24 versus La Femme Nikita

So last night on 24, when Robert Glazer ("Operations" from La Femme Nikita) showed up as the latest pseudo-governmental conspirator, it finally clicked for me that "CTU" and "Section One" are the same damned thing. We've got:

  • The Undisclosed Location, with its faux-industrial 80s music video decor;
  • "George from Oversight" versus "Chapelle from Central", the vague parent organization trying to take over and/or looking for a scapegoat;
  • The l33t hax0rs on staff, spending all day sitting at their Max Headroom terminals intercepting phone calls and speaking nonsense tech-babble about cryptography;
  • The vaguely sinister and self-serving boss has a glass office that looks down on the minions;
  • And terrorists, terrorists, terrorists, always from Undisclosed Countries.

Then while writing this I find out that Robert Cochran wrote both shows. Doh! No wonder!

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8 Responses:

  1. icis_machine says:

    maybe that explains my distaste for 24.
    i found the last one or two seasons of nikita absolutely revolting and incredibly silly.

    • jwz says:

      Yeah, the last couple seasons got pretty dumb, with all the who's-related-to-who nonsense, but I really liked the first few seasons, when they focused on the angst, nightclubs, and killin'.

  2. belgand says:

    Uhm... it's one of those shows that I've never actually seen, but keep intending to watch if only I could find out when the damned thing was on and I wasn't already busy at the time (alas my desire for a Tivo cannot get past my college-student poverty). It might be good to put it under an LJ-cut or such in the future. Now, I'm not the type to bitch about spoilers... I occasionally seek them out, but it would be a nice touch.

  3. lilmissnever says:

    24 has a few things going for it, first and foremost the fact that they are aware their drama is so over the top it veers into the realm of comedy. In an interview on Salon, the script writers joked that every time they ran out of ideas for more action sequences, they'd simply write "Kim takes a shower." She must be the cleanest character on television.

    • jlindquist says:

      Perhaps she just feels... dirty >:-)

      Given Fox's usual programming tendencies, I wouldn't be surprised if they did a spinoff series titled "Kim Takes A Shower". Maybe with product placement for Herbal Essence shampoo...

      *laugh* Chapelle is from "Division", not "Central".

  4. jette says:

    Last season, I was watching 24 because I enjoyed it. This season, I am watching it so that I can laugh along with the Television without Pity recaps.