24 Season One: Ups and downs

So Debbie and I are 3 episodes from the end of 24 season one. We'd never seen any of it, but had been curious, so decided to get the dvd's from the video store and check them out. WARNING - SPOILERS! It's not exactly a new show (they're filming season 7 at the moment) so the spoilers here are probably old news to most of you. Please note that we won't see the end of the season until Saturday, in all likelihood. The First 12 Episodes What a fantastic show! A great premise, lots of tension, interesting characters, clever villains... all the ingredients of several well-made thriller movies rolled into half a season of a TV show. We were hooked, and loved pretty much all of the first half of the season! The difficult mid-season OK, so a lot of shows have a lull in the middle. This show had to change gears, from a rescue-the-family high-pressure chase to more of a solve-the-mystery, investigative mode. This wouldn't have been such a problem if they hadn't shoe-horned new plot set-ups by making several characters do incredibly stupid things. A sampler of stupidity: - lame amnesia subplot - trained federal agent disobeys orders and shoots witness - civilian stabs witness on camera in fit of lover's passion - Jack's daughter Kim develops Stockholm syndrome - Criminal brother of kidnapper refuses to let Kim leave his house because 'he doesn't trust her', so he wants her to stay there so he can go on to talk about and carry out a drug buy? - Jack's boss leaves him alone, at a site identified by his would-be assassin. Fails to send a car for him. Fails to check satellite images of the location. Fails to contact other agencies to find out what's there. The promising, then annoying, late season The major plot developments of episodes 19-21 were cool, and they got Jack into an interesting location and situation. It looked promising for a while - then all the resources of the CTU and DoD appeared to dissolve into plot-convenience, and the bad guys managed to get away from a high security facility by going through a giant, yet unmarked sewer system. There was no aerial surveillance. No satellite surveillance. No roadblocks. Terribly groan inducing. And they took their target, Jack, as a hostage, and shot the warden. Instead of, y'know, the other way around. I just hope the last 3 episodes pay off well.