In preparation of the return of 24 in 24: Live Another Day on May 5th, I am running a series of roundtables to look back at previous seasons of the show. Here is our discussion for season two, involving myself, George N and Sean M.
Season 1 Roundtable |
Overall thoughts on the season?
Bradley: I felt this to be, on the whole, a better season than the first. Sure, there weren’t as many huge shocks or twists, but apart from the Kim story, the pacing was much better and a hell of a lot more happened. In the first season, everything was contained to one terrorist plot. This changed here and changed the way future seasons went about things.George: This season was markedly faster paced and one of my favorites. I liked the fact that they kept the ‘three acts’ detail as they did for season one. Dividing the seasons in this fashion is one of the reasons that made ‘24’ such a great program.
Sean: This season had much higher stakes than the first, a brisk pace, and some huge moments like CTU being bombed and the nuke actually going off. The one downside was the mostly terrible Kim Bauer subplot.
What did you think of George Mason’s portrayal throughout the season?
Bradley: We had been made to dislike and distrust Mason in the first season. Yet, a ticking time-bomb towards his inevitable death portrayed him in a way that made us feel for him. Xander Berkeley was fantastic and his final scenes were portrayed in a magnificent way - they are still among my favourite from the show.
George: He is definitely one of my favorite characters of the first two seasons. I thought it was perfect how they set up his redeeming story arc that culminated in his self-sacrificing death. Xander Berkeley really did an amazing job with his character and I was disappointed to see him go.
Sean: Watching Mason slowly deteriorate was a fascinating story arc and that character had a perfect send-off. Xander Berkeley put on an incredible performance from start to finish and definitely should have received an Emmy nomination.
Favourite episode of the season? Why?
Bradley: I can’t look past the 15th episode. The entire episode was fantastic, and as I said earlier, Xander Berkeley did an incredible job in the episode. You could feel the tension and the emotions that ran through the episode. This was one of the best the show has ever done.George: I could not agree more. Episode 15 was my favorite as well. It played out like a movie and was one of the most memorable.
Sean: Episode 15 had lots of superb character moments such as Jack and Kim’s emotional goodbye and George Mason’s heroic sacrifice. This was not only the best episode of the season, but arguably the greatest episode of the entire series.
Thoughts on the villains?
Bradley: They weren’t the greatest assortment. Sure, we had an interesting turn with the supposedly innocent bride in Marie, but I only really found Peter Kingsley and Sherry to be good villains. The return of Nina seemed a little placed just to bring her back, so I didn’t really like her in this season.
George: I was not overly thrilled with the villains in season 2. Everything about the season was great except for the portrayal of the villains. I think they could have done a little better, but overall I was happy with the season.Sean: The cat-and-mouse game between Nina Myers and Jack Bauer was very fun to watch. Mandy returning at the very end to deliver a shocking cliffhanger was a nice surprise as well. The other villains didn’t really make much of an impact and were largely forgettable.
Thanks to all for participating, and thanks to you for reading. We'll be back in a couple of days with season three's roundtable, but for now please leave a comment with your thoughts, and follow us on Twitter at the handles below.
@Bradley_STV | @geonak19 | @24spoilers
