24 Season 2 Second Half Ridiculousness

Disclaimer: So, obvious spoilers below. It's so weird, decades ago when this aired, and watching the DVD's in the years after, this was among my favorite seasons of 24, now with my rewatch in 2023, I have come to the realization that the second half of the season was among the worst of 24.

So, forget the three idiots in the first half of the season that are hired by Syed Ali to transport the nuclear bomb from Panorama City to Norton Airfield, the two that shoot each other to death, and the bumbling third who proceeds to the airfield anyway.

I just finished my latest rewatch of Season 2 and my goodness I had forgotten how AGONIZING and FRUSTRATING the second half of that season is (or basically the rest of the season after the bomb explodes), not just for Jack and Palmer but for the audience as well. Every little chance Jack & team has at proving the Cyprus Recording was falsified is constantly turned down and tossed away by characters that have the power to assist. Over and over again despite Jack's proven record.

Then there's the ridiculous notion that the US President would order a war against 3 Middle Eastern nations simultaneously on the same day as Nuclear Bomb explodes in the Mojave Desert due to and SOLELY because of an AUDIO RECORDING of 3 "higher up officials" of 3 Middle Eastern nations conspiring with Syed-Ali (Who no one even knows what he looks like until Day 2 as mentioned by Jack), it's absolutely ridiculous.

The second half of the season spins around the toilet bowl because of this stupidity. In our real world, this would be the equivalent of blaming 9/11 on Bin Laden meeting with the leaders of Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan; but no one knowing what he looks like, and then after the towers fall George W Bush is removed by Dick Cheney and the cabinet for not going to war against those 3 middle eastern nations on the same day as the attack.

Mike Novick tosses away several decades of his relationship with Palmer and his aide pushes Lynn Kresge down the stairs because he's so gung-ho to go to war. What happened with Lynn Kresge is criminal and the fact that there was never conclusion with the character and Mike Novick getting away with it all these decades later is horrible.

Jim Prescott and over half of Palmer's cabinet are gung-ho to go to war because of a stupid RECORDING that is magically 'authenticated' by CTU, District, CIA, NSA, FBI, Division, blah blah blah, within seconds of its discovery yet they all miss the obvious about Colonel Samuels taking out his own men, Jack Bauer and Yusuf Auda coming under attack by trained commandos and Tony doesn't even phone the White House to inform them of what happened.

Then there's the whole cabinet meeting where Ron Wieland revealing his being detained is enough to oust the US president, and Roger Stanton somehow getting away with his lies with not a one to back up David Palmer--yeah right. The Northwest Operations Complex (OC) uploads video of David questioning Stanton, but no one bothers to investigate why the video is incomplete (LOL). No one follows up on Armas freeing Ron Wieland either.

Marie Warner is definitely the most atrocious character in the entire season, her screeching and weird crying out after Jack apprehends her at the airport is some of the worst acting I have ever seen. I didn't remember it being this bad decades ago but today it was pretty horrendous.

Gary Matheson going bananas in the very first episode of the season is among the most ridiculous of this show. There is NO REASON GIVEN as to why he gets a random phone call from his office and then suddenly he decides he's going to abuse his daughter and kill his wife just after 8 in the morning. The guy proceeds to kill police officers as well, it's just insane. If he had been hired by Max to hire and attack Kim on Nuclear Bomb day to distract Jack, and was previously brainwashed by Syed Ali the same way Marie Warner was, this at least would have been more believable but there was never any link.

So in the very much rushed final episode of the season suddenly Mike Novick decides to do a 180 degrees and help out his old friend David, and Jim Prescott is suddenly willing to listen to evidence of the Cyprus Recording being falsified, even Ryan Chappelle becomes the good guy again and helps out Jack despite MINUTES earlier telling the helicopter to return to CTU without picking up Jack who already proclaimed Peter Kingsley and his oil cabal interests in the war. It's like all the bad character either are killed or turn into good guys in that last episode.

Then there's the entire Kim storyline which received major criticism by viewers during the airing, but it pales in comparison to the entire Cyprus Recording baloney.

Mandy showing up in total surprise at the very end was one of the highlights of the season, extremely well done acting by Kirshner. I still remember the jaw dropping when I remembered who blew up Boeing 747 in the very first series episode.