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I was going to just tack this on at the end of my previous, but it totally deserves its own post:
Watching 24 is kinda like being tethered by string and being left to twist in the wind. It doesn't have to be much, but you have to be able to count on certain things to survive with your sanity. And up until this season, Tony's goodness has always been one of 3 things you could hang onto. By turning Tony evil, they just ripped out one of the few anchors we have, and that's why it's making me so nervous because they now need to create a new pathos for the show.
I'm less concerned with how they're going to explain Tony's betrayal. I can already sort of see where they're going with it. They most probably going to use a combination of the traditional revenge motivation and toss in one of the oldest tricks in the book to make it emotionally resonate: the best friend turns into the worst enemy device. I can see it because every season Jack and Tony have butted heads, disagreed, edging closer and closer to full on adversarial points of view. They can actually make a semi-valid argument that it comes from an organic place. So that's not what bugs me the most.
What makes me more nervous is that knowing that they've planned this all along has confirmed for me something I've always suspected: Renee is supposed to replace Tony for the audience.
As much as her character is like S1!Jack, all season long she has been functioning as the emotional anchor for the audience that Tony usually occupies. I don't think it's an accident that I totally fell in love with her character, and I heart her the way I used to heart Tony. She's been the eyes through which we've evaluated Jack, the mouthpiece of the writers, and at the center of the OT3. If they knew they were going to take Tony away from us as an ally, they had to give us something to hang onto to, and that's Renee.
The problem is, by doing so, they're REALLY changing up the structural narrative of all the future seasons from here on out. If they're recreating and recentering that pathos around Renee instead of Tony, it's essentially switching out one great character for another, when really, we could have had both. And it gets further complicated when you toss in the potential shipperness. If they choose to go in a shippery direction, they'll be in new territory with Renee by combining her functions as a love interest and a counterpoint, which up until now have always been played by 2 different people in a given season.
So...I don't know. They've changed the show, I just don't know if they've realized how much in terms of the way they've been telling the 24 story over the years. I'm willing to see it through to the end, but how much I watch beyond that into S8 will be determined by how well they sell this development.
And finally, a poll:
[Poll #1383537]
Watching 24 is kinda like being tethered by string and being left to twist in the wind. It doesn't have to be much, but you have to be able to count on certain things to survive with your sanity. And up until this season, Tony's goodness has always been one of 3 things you could hang onto. By turning Tony evil, they just ripped out one of the few anchors we have, and that's why it's making me so nervous because they now need to create a new pathos for the show.
I'm less concerned with how they're going to explain Tony's betrayal. I can already sort of see where they're going with it. They most probably going to use a combination of the traditional revenge motivation and toss in one of the oldest tricks in the book to make it emotionally resonate: the best friend turns into the worst enemy device. I can see it because every season Jack and Tony have butted heads, disagreed, edging closer and closer to full on adversarial points of view. They can actually make a semi-valid argument that it comes from an organic place. So that's not what bugs me the most.
What makes me more nervous is that knowing that they've planned this all along has confirmed for me something I've always suspected: Renee is supposed to replace Tony for the audience.
As much as her character is like S1!Jack, all season long she has been functioning as the emotional anchor for the audience that Tony usually occupies. I don't think it's an accident that I totally fell in love with her character, and I heart her the way I used to heart Tony. She's been the eyes through which we've evaluated Jack, the mouthpiece of the writers, and at the center of the OT3. If they knew they were going to take Tony away from us as an ally, they had to give us something to hang onto to, and that's Renee.
The problem is, by doing so, they're REALLY changing up the structural narrative of all the future seasons from here on out. If they're recreating and recentering that pathos around Renee instead of Tony, it's essentially switching out one great character for another, when really, we could have had both. And it gets further complicated when you toss in the potential shipperness. If they choose to go in a shippery direction, they'll be in new territory with Renee by combining her functions as a love interest and a counterpoint, which up until now have always been played by 2 different people in a given season.
So...I don't know. They've changed the show, I just don't know if they've realized how much in terms of the way they've been telling the 24 story over the years. I'm willing to see it through to the end, but how much I watch beyond that into S8 will be determined by how well they sell this development.
And finally, a poll:
[Poll #1383537]
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