Wrapping up Season 8 and what seemed to be a wrap to the series...
Key plot points
Chloe’s rise through CTU
- Chloe at CTU is often not ideal this season: setting it up that she works there only because she has no choice, the perception at the beginning of the season that Dana is really smart but it’s because Chloe is made to seem more incompetent
- She’s often really great though: her debrief with Renee is so good, as is her threatening Frank Haynam
- It’s insane that she goes from being the unwanted staff, to being de facto lead on the floor, to being interim director in the space of 17 hours
- Chloe as director doesn’t work because so much of the reason we love her is her loyalty to Jack and her seeing beyond the bureaucracy to do what she knows is right
- As director she loses a lot of that - see trying to capture Jack instead of helping him get to Dana - and while her shift back to exposing the Russians is good, it’s still a fairly meh version of Chloe
A satisfying end to the series?
- I certainly remember feeling fairly content with the ending when it first aired
- Really important that the final 8 episodes were as good as they were because if they had continued like the first two-thirds, it would’ve been a really low point on which to end
- I’m still firmly in the camp that season 7 (also 4) would’ve been a better ending than this season, but I’m a fan of this one
Season 8 overall
- Season 6 felt tired, as though there was a structure they tried following and there was a monotony to it, and like it needed to take a break to reset (which obviously it got from the writer’s strike)
- Season 8 feels for so long like they’d run pretty much out of ideas and opted for a lot of repetition in a lot of places
- Again, possibly a bit of the tired factor but also it suffers from an issue where it often feels like the show is trying too hard to surprise viewers
- Despite the final run this is undoubtedly the second weakest season
