It's been too long, I'm a bit confused there. You mean Nina?

That was an extremely manipulative American-TV style plot twist (manipulative, because as I think you mean too, it felt like everything about the character in the season was there for the "impact" when she was releaved as a traitor. Let's make her this way, and let's her do that, so that later the audience cares. It's terribly artificial). That was an early sign the writers were not so clever and original as the brilliant and innovative format of their show let believe.

Of course, they pulled off about every variation of the "traitor" and "fake traitor later revealed not to be" device in the book (even with Bauer himself). Heck, they even gave Nina a second run at some point, if I'm not mistaken.

Killing Jack's wife was a terrific send-off had the series stopped there (and thus on a very atypical dark note for a US show, especially one dealing with this subject matter where it seems the Americans must always triumph at the end in some way), but the way they milked it later on rapidly became very annoying.

I watched season 2 completely, lost interest rapidly along the way. It's then I stopped buying the DVDs. I started watching season 3 on TV, I gave up after a few episodes. Same when I borrowed sets from friends for season 4 and later 5, as apparently it was "better". I didn't even try for the others.


The show simply stopped having any depth or intelligence after the first season (all the writers cared about after season 1 was putting together another 24 episode puzzle that would essentially repeat the first, but became more and more far fetched, and over the top, in attempts to hide the fact they were just applying a recipe.), where there was an interesting perspective on America, politics and anti-terrorism (and was gathering extremely impressed and elogious reviews for this abroad). It rather distanced itself from reality more and more, avoided pretty much all the real issues concerning terrorism and the way the US dealt with it, and Bauer rapidly became a rather despicable and unsavoury "American Hero", a mix of vigilante and victim (a kind of symbol for "everyone doubt us, everyone dislikes us and out methods, even the establishment is putting its head in the sand but the Jack Bauers cowboys shall triumph and save everone) doubling as a poster boy for American paranoia, a hero tailored to fit the mood of many Americans during those years and kept being seen very positively by much of the audience, I'm sure, but the show became more and ridiculous, annoying and unwatchable if you're not American, almost pornographic in a sense. It went from being brilliant and innovative in season one to being dumb and one of the worst and most exploitative shows (milking shamelessly arabophobia one season, notably) in the other seasons. It became pure entertainment, unoriginal for the most part, annoying in other aspects, and unchallenging.

That was especially painful to see the show go that way when you watched the originally similar counter-terrorism/action/thriller series Spooks (from which 24 creators borrowed some of its editing style like the simultaneous shots on black, incidentally - they never hid that fact) from Kudos/BBC. Spooks went on to become everything 24 no longer had the balls to be. It managed to increase its social/political relevance over the years, staying often uncomfortably close to reality, while remaining entertaining as a thriller/action show, and with a great ensemble cast they made you care about instead of a central and more and more antiphatic hero/anti-hero. In short, a show with brains, and challenging about the issues regarding terrorism (without any easy answer, another challenge for its audience), instead of just an adrenaline rush.