mr. Jack Bauer now can run around with broken ribs and, even better, lift his body weight up with 1 shoulder just having had it's nerve bundles pulled apart without a grimace.
I thought the show hit an all time low when towards the end of the 6th season they completely recycled a scene from season 1 with the girl in the hotel room trying to get the guy to talk while under surveillance(the girl, the guy, i'm trying to forget it all). However, with Tony coming back, this series has hit a new all time low, and I hope they end it before they hurt my overall opinion of the series. I truly will not be surprised if they bring david palmer back. (a twin, clone, look alike, alter ego, was who was really shot).. or maybe it was just a dream. Season 5 was a dream, that's it. In regards to ending this series, "if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do it now!"
i love 24 i liked all the seasons i even liked season 6 ok it wasnt the best but it was stil good
i am so exited tony comming back
i just hope they givee a good reason otherwise theres no point
i would also love for michelle to come back shes my fav charcter i am looking frowod for season 7
i am sure the writers no what there doing about tony comming back
well i hope so
if not its a big mistack bringing him back
but i stillll every happy his back and not only cause his cute lol
i agree with you i dont know what all the fuss is about
tony back!!!!! its good news
TONY CAME BACK FROM THE FUTURE TO HUNT DOWN JOHN CONNER.
i'm not sure, but wasn't jack injected with something at the end of Day 4 so that he would appear dead to the medics, later to be resuscitated by Tony.
Maybe Henderson plugged Tony with the remnants of the Bauer fake-death syringe... it's completely plausible... it even happened in the LOST Season 3 episode "Expose"
Easy.
If Jack is in a trial could Tony be "back" just in the sense that Jack is testifying about past events that may have involved Tony? This would be the only sensible way to bring him "back" The whole season could be a recap of previously occurred but untold events. What do you think?
I am sure that by the second episode of season 7 the feminine funs of 24 will forget how on earth Tony is back. It does not matter for them. They just want Tony back in action.
I can bet that if sometime jack dies Fox could place tony in jacks place and roll on!!
Since when does death mean somebody's actually dead on this show? I seem to recall Jack dying (twice!), only he ain't so dead anymore. So why can't Tony come back?
I'm not too upset about Tony coming back. But on the topic of silent clock, (sorry to those on the west coast) why did they end Redemption with the silent clock?
No significant deaths...
Perhaps it isn't really Tony at all, but his "evil twin"?
The real question is...will he have his cubs mug that he's had every season so far (except the 6th, of course)...
Funny thing about everyone complaining about this upcoming season of 24 is that u are just looking for something to complain about or a way to back up your opinion. Everyones negative comments about this season are not going to deter any real fans of 24. while i agree with your right to voice your opinion, you also need to realize that your opinion is not going to deter me or I'm guessing 99% of 24 fans from watching this season so actually you just wasted your time thinking, typing, and posting your comment (or opinions) i hope it was worth your valuable time.
I don't get it, why US must be the super power over other countries, I don't agree with the fat woman president, who wants to bomb other countries just 'cos they are not behaving the way expected. Every country and culture is equal, you have no right to decide a person's fate, so as to a country. So back off, you American pig, just be reasonable. Don't make war in name of justice!
That's why I don't like this season of 24!
Seriously?! This is what happens when people don't understand the power of Chuck Norris.
Come on now, 24 didn't go to shit. No, Tony and Michelle's company had nothing to do with Graem Bauer or Phillip Bauer. Or both. You can think this bullshit if you want but keep it to yourself.
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