Season Finales: 24

I wish I could say that 24 was able to finish off its season in top form, living up to the promise displayed in the season's taut, energetic debut. I wish I could say the fourth season finale equaled the emotional gut-punch of season one's big finish, the thrilling shock of season two's ender or the cathartic release of the season three finale.

I wish I could say 2005's final hour of 24 wasn't hugely disappointing, but I can't. Because it really kinda sucked.

Luckily this season's late start allowed the show to air back-to-back hours for one supersized finale, because almost everything that worked in the finale came in that first hour.

The surprise return of Mandy (Mia Kirshner, continuing to put the hot in terrorist) was a classic 24 twist and tied up one of the show's biggest loose ends. Everything surrounding that plotline worked wonderfully, from Mandy kidnapping Tony and manipulating Michelle to her showdown with Jack and the necessary pardon for past and present crimes (the season two finale finally pays off!).

Yeah there was zero suspense in the whole "is Tony dead?" thing but at least it gave Michelle something significant to do for the first time this season.

And it was a lot better than the fake death in the second hour, but let's get back to that later.

Once Mandy was taken care of all we had left was Marwan (remember him? the season's criminal mastermind who's been unfairly underutilized for a few hours now) and the Chinese.

In terms of villainous ringleaders (which omits most of the show's best villains, almost all of them female) I'd argue Marwan was the very best, the most villainous. He was a genuinely deranged man with frighteningly brilliant plans. I think the season could've used a little more of his unpredictable edge. And he certainly deserved a better ending (slicing open Jack's hand was cool, but did we need yet another shoot out in a parking structure?).

Marwan's quick death just left the little problem of the nuke. Apparently it was so minor a problem that it was finished off with a blink-or-you'll-miss it "yay, we shot it down!" sequence. We watched 23 hours just for that?

Maybe not, since there was still...

the Chinese!

But did anyone really care about the Chinese since their late arrival this season, and, if so, why? Turns out the season's most boring distraction was all leading up to Jack faking his own death (sorry, no suspense there; you can't punk a 24 fan, a lot of them still think Dina's alive) and disappearing "across the border." Um, whatever.

All that and we never found out what happened to poor Behrooz. (Entertainment Weekly online reported that producers filmed a scene where Behrooz learns about the death of his mother but pulled it "for time." Bad call.)

A few things I hope for next season:

- Stay away from the old favorites and come up with some new interesting characters. The Araz family, Marwan and a few others really worked this season. I'm all for Mandy causing more trouble sometime in the future, and it's understandable that Chloe has been signed for a full season of scowling, but give Tony and Michelle a well earned break, and please leave Audrey behind.

- Never go back to Washington D.C. ever again. That might be unreasonable for a government agency series but at the very least let David Palmer remain a private citizen. The writers forced him to resign in disgrace and that was their mistake. Now they have to accept what they did and move on.

- Keep it simple. It might be time to reign in the threat a little bit, since, as the season five promo that ran over the closing credits pointed out, Jack has already saved the President, the country and the world.

But whatever happens it has to be fun. 24 provides more thrills, twists and effective character drama than a whole year's worth of Hollywood action films (or at least any year without a Jason Bourne movie). Even when it's bad, it's still pretty fun either to laugh at or escape with.

Creating a real-time action drama is a mighty scary high wire act and 24 has more or less pulled it off for four seasons now. I'm hoping that, even after a disappointing finish, the show's got a few more good days to go.

Finale Grade: B (saved by the first hour)
Season Grade: B+ (saved by the first half, and select episodes thereafter)